Bring Out the Sensational and Grotesque Elements in “Great Expectations”.

Great Expectations is a famous novel by Charles Dickens. This novel is full of sensational and grotesque elements. In the very opening chapter we find a very sensational incident in which fearful stranger seizes Pip by the chin as if he would cut his throat. He then takes Pip by both arms and tilting him back, asks him to get him some food and a file early next morning, failing which he will take out the boy's heart and liver.

Sensational and Grotesque Elements in "Great Expectations" :

The murderous attack on Mrs. Gargery is another sensational occurrence in the novel. When Pip and Joe return to the forge one evening, they find Mrs. Gargery lying unconscious on the kitchen floor. She has been knocked down by tremendous blow on her head, given by some unknown man.

The story of Molly has also a sensational touch. In a fit of jealousy Molly had murdered the woman with whom her husband had been carrying on love affair. There had been a violent struggle between Molly and the other woman. The other woman was killed while Molly had been bruised and scratched.

Then there is the higly sensational episode of Orlick's trapping of Pip through a trick. Orlick caught Pip in a noose and is determined to take his revange by killing him and throwing his dead body into the lime-kiln nearby. The rescue of Pip by Herbert and Startop is equally sensational. Among the grotesque elements, the description of Miss Havisham's environment, especially of her room, is the foremost. One seeing Miss Havisham Pip says that she was "the strangest lady" he had ever seen. She is "a skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress." She lives in a state of semi-darkness, after having halted her life on the morning of her wedding day.

The description of Jaggers's office and his clerk is grotesque. The office is situated in squalid surroundings and it wears a fantastic look. One of the clerks looks like "something between a publican and a rat-catcher"; another is described as "a little flabby terrier of a clerk"; the thrid is "a high shouldered man with a face-ache tied up in dirty flannel".

The description of Wemmick's household is yet another grotesque element in the novel. His house is compared to a fort. It has a flagstaff on the top, a moat around it, and a gun placed on one of its walls. In the courtyard are a pig, fowls, and rabbits.

Finally the behaviour of Trabb's boy when Pip is on a visit to his native town is decidedly grotesque. On this occasion, the boy adopts various postures in imitation of Pip and tries to parody Pip's general appearance and Pip's manner of speaking. He struts along the pavement towards Pip on the opposite side of the street, attended by a group of delighted young friends to whom he from time to time exclaims, with a wave of his hand, "Don't know yah!".

 

 

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• Dickens's “Great Expectations” is a Study of Moral and Psychological Development.

• Dickens's Art of Characterisation in “Great Expectations”.

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