Анализ Great Expectations

Charles Dickens is one of the world’s greatest novelists. He belongs to the brilliant school of 19-century critical realists.

What we value most in Dickens’ works is his criticism of the English bourgeois society of his time with its evils and contrasts of wealth and poverty, his unique humour and mastery of character drawing. Being great humanist he viewed human’s nature from all sides. Dickens’ novels are full of optimism. Dickens’ humour is to be found on every page and in characters and incidents of the greatest diversity. Sometimes his humour is mixed with satire.

The main character of “Great Expectations” (1860 –  1861), Pip is orphan. In this extract he's reading one stormy night, when there is a knock at the door. The visitor is an unknown man to Pip. Pip invites him in, and after the visitor says a few oblique and strange things, Pip has a flash of recognition--it's his convict. He has helped him to escape from pursuit when a little boy. The convict confesses that he is Pip's mysterious benefactor, which he has toiled for years and sent all of his money to Pip, to make a gentleman of him. The revelation is a terrible blow to a Pip, for all his great expectations are crushed in a moment.

The text of the fragment is complete in itself and it is interesting from the point of view of its idea. The extract under discussion is not homogeneous: it presents a piece of the 1^st person narration through the Pip’s point of view, which is interrupted by the description of weather, character’s appearance & dialogues btwn heroes. The very structure of the story adds to the effect of implication but the actual meaning of what is going on is not clear at the beginning of the story as the feelings suggested by the writer are not precisely determined. The reader however feels that something has happened and that the character is stained. What strikes one’s eye at the first glance is that the tension of the atmosphere in this excerpt is gradually increasing and gets its top at the end of it.

