How Does Dickens Make Us Feel Sympathetic For Pip?

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How does Dickens make us feel sympathetic for Pip? In these past few weeks, I have analysed four important chapters in the book, Great Expectations, written by the famous Victorian author, Charles Dickens. Throughout this excellent story about, Pip, the main character has a sad child hood. Also he waits as his heartthrobs, for the one he love. I will be explaining my opinions on how Dickens makes us feel sympathetic for Pip. In chapter 1, Pip says ‘As I’ve never saw my father or mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for there days were long before photographs)’ This creates sympathy for Pip and creates mystery as Dickens makes us reflect, why has Pip never seen his parents before? We then find out when he carries onto mentions his father’s tombstone, so we know he is talking about death in his family. Charles Dickens makes us wonder about the death of his family and how it has left him. It makes him seem vulnerable and less secure without his parents. This is tragic, because not only has his parents died, but he’s never met them. The only way that he could imagine whom his parents were was through the tombstones. This is shown when he says, ‘My first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones.’ This makes us feel sympathetic towards Pip because he feels stupid as he mentions that it is ‘unreasonably derived’ and it’s the only way he can reach his parents. He then desperately imagines the image of his father from the shaped letters of which are engraved upon his tombstone. ‘The shape of the letters on my father's, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair.’ This makes us feel extremely sympathetic of Pip as he is trying hard to make the image of his father in his head just by the Shape letters upon his tombstone as if he was deluded. Dickens creates more
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