Hello! Welcome back to our study of Great Expectations.
In our last lesson, we delved into the novel's narrative structure, analyzing how Dickens uses first-person retrospective narration to create a profound sense of psychological realism. We focused on the internal landscape of Pip's mind, exploring the gap between his experiences and his later understanding of them. Today, we will turn our attention from the internal to the external, examining the physical world Pip inhabits. Our goal is to explain how Dickens uses setting and atmosphere not merely as a backdrop, but as a powerful tool for delivering social commentary. We will see that in Great Expectations, the environment is never neutral; it is a moral and social landscape, rich with meaning.
The Power of Place
In realist fiction, setting transcends simple geography. It becomes an active force that shapes characters, reflects social structures, and embodies the novel's core themes. A particular location's atmosphere—its mood and feeling—is carefully constructed to communicate ideas and critique the society it represents. Dickens was a master of this technique.
A lecturer in the video "Devouring Dickens" notes that Dickens possesses a "visualizing power to the extreme," and that his best descriptions of scenery are key to his art. He argues that Dickens can depict reality with such intensity that it moves into "unreality," creating a "fairy tale" quality that serves a deeper purpose.
Devouring Dickens: Reading Great Expectations with Gusto
Let's watch a short segment of this lecture that explains how Dickens uses visual description, particularly of scenery, to create a powerful, almost hyper-real atmosphere.
Please watch the section from Go to the movies in your head. Pay close attention to the analysis of the convict's description and the landscape of the marshes. The speaker highlights how Dickens starts with realistic detail and pushes it "overboard" to make a point about the character and the world.
As the video suggests, Dickens's settings are intensely "filmic," but their purpose isn't just to paint a picture. The exaggeration and specific choice of details are designed to make an argument. Let's now break down the key locations in Great Expectations to see how this works in practice.
A useful overview, "Great Expectations – Charles Dickens - Setting," provides a solid framework for our analysis. We will read it in sections as we explore the novel's primary locations.
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens -Setting – Wyckats Notes
This initial section defines setting and places the novel in its historical context, linking the story's action to the social changes of the Industrial Revolution.
Please read the first three paragraphs, from the definition of "Setting" to the end of the paragraph discussing social change. This will ground our discussion in the novel's Victorian context.
The Two Poles: The Marshes and London
Pip's life is geographically and morally structured around two opposing poles: the rural Kent marshes of his childhood and the metropolis of London, the destination of his "great expectations."
The Kent Marshes: Mist and Obscurity
The novel opens in a churchyard on the marshes, immediately establishing a menacing, Gothic atmosphere. This is not a pastoral countryside; it is a place of danger, uncertainty, and death.
The atmosphere of the marshes is dominated by a single, pervasive element: the mist. For Dickens, this mist is far more than a meteorological phenomenon. It is a powerful symbol of moral confusion, obscurity, and concealment.
Let's read about the function of these settings.
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens -Setting – Wyckats Notes
These sections analyze how the churchyard and the misty marshes are used to create atmosphere and symbolize key themes.
Read the section describing the churchyard and the analysis of the Mists on the Marshes. Notice how these physical settings are directly linked to Pip's psychological state and foreshadow future events.
The analysis you just read highlights that "whenever Pip goes into the mists, something dangerous is likely to happen." The mist represents a world where things are not what they seem, a perfect reflection of young Pip's limited understanding—a concept we explored in our last lesson on narration. The external fog mirrors his internal fog.
A deeper analysis of this symbolism can be found in the essay "The Meaning in the Mist and Stars." It explores how mist functions across the novel.
[PDF] THE MEANING IN THE MIST AND STARS IN CHARLES DICKENS'S ...
This academic text provides a very detailed look at the symbolism of the mist. We will focus on the section that defines its primary functions.
Please read the section that begins with the line "As seen in the above scene, the mist is evoked in relation to uncertainty about Pip’s future." Read from this point until the end of the paragraph. This passage explains how the mist represents active confusion, concealment, and the distortion of reality.
As this reading argues, the mist "upends reality," creating a surreal, dream-like state where "everything seemed to run at me." This is a brilliant externalization of a "guilty mind." The social commentary here is subtle but profound. Pip's origins are in a place of moral ambiguity and physical threat, a grim starting point that the grand society of London is supposed to correct, but, as we will see, only worsens. The marshes, for all their danger, are also home to the forge—a place of honest work and genuine affection with Joe—which Pip ultimately abandons.
