Upon their initial meeting, Magwitch seizes Pip by the chin and tells him he has "half a mind" to eat his fat cheeks. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars who limped, and shivered, and glared, and growled and whose teeth chattered in his head." A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied around his head.
"A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron in his leg. The book begins with an encounter between Pip and the convict, Abel Magwitch. His sister isn't the only character who instills fear in the young Pip. Joe Gargery, was more than twenty years older than I, and had established a great reputation with herself and the neighbours because she had brought me up 'by hand.' Having at that time to find out for myself what the expression meant, and knowing her to have a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by hand." As Pip tells us in Chapter 2 of this 458-page book: She is vituperative, berates Pip frequently, and even abuses her husband, Joe. She insists on the bread being cut at dinner in a certain way, and doesn't allow Pip take a candle to bed, in spite of the fact he is frightened of the dark. His sister is physically abusive, and fails to demonstrate any level of true caring towards him. From the start of the book, it's evident that Pip is used to being mistreated. He is an orphan, the unwanted "ward" of his sister, Mrs. Pip is at the core of this masterpiece, and Dickens puts a great deal of effort into establishing him as a character we can all empathize with.
They are people who come to life, whom we can fully relate to, who make the same kind of mistakes we make, day in and day out. Unlike lesser writers, who depict their characters as one-dimensional people, Dickens creates characters that are truly made of flesh and blood. From Pip to Estella to Miss Havisham, the characters have become part of our literary culture. Charles Dickens' classic, Great Expectations, is one such book. There are some books that have been spoken about to such an extent, that a person feels as if they would have few original things to say about them.
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