Reflect characters in Great Expectations Essays

Reflect characters in Great Expectations Essays Reflect characters in Great Expectations Essay Reflect characters in Great Expectations Essay Essay Topic: Great Expectations How Does Dickens use settings to reflect characters in Great Expectations? The novel Great Expectations was written in 1860-70 by Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens was born in February 7, 1812 on a Friday. His father, John Dickens, was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. In 1814 Charles Dickens father was transferred to Somerset House in London. In 1817 John and his family moved to Chatham because John had got a job in the naval dockyard. This area near the Thames Marshes is suggested to be where Charles Dickenss got his inspiration for the beginning of Great Expectations. In 1924 Charles Dickens father, John Dickens was sent to Marshalsea prison because of financial difficulties. While his father was in prison Charles Dickens had to work at Warrens blacking warehouse to support the family. This is suggested to be one of Charles Dickenss most humiliating experiences and showed him how the distinctions between rich and poor social class play an important role in his society. I believe because of this experience when Dickens creates the character Magwitch he incorporates his fathers time in jail into Magwitch. I feel Dickens makes this reference to his life through Magwitch to make the novel autobiographical not only to himself but to the older higher classed Pip. During the time when Great Expectation was being written the industrial revolution was also taking place. The industrial revolution is suggested to be the one of the inspirations for the Character Pip as he is also going through his own revolution from a poor lower class boy to a rich high class gentleman. I also think Charles Dickens life is revealed through Pip as they both have things in common such as both coming from poor families but as they grow older both rise in social status. This shows that the novel in some ways is autobiographical. In 1856 Charles Dickens bought Gads Hill. This building is considered to be the inspiration behind Miss Havishams home Satis House. This was where Charles Dickens spent most of his time editing his two journals, Household Words and All the year Round. This huge mansion in Rochester was admired by Charles Dickens when he was a small boy very much like Pip who admired Satis House as a little boy. This also proves how Great Expectations is autobiographical. In 1827 Charles Dickens went to work at a law firm and then later became a journalist. Working for newspapers which led to the publication of his first novel The Pickwick Papers (1836). This novel was a great accomplishment and was very popular. Dickens also wrote many other novels such as, Oliver Twist (1837-38), Nicholas Nickleby (1838-39), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840), Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty (1841), American Notes (1842), and many more.