In the first chapter, in which the theme of the book is established, the reader is thrown into Pip's life and how it is seen from a seven year olds perspective. He is in an orphan alone in a cemetery and has no memory of how his mother or father looked. He mentions the tombstones of his brothers and how he envisages them and how his parents looked, all these images cause the reader to feel great sympathy and sorrow for the little boy who knows not the comfort of a loving secure environment.
"As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones".
Dickens uses humour when describing his little brothers using a simile of how he had pictured them when they were born -.
"they had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trouser-pockets, and had never taken them out in this state of existence".
Dickens goes on to describe the marsh land where Pip lived and he describes an image of a lonely, bleak, wild area which is dark and gloomy. This scene sets the theme for the book where it could be said that Pip is the victim of circumstances in his life. He is an orphan in a cemetery which is in a lonely, wild place. Pip comments that one particular afternoon his impression of things altered -.
"My first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things, seems to be to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening.".
Pip comes to a realisation of how his life is, the death of his parents and his brothers, the bleakness of the surrounding marshes, the loneliness of the land with only a few cattle feeding. This realisation caused Pip to become distressed and afraid which is another theme that flows through the novel, loneliness, fear and sadness at what has been lost. "and the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip".
