How Does Steinbeck Create Atmosphere in the Opening of Great Expectations?

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“How does David Lean, Director of Great Expectations, build an ominous atmosphere and create suspense in the opening scenes? I will be looking at the mixture of devices Lean uses to build the atmosphere that he has in the few opening scenes of the movie. In the second scene, Pip is pictured running across a path beside the ocean. As he is running there are a few things that Lean has done to create, I wouldn’t say ominous, but a distressing air. For example, the only noise that is heard while he is running is the sounds of the howling winds ands the birds, in all likelihood seagulls. I believe that this does help because the mood becomes very sinister as there the no sound but the solitude sound of the wind and the seagulls. Lean has definitely inserted these sounds intentionally. I know this because the gallows, which I will come on to later, have the hoops of the noose which is actually not moving which proves that the wind in fact calculated and is not part of the existent place where the scene was being prepared. We cannot quite tell whether it is sunrise or early evening. I think that the sound of the birds merged with the time of day described and the gallows presented along with the howling winds gives the reader the sort of impression that gives a person Goosebumps. As Pip is running across the path beside the sea, there are gallows in the background. I can say with certainty that Lean put them there on purpose to create an atmosphere. He does this because the most popular connotation of gallows is death or something violent which is in every manner a negative thing: it shows that Lean is successful in his objective to create an ominous mood. Also, when watching the scenes myself, I realized that the gallows are not noticed immediately which unexpectedly works in Lean’s favour. This is because Lean uses subliminal device-putting things that a
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