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Ana P. Ries
A.P. P. 4
11-08-07

Great Expectations By Charles Dickens Response

In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Dickens masterfully shapes his characters, from the past and present Pip to Biddy and Joe. Dickens novel is a complex work of symbolism and meaning, yet Dickens is not that shallow. Through his creative alteration of dictation, artistic form of wording, and his overstanding tone Dickens takes his novel to a new height.
Charles Dickens changes his dictations slowly though the book to follow the plot. In the beginning of the novel, sentence are longer, simpler, to reflect the good and simple times of his childhood as the son of a blacksmith. "I made out from this that the work I had to do was to walk Miss Havisham round and round the room." notice that there are no commas, nothing to clutter the clean and simple translations of Miss Havisham's actions. Yet later on in the novel, as the plot thickens and events become more complex, so does Pip's sentences.
"Oh, his manners! Won't his manners do, then?' asked Biddy, plucking a black-currant leaf.
'My dear Biddy, they do very well here---'
'Oh! They do very well here?' Interrupted Biddy, looking closely..."
As the story begins to get more complex, so does his sentences. Notice the multiple commas, he sections parts of the sentences apart, then crams them all togeather. "this is my little bedroom; rather musty, but Barnard's is rather musty. This is your bedroom; the furniture's hired for the occasion, but I trust it will answer the purpose; if you should want anything, I'll go fetch it. The chambers are retired, and we shall bea lone together, but we sha'n't fight, I dare say." Now as Pip is greeted to his new board, commas become very common. by chapter twenty-one all the sentences consisted of at least one comma. The commas seem to cram the sentences togeather, in most cases making the events stated seem rushed and hurried, helping the author to give the events more life.
Dickens has a way of wording that I have yet to see. Wording, like dictation, changes through out the novel to better help reflect the events. In the beginning of the novel, Pip's speaks with simple words, and even at the height of his learning at home, Pip speaks in simple sentences. At the first guest dinner he " clutched the leg of the table again immediately, and pressed it to my bosom as if it had been the companion of my youth and friend of my soul." Dickens chose simple words to relate Pips discomfort at the dinner, yet at a later event when Pip is a gentleman,"When Mr. Wopsle had imparted to me all that he could recall or I extract, and when I had treated him to a little appropriate refreshment after the fatigues of the evening, we parted." These are Pips recollections, not words he says, and the more he thinks of him self as a gentleman, even though he does not learn more, the higher of a vocabulary he uses.
"If I had begun with an appetite, he would have taken it away, and I should have sat much as I did---repelled from him by an insurmountable aversion, and gloomily looking at the cloth." The tone is a darker, gloomier one as the story enters the ending of the middle. The tone is usually in resentment, set in disdain of anyone under Pip. Once again, the tone was happier, lighter in the beginning, even though he had an unhappy house life, yet no matter how well off he was doing in the larger cities, away from his small country home, Pip's tone is an unhappy, darker one. When talking to people he feels are less educated then him, his tone becomes one of strained tolerance, as if he must be shed some knowledge onto them, and they can not understand anything he is saying. It is only after much personal edification does if finally learn to better accept these people and truly understand there knowledge.
Charles Dickens does a superb job of using his creative dictation, his zealous use of wording and solid tone, Dickens easily gets his point across and has written a novel that seems to tie you in, quickly and smoothly connecting you to the characters and plots through his unique form or writing. Charles Dickens is truley a master author.