How Does Dickens Use Weather In Great Expectations
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Throughout the novel, Great Expectations, Dickens uses weather to reflect on harsh times in Pip’s life. Weather is very closely tied to plot and it foreshadows dramatic events in Pip’s life. Everytime something tragic or exciting happens, there seems to be a change in weather. Readers can understand Pip’s emotions through the weather.
Dickens set the dreary mood at the beginning of the novel. When Pip first meets the convict in the first chapter, the fog appears so thick Pip can barely see. Pip is frightened by the convict who demands Pip get him food. Dickens describes the weather as “raw” and the graveyard a “bleak” place (1). Pip’s emotional state parallels the weather. Dickens introduces Pip and the convict in a cold, grey atmosphere to…show more content… For example, when Magwitch arrives Pip comments on the “wretched weather” which was “stormy and wet, stormy and wet; and mud, mud, mud, deep in all the streets” (333). The repeat of the bad weather from the first time Pip met Magwitch indicated he will appear again. Weather parallels and emphasizes Pip’s emotional state. Just as the furious winds leave a path of destruction through London, Magwitch arrives and leaves a path of destruction through Pip’s life. Pip realizes he cannot become a gentlemen if a convict provides him with money, which ruins his expectations. Once again, the weather emphasizes his emotions.
Towards the end of the novel, Pips descriptions of the changing weather reflect on his outlook on life. The skies are no longer dreary for once. Instead the fog rises and the sun finally shines on Pip’s life. Pip cheers up at the thought of going home and seeing Biddy. Dickens writes, “The June weather was delicious. The sky was blue, the larks were soaring high over the green corn, I thought all that countryside more beautiful and peaceful by far than I had ever known it to be” (508). This is the first time in the novel the weather is nice, Pip’s harsh life has improved and he is finally