London: The Corrupt Metropolis
In contrast to the "flat and low" marshes, London represents Pip's vertical aspirations. He expects it to be the center of gentility, enlightenment, and opportunity. The reality he finds is quite different. Dickens's London is a place of dirt, crime, and profound alienation. Its atmosphere is not one of bright promise, but of morbid gloom and moral decay.
Let's turn back to our main reading to see how Dickens portrays London and its key legal institutions.
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens -Setting – Wyckats Notes
These sections detail the grim reality of Pip's London, focusing on the city itself and the spaces associated with the law, embodied by Mr. Jaggers.
First, read the descriptions of London and Barnard’s Inn. Then, continue with the descriptions of Newgate Prison and Jaggers' office. Note how the physical details of Jaggers's office—the "deadly black" chair, the greasy walls—are meticulously chosen to reflect the character of the man and the corrupt justice system he represents.
The commentary here is direct. London is not a place of moral refinement; it is a place "infested with greed." Jaggers's office, located near the infamous Newgate Prison, is a microcosm of this world. It is a space devoid of warmth, light, and humanity, reflecting a legal system that is efficient in its dark business but emotionally barren. By placing Pip in these settings, Dickens critiques the very notion of the "gentleman," suggesting that the society that creates this status is built on a foundation of grime, crime, and hypocrisy.
Microcosms of Society
Beyond the broad contrast between country and city, Dickens creates highly specific, symbolic settings that function as microcosms—small-scale models—of larger social and moral states.
Satis House: The Prison of the Past
Satis House is perhaps the novel's most potent symbol. It is the home of Miss Havisham and the place where Pip's ambitions and sorrows are born.
The name "Satis" (from the Latin for "enough") is deeply ironic. The house suggests that wealth is sufficient for a good life, but Dickens shows it as a place of emotional starvation and living death. Its atmosphere is one of stagnation and decay.
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens -Setting – Wyckats Notes
This section provides a detailed analysis of Satis House and its symbolic meaning.
Read the section on Satis House. Focus on how every detail—the stopped clocks, the wedding dress, the rotting cake—contributes to the central theme of decay and arrested development.
Through Satis House, Dickens delivers a sharp critique of the aristocracy and inherited wealth. It represents a class so obsessed with its own past glories and grievances that it has become disconnected from life itself. It is a mausoleum, not a home, and its influence on Pip is entirely corrupting, filling him with a longing for a status that is ultimately hollow and destructive.
Wemmick's Castle: A Private Refuge
As a counterpoint to the public corruption of Jaggers's London and the aristocratic decay of Satis House, Dickens gives us one of the novel's most curious settings: Wemmick's home in Walworth.
Wemmick, Jaggers's clerk, lives a strange double life. At the office, he is cynical and pragmatic. At home, he is a loving son living in a miniature castle, complete with a drawbridge and a cannon.
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens -Setting – Wyckats Notes
This final reading explores the unique and symbolic setting of Wemmick's home.
Read the section analyzing Wemmick's house in Walworth. Consider what this rigid separation of work and home life says about Victorian society.
Wemmick's Castle is a powerful piece of social commentary. It represents the desperate need to create a private sanctuary of human warmth and affection as a defense against the brutal, impersonal world of public life and commerce. The motto of Walworth is: "the office is one thing, and private life is another." This separation, while eccentric, is portrayed as a necessary survival strategy. It is a commentary on a society so harsh that one must build a fortress to protect one's humanity.
Conclusion
As we have seen, Dickens's use of setting and atmosphere is a fundamental part of his realist project. He constructs a symbolic geography where the physical environment is a direct expression of the moral and social conditions of Victorian England.
Here are the key takeaways from our analysis:
- Setting as Social Commentary: Dickens uses locations not just as backdrops but as arguments about society. The atmosphere of a place—its fog, decay, or grime—reflects its moral state.
- The Marshes and London: These two poles represent the clash between a primitive, authentic past and a corrupt, artificial modernity.
- Symbolic Microcosms: Satis House critiques a decadent and decaying upper class, while Wemmick's Castle comments on the need for a private refuge in a dehumanizing public sphere.
- Atmosphere as a Moral Indicator: The menacing fog of the marshes, the morbid gloom of Jaggers's office, and the suffocating decay of Satis House are all tangible manifestations of the novel's themes of confusion, corruption, and spiritual death.
By reading the settings of Great Expectations, we are reading Dickens's map of the soul of his society.
In our next lesson, we will broaden our perspective and compare Dickens's approach to social realism with the French traditions of Balzac and Flaubert. This will allow us to see what is unique about English realism and place Dickens's work in its wider European context.