How Does Dickens Create Tension in the Opening Scene of His Novel ‘Great Expectations’

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How does Dickens create tension in the opening scene of his novel ‘Great Expectations’ The opening pages of any novel have certain features in common. The main charecters and the setting are usually introduced here. Although the most important part is the cliffhanger as this leaves the reader wanting to read more. The vocabulary which was used built up the tension, also when the author (Charles Dickens) wrote, “As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them.” It is the thought of them him being in a graveyard alone with no parents. People are afraid of graveyards because of the depressing thought that people who have died are buried there, and that the you will die one day. This particular graveyard makes us feel uncomfortable and tense because Pip's family will be here and of course the way the author wrote it. The surrounding countryside/landscape makes us feel tense because of the way the author (Charles Dickens) wrote the setting paragraph. This includes the part where he described the horizon as a 'low leaden line', that sentence implied that everything was very grey and dreary. The narrator himself creates tension. His nickname 'Pip' compares whim to a seed which is very insignificant, small and vulnerable. His parents are dead, “ As I never saw my father or my mother.” When we turn over, the second page is completely different from the first. This is because the first page is mainly the introduction and setting. Whereas on the second page it started by creating tension. It begins with threats from the prisoner and Pip. The convict adds to the tense atmosphere, from the way the narrator describes him and also the way he himself talks. He is a fearful man in grey, with an iron on his leg, he had no hat and broken shoes, with an old rag tied around his head. He had obviously been soaked in water and
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