Within the 1st lines we get a vivid notion of the future atmosphere of the chapter. It’s created with the help of all kinds of devices : epithets, pertaining to weather: wretched, stormy, wet, furious, gloomy, violent; vivid metaphors: a vast heavy veil, violent blasts of rain, rages of the wind, support the emotional impact of the paragraph. Inversion “So furious had been the guests” intensify the feeling of gloom & fear, which D creates. The author also resorts to parallel construction that is backed up by polysyndeton: and in the country, threes had been torn up, and the sails of windmills carried away; and gloomy accounts had come in from the coast. The detachment “of shipwreck and death” & hyperbola ‘the worst of all’ at the end of the paragraph serves as a logical passage from the one part to the 2^nd where is continued the atmosphere of the text. So Pip reads his book, purposing to close it at eleven o’clock. When he closes it, many churches strike that hour. The sound of a clock has a symbolic value as it means a coming disaster or some hazard. To further intensification of this feeling D uses parallel construction accompanied by anaphora & supported by onomatopoeia “some leading, some accompanying, some following”. The metonymy ‘I heard a footstep on the stair’ continues the atmosphere of growing suspense. Go further & far worse Pip connects these with the footstep of his dead sister. The staircase lights were blown out & that develops the same idea of unexpected event. Pip takes his reading lamp & goes out to the stair-head. Metonymy is piled on metonymy ‘a voice from the darkness, I had seen a face that was strange to me’. There is a dialogue btwn Pip & a stranger. The predominant sentence type in which is ellipsis. Repetition is shown in the story as anadiplosis “he was in it for a mere instant, and the out of it. In the instant I”. As we read further we can see that Pip doesn’t know the stranger, but it should be noted that a man is touched and pleased by the sight of a boy “he was holding both his hands to me”. And here the narration is interrupted with the description of the stranger, that is skillfully expressed by simily “like a voyager by sea”, parallel construction accompanied by anaphora “That he had a long iron-grey hair. That his age was about sixty. That he was a muscular man, strong on his legs, and that he was browned and hardened by exposure to weather”. While a man is glad to see Pip, he otherwise - not. The man again & again holding both his hands to Pip, the catch repetition also illustrate admiration for a boy “even at the table he looks with the strangest air – an air of wondering pleasure, as if he has some part in the things he admires”. Pip suspects him to be mad. That’s disappointing to a man. He says “after having looked forward so distant, and come so fur; but you are not to blame for that – nether on us is to blame for that.⁵ I’ll speak in half a minute. Give me half a minute, please”. Here the author is careful to mark in spelling the character’s peculiar manner of speaking, which R reflected not only in phonetics but also in vocabulary & syntax. And a catch repetition “you are not to blame for that – nether on us is to blame for that” reveals the emotional state of him, his nervousness, sadness & anxiety. D compares two characters through their behavior, manner of speech & the language itself. As pip says “Why do you, a stranger coming into my rooms at this time of the night, ask that question?” that is a proof of his education & the detachment in the question displays Boy’s dislike for a visitor. Otherwise the man says “You’re a game one,” shaking his head with a deliberate affection. Suddenly Pip recognizes the visitor-it’s a convict whom he has helped to escape from pursuit when a little boy. This fact is demonstrated by the author in many various ways. By words semantically linked with recollection: know, recall, be conscious, recognition. By the main stylistic feature of the paragraph – repetition, which assumes very structural forms: epithoric, anaphoric, parallelism “I relinquished the intention he had detected, for I knew him! Even yet I could not recall a single feature, but I knew him! I could not have known my convict more distinctly than I knew him now. I knew him before he gave me one of those aids.” Pip loses his self-possession & gives the convict his hands. He is in great astonishment & can’t control the actions. The aposiopesis “but surely you must understand – I-“ & the metaphor “the words died away on my tongue” reveal the character’s mental state. Pip doesn’t know what to do. The convict is puzzled with that & repeating: “that surely I must understand. What, surely must I understand?” Pip undergoes different stages from self-confidence to uncertainty. That’s reflected with the help of constant reiteration, accompanied by parallel constructions:” I am glad to tell you so. I am glad” & one more device chiasmus: “thinking I deserve to be thanked, you have come to thank me.” Then Convict tells about his life. He has been a sheep-farmer, stock-breeder, other trades besides, away in the new world & he’s been succeed. Through their dialogue we can note that convict is pleased to Pip’s interest about his life.  Suddenly the boy turnes off to a point that has just come into his mind ask about the messenger, who bring him the two one-pound notes, to a poor boy they has been a little fortune. And now Pip wants to pay them back. The convict “watched me as I laid my purse upon the table and opened it, and he watched me as I separated two one-pound notes from its contents”. It’s a parallel construction accompanied by anaphoric repetition. That reveals man’s attitude to Pip’s money as “he laid them one upon the other, folded them longwise, gave them a twist, set fire to them at the lamp, and dropped the ashes into the tray.” The asyndeton exposes the intensity & precision of his operations, underlines the confidence of convict. Whereas the polysyndeton “They were clean and new, and I spread them out and handed them over to him” intensifies Pip’s nervousness & hasty actions. The visitor is disappointed with Pip as he dares give him money. And that is actually depicted with the chiasmus “he said then, with a smile that was like a frown, and with a frown that was like a smile”. It’s a double sentence bcs from the one hand the convict likes Pip & from the other feels regret from his behavior. To create an ironic effect the author italicized the word “how” in man’s question “how you have done well, since you and me was out on them-lone shivering marshes?" The convict behaves himself tougher, which is proved by antithesis “He put a foot up to the bars, to dry and warm it, and the wet boot began to steam; but he neither looked at it, nor at the fire, but steadily looked at me.” Pip begins to tremble & that is more convincing as it’s revealed “When my lips had parted, and had shaped some words that were without sound, I forced myself to tell him (though I could not do it distinctly)”. He’s unable to control himself. Then the convict says "Might a mere warmint ask what "property?" "Might a mere warmint ask whose property?" This is written with the tinge of irony in the parallel constructions. Pip’s answers I faltered, "I don't know." I faltered again. "I don't know." are also represent parallelism with repetition.  "Could I make a guess, I wonder," said the Convict, "at your income since you came of age! As to the first figure, now. Five?" there is alliteration & suspense, devices which serve to portray convict’s anger, anxiety & disappointment. Pip is in a blue funk (в панике) & the metaphor “my heart beating like a heavy hammer of disordered action… looking wildly at him” leads us deeply into the inner thoughts of the character. The convict continues asking Pip about guardian or such-like & the author again uses the suspence to create a tension "There ought to have been some guardian or such-like, whiles you was a minor. Some lawyer maybe. As to the first letter of that lawyer's name, now. Would it be J?" And then we come to the last part of the text, which is the revelation of the whole of it. The main stylistic features of the paragraph is repetition: its disappointments, dangers", disgraces, consequences of all kinds, hyperbole: in such a "multitude that I was borne down by them and had to struggle for every breath I drew: I could not have spoken one word, though it had been to save my life. All of that bring us to the culmination of Pip’s statement. “he grasps at the chair, when the room begins to surge and turn.” And the convict catches him, draw  to the sofa, put up against the cushions, and bend on one knee before him. Thus he reveals his attitude, his love, and his admiration of Pip. The last paragraph is the convict’s address expressed by parallel constructions, anaphora & antithesis: I swore that time. I swore afterwards. I lived rough, that you should livesmooth; I worked hard that you should be above work. Thus he exposes that he devotes his life to Pip, to make a gentleman on him. And he doesn’t desire any award. For him Pip’s wellbeing is at the 1^st place. Thus the author describes one more distinction btwn the convict & the boy: one’s generosity & other’s meanness.