In "Great Expectations", Charles Dickens captures the reader's interest in a number of ways. He creates a chilling and eerie atmosphere by using interesting metaphors, and descriptive language. This also adds to the "suspense" and "sense of place". Dickens's characters are interesting, eccentric, colourful, and contrast each other very well.
The first character we meet is Phillip Pirrip. We quickly learn that he calls himself "Pip" due to the fact that he cannot pronounce the words together due to his "infant tongue". "Pip" then explains: " I never saw my father or my mother; and never saw any likeness of them my first fancies as to what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones five little brothers of mine - who gave up trying to get a living exceedingly early in that universal struggle- He "drops a bombshell", he's an orphan. Already the reader is curious about this character, and then he says that he has five dead brothers. The reader is already shocked and wants to find out more about this character. .
Charles Dickens keeps the reader interested in a huge amount of ways, all at the same time. Dickens gets the reader involved with the story, and successfully attempts to sub-consciously place the reader in the story, so that he/she must stick it out to the end. This also means he/she feels each twist in the plot, and shock in the story. Dickens creates paranoia in the mind of "Pip", and this achieves a thrilling atmosphere. He creates suspense and drama in the order that he puts things. But I think the best way that Charles Dickens keeps the reader interested, is in the way he describes his "crazy" characters. They contrast very well, and they begin to "work off each other's weaknesses". For "Pip", he is obviously physically weak, but the attacker, he is conflicting with him self. He is obviously much stronger physically than "Pip", but as he limps off, the reader is left with the feeling that he was mentally putting on a "tough man" act.
