Our Mutual Friend

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    Who would you think would be a more sympathetic character, a habitual criminal or a renown member of the justice system? In the novel Great Expectations, the answer is not the one you would necessarily choose. This novel by Charles Dickens is centered around a poor boy named Pip who comes into great expectations of wealth by a mysterious benefactor, who turns out to be a lifer exiled to the new colonies named Magwitch. Because of this revelation, Pip struggles with the predicament of protecting Magwitch while trying to avoid the heavy hand of English “justice”. Throughout Dickens paint a picture of injustice,squalid descriptions, and the long lasting emotional traumas of the Victorian justice system he was exposed to in childhood though his cartoonish characters, vivid descriptions, and symbolism. An example of one of Dickens’ larger than life characters is a lawyer by the name of Jaggers. He is meant to be a symbol of the corrupt Victorian justice system and its disregard for the truth with his “don’t tell me anything; I don’t want to know anything; I am not curious”(Dickens 261) attitude; that shows his disinterest in truth and honesty in his cases. In one scene he procures a fake witness for one of his cases while covering his rear end by having the “witness” walkabout outside. His only motivation in life is money, which can be seen when Magwitch is captured and berates Pip for losing his inheritance instead of worrying about his former client Magwitch and the fact that…

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    Great Expectations is solely about Pip and his expectations over time and for the reader to be able to understand how and why his expectations change, Dickens purposely has Pip describe his life as a child, adolescent and mild aged man. The purpose of Dickens using a bildungsroman is to have Pip grow from a young boy who has many fears and expectations into a man who can then reflect on his mistakes and his life as a whole. One of the first scenes of the novel begins with Pip running into…

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    In “Great Expectations” Charles Dickens carefully mixes elements of the comic, the tragic, and the grotesque to create a dynamic story. Dickens blends these aspects together within scenes in order to accomplish this. He fuses them together to produce a story that is humorous, melancholy, and sentimental, all at the same time. Within the story, Dickens uses the comic to create humor, the tragic to create melancholy, and the grotesque to create sentimentality. He creates his humor through the use…

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    How does Charles Dickens explore Pip's state of mind ? William Priddy, 1ere ES1 'Great Expectations', by Charles Dickens, presents Pip's constant moral evolution. This particular extract reflects Pip's state of mind in his adolescence, following the year he spent visiting Miss Havisham. These encounters have presented to him an alternate lifestyle that he would not have been aware of otherwise. He begins to reflect on his own life and sees himself as inferior to Estella and her education.…

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    testimonials as a way to beg, but we are able to see breaks in his facade through the “hem” and “ha” littered throughout his dialogue. His pretense demonstrates how vital it is for him to not be perceived as a person from the lower class of society. The pressure to keep up this pretense continuously weathers away at his remaining mental stability by the middle of book two. The pattern, up to this point, has served as an indicator of his moments of paranoia and anxiety. However, in chapter 18…

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    Caricature is a description of a person or even an object in which certain characteristics are exaggerated. Caricature is used quite often by Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities. Many say that Charles Dickens created characters that are “flat” or one dimensional when using carituature in his writings such as in A Tale of Two Cities. Many say when Charles Dickens uses caricature, it leads to his characters being meaningless. The characters that he describes turns out to be “flat” or one…

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    reading the book, so being stubborn or ungrateful is the choice he is making. Pip goes through lots of hard times in the book, but everyone goes through hard times in their lives. Pip does not think this deeply about his actions which is one of the reasons he’s miserable, he doesn’t realize most of the things that are making him miserable are his own doings. For example, he pushes his friends away, only thinks about Estella, and acts as though he’s better than all his family and…

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    Our Mutual Friend, written in the years 1864–65, is the last novel finished by Charles Dickens and is one of his most refined works, consolidating savage parody with social investigation. It fixates on, in the expressions of pundit J. Hillis Miller (citing from the character Bella Wilfer in the book), "cash, cash, cash, and what cash can make of life." In the opening parts a body is found in the Thames and distinguished as that of John Harmon, a young fellow as of late come back to London to get…

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    Charles Dickens novel, Great expectations is an account that centres on the life of one man named Pip, as of the time he was seven years old until he was in his mid-thirties. Pip shows us imperative actions in his life that formed who he became. While developing he acquires a collection of different connections and friends that influence him in his decisions and goals for his life. This is a novel of development ,therefore understanding Pip and his evolution is key in developing an…

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    The novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens revolves around the life of a young boy in Victorian era of England named Pip. When Pip is a young boy, he meets the rich and secluded Miss Havisham. Miss Havisham introduces Pip to her young adoptive daughter, named Estella. She raises Estella to not love, for she is intent on saving Estella from heartbreak. While she does this, she also trains her to break the hearts of others, much as her heart was broken by a man in her youth. She eventually…

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