The first section of Great Expectations narrates Pip’s childhood experiences, and so depicts innocence coming face-to-face with wickedness. The novel starts with Pip in the churchyard, visiting the graves of his parents and siblings. He is confronted by an escaped convict from a nearby prison ship. The convict (Abel Magwitch) threatens him if Pip does not get him a file and some food. Pip does so, but he is now frightened of the law who captures Magwitch and another escaped convict. He fears that the convict will come back for him, or the law will discover that he has stolen the file and food from his sister (with whom he lives) and aided the convicts. This dread establishes the mood of fear, guilt, and lurking punishment until Pip grows up and becomes an apprentice to his brother-in-law, Joe Gargery. During this time, he and Joe also live in fear of Pip’s sister, called Mrs. Joe. She bullies and abuses both of them, and they form a comradeship of mutual protection.
The purpose of this beginning is a reflection of Dickens’s own childhood fears, having been forced to work in a blacking factory while his father is in debtors’ prison (he deals with this in a more direct way in his novel David Copperfield). Dickens’s work often reflects the fears of innocent childhood, caused by the actions of adults. By depicting juvenile characters in this way, Dickens appeals to the child in all of his readers, who often are the victims of the grown-ups in our lives, at least in our own minds. This quickly gains the sympathy of the reader, even after the character grows up. Dickens’s themes often deal with characters who are victims of authority, whether criminals or government policy.
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