Editing Great Expectations (section)

== Style ==
Some of the narrative devices that Dickens uses are [[caricature]], comic speech mannerisms, intrigue, [[Gothic fiction|Gothic]] atmosphere, and a central character who gradually changes. Earl Davis notes the close network of the structure and balance of contrasts, and praises the first-person narration for providing a simplicity that is appropriate for the story while avoiding [[melodrama]]. Davis sees the symbolism attached to "great expectations"{{vague|date=November 2019}} as reinforcing the novel's impact.<ref>{{harvnb|Earle Davis|1963|pp=262–263}}</ref>

=== Characterisation ===

==== Character ''leitmotiv'' ====
[[File:Mr Wopsle as Hamlet, by Harry Furniss.jpeg|thumb|Mr Wopsle as Hamlet, by [[Harry Furniss]]]]
Characters then become themes in themselves, almost a [[Richard Wagner|Wagnerian]] ''[[leitmotiv]]'', whose attitudes are repeated at each of their appearances as a musical phrase signaling their entry.<ref name="Suhamy21">{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=21}}</ref> For example, Jaggers constantly chews the same fingernail and washes his hands with scented soap, Orlick lurches his huge body, and Matthew Pocket always pulls at his hair. Seen by the narrator, their attitude is mechanical, like that of an automaton: in the general scheme, the gesture betrays the uneasiness of the unaccomplished or exasperated man, his betrayed hope, his unsatisfied life.<ref name="Suhamy21"/> In this set, every character is orbited by "satellite" characters. Wemmick is Jaggers's copy at work, but has placed in Walworth a secret garden, a castle with a family of an elderly father and a middle-aged fiancée, where he happily devours buttered bread.<ref name="Suhamy6">{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=6}} (Romantisme)</ref> Wopsle plays the role of a poor Pip, kind of unsuccessful, but with his distraction, finally plays ''Hamlet'' in London, and Pumblechook does not hesitate to be the instrument of Pip's fortunes, then the mentor of his resurrection.<ref>{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=23}}</ref>

==== Narrative technique ====
For Pip's redemption to be credible, Trotter writes, the words of the main character must sound right.<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1996|p=vii}}</ref> Christopher Ricks adds that Pip's frankness induces empathy, dramatics are avoided,<ref>Christopher Ricks, "''Great Expectations''", ''Dickens and the Twentieth Century'', ed. John Gross and Gabriel Pearson, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1962, pp. 199–211.</ref> and his good actions are more eloquent than words. Dickens's subtle narrative technique is also shown when he has Pip confess that he arranged Herbert's partnership with Clarriker, has Miss Havisham finally see the true character of her cousin Matthew Pocket, and has Pocket refuse the money she offers him.<ref name="Dickens-viii">{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1996|p=viii}}</ref> To this end, the narrative method subtly changes until, during the perilous journey down the Thames to remove Magwitch in chapter 54, the narrative point-of-view shifts from first person to the omniscient point of view. For the first time, Ricks writes, the "I" ceases to be Pip's thoughts and switches to the other characters, the focus, at once, turns outward, and this is mirrored in the imagery of the black waters tormented waves and eddies, which heaves with an anguish that encompasses the entire universe, the passengers, the docks, the river, the night.<ref name="Dickens-viii"/>

=== Romantic and symbolic realism ===
According to Paul Davis, while more realistic than its [[David Copperfield|autobiographical predecessor]] written when novels like [[George Eliot]]'s ''[[Adam Bede]]'' were in vogue, ''Great Expectations'' is in many ways a poetic work built around recurring symbolic images: the desolation of the marshes; the twilight; the chains of the house, the past, the painful memory; the fire; the hands that manipulate and control; the distant stars of desire; the river connecting past, present and future.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|1999|p=158}}, columns 1 and 2.</ref>