Charles Dickens Great Expectations Essay -- Great Expectations Essays

Charles the Tempter Great ExpectationsIn the novel of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, one of thepivotal characters is a man named Abel Magwitch. To answer thequestion of whether this man is a woeful or a victim of society, wemust first establish what a criminal is and what a victim of societyis. A criminal is someone who knowingly breaks the law forself-gratification. A victim of society is someone who is subjected tooutside influences, and is generally mistreated by society. In thecontext of this novel, a victim of society is to a fault someone who hasnever been given a chance in life, and has no control over events thatoccur involving them. Therefore I am going to distort and decide which ofthese two categories the character of Abel Magwitch falls into.When we first meet Magwitch in Chapter one our first impressions ofhim are not positive. Pip describes him as a shocking man with aterrible voice. Although we learn that he is in a terrible state,smothered in mud and lame d by stones, with a dandy iron on hisleg, indicating he has obviously escaped prison and is on the run, weas readers do not feel any sympathy for him. The reason for this isthe circumstance that he is willing to threaten a young boy, seeming to enjoythe power he has over him is almost repulsive to us as readers, fashioninghim appear even more harsh. The fact that Magwitch is likened to adog, he glared and growled at Pip, does not help his case. Thispresents him as an animal, and serves only to alienate Magwitch fromthe reader. This means that we too serving Pips reservations andsuspicions about Magwitch throughout the opening chapters, even thoughit is clear that this man is scared, lonely and hungry enough tothre... ...me suffering asMagwitch. This belief would probably pay evolved after his trial withCompeyson, which taught him that the law could be manipulated byclass. This shows that Magwitch did not have many criminal intentions,and that he was tricked by Compeyson. In a s ense Dickens is trying toshow us how real rightness can be hard to find. It is because of his lowstatus and poverty that Magwitch never really had a chance. This showshow the justice system has been manipulated by society.Therefore, I think that Magwitch, while having acted like a criminal,is not to blame for his actions and it could be argued that he is evenremorseful about them. This shows that he is not a criminal, but avictim of the society he lives in, because he was never given a chanceto prove society defame and make something of his life, he was justlabelled and left in jail.