We’re ready for the essays guys! Your favourite part of the course! Remember we are using PEEL to structure our essays.That’s Point, Evidence, Explain and Link Back.

We’ve already taken a look at the questions from the past papers and its clear that we can comfortably answer most of the questions. We probably won’t spend much time on the ‘setting’ based ones purely because we haven’t spent time focusing on this in our discussions during class.

The first question we are going to look at is this:
Choose a novel or short story in which there is a complex character for whom the reader has some sympathy. With reference to appropriate techniques, explain the nature of the complexity and discuss how your response to this character adds to your appreciation of the text as a whole.

We could answer this question by looking at one of three characters: Pip, Miss Havisham or Estella. It makes the most sense to answer it using Pip as he is the narrator and protagonist of the story. If you have a think about Pip’s character, he isn’t always the greatest person despite being in a secure environment. At times he is actually downright unlikeable. We will take him as our character for this essay.

To plan out this essay then we first of all need to think of 5 points from the book that show us Pip is a complex character. There are a lot of points that you could make. Here’s the 5 points we have:

Pip helps the convict out of fear but also kindness
Pip discovers that life could be different if you are wealthy as he is introduced to Miss Havisham and her world
Pip is unkind to Joe and embarrassed by him he starts to live his life in London
Pip looks after Magwitch and turns his life around
Pip fully changes his character for the better by understanding a good work ethic and being morally good.

If these are our 5 points we need to get evidence from the text that supports this. Your first job is to work out what quotes from the text we will use to back up these 5 points. Once you’ve got your quotes we’re ready to start writing!

For your paragraphs you will be using PEEL to structure your response – POINT>EVIDENCE>EXPLAIN>LINK BACK

(Click on the images below to make them bigger.)

1. Dickens does not think all criminals are bad. We know this as Magwitch is not a black and white character. Nor are some of the other characters in this book or his others that commit criminal acts. There are complex reasons behind their acts.

2. Dickens gains sympathy for the prisoners because it is made clear that the odds are against those on trial before the trial has even begun. The judge already has an idea of who these men are before they are in front of him.

3. Dickens stops this series of chapters from becoming too heavy by making Pip visit Wemmick to add a bit of lightness.

4. When Magwitch dies Pip’s story comes full circle. He is finally able to see the humanity in all people or the cruelty in them. He understands that money does not make people worthy, but their actions do and their treatment of others. Having Magwitch hