Literary Analysis #4

Great Expectations

GENERAL

1.  Pip was an orphan living with his sister and her husband in the marshes of Kent. One day while looking at his parents tombstones an escaped convict comes up from behind a tomstone and grabs Pip and tells him to bring him food and a file. Pip is taken by his uncle Pimblechook to play at Satis House, the home of the wealthy Miss Havisham. Pip falls in love with her and dreams of becoming a wealthy gentleman so that he might be worthy of her. He even hopes that Miss Havisham intends to make him a gentlemen and marry him to Estella, but she doesnt. Miss Havishman decides to make him a common laborer instead.In London, Pip becomes friends with Herbert and he said he would help him become a gentlemen. A complicated mystery begins to fall into place when Pip discovers that Compeyson was the man who abandoned Miss Havishan at the altar and that Estella us Magwitch's daughter. Pip sees the good in Magwitch and begins to care for him deeple. Estella marries an upper class lout names Bentley. At the end Pip finds that Estella's coldness and cruelty have been replaced by a sad kindness and the the two leave the garden hand in hand, Pip believing that they will never part again.

2. Pip’s great expectations are a dramatized exploration of human growth, ambition, and the pressures that distort the potential of an ordinary individual, especially in the process of growing up. Pip is a simple blacksmith’s boy who aspires to cross social boundaries when he realizes his own upbringing is common; however, he has no means to change. Mysteriously, he is given the means, but wealth only brings with it idleness. He learns that happiness in life can be achieved only by hard work and that great expectations not grounded in reality can only lead to tragedy and heartache.


3. Dickens uses tone to better express the emotions of the characters aggression, fear, and pain.

- "...on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening." That is a great example of tone because it is setting th seen to be both cold and exciting.(pg.9)


4. Symbolism: mist of the marshes, darkness, and statues

anaphora – the repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills.” (Winston Churchill)

apostrophe – a form of personification in which the absent or dead are spoken to as if present and the inanimate as if animate. These are all addressed directly: “Milton, thou shoulds’t be living at this hour.”

Bildungsroman – a novel of education or spiritual growth of the main character as he/she undergoes a moral crisis

Chiasmus – a verbal pattern in which the second half of the expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed, as in the saying, “You can take the girl out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the girl.”

diction – word choice used to convey a certain effect

euphemism -The substitution of a mild or less negative word or phrase for a harsh or blunt one, as in the use of "pass away" instead of "die." The basic psychology of euphemistic language is the desire to put something bad or embarrassing in a positive (or at least neutral light).

hyperbole –a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration ex: “The shot heard ‘round the world.” It may be used for serious or comic effect.

Polysyndeton– the repetition of conjunctions in close succession for a rhetorical effect, as in the phrase “here and there and everywhere.”

Synecdoche – aa figure of speech in which a part is used for a whole (as a hand for a sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for a police officer), or the material of a thing for the thing made from it (steel for sword).


CHARACTERIZATION


1. I didn’t really see any direct characterization because the author expresses characterization through actions. The author does this because he wants the reader to use their imagination and to give their own opinion on what they think the character is like.

2. Pip is a dynamic character because over the course of the book the character matured therefore he changed. Pip is also a round character because he plays an important role in the book.

3. After reading the book I would like to meet Pip because he is the person who is always striving to better himself and he sets high expectations for himself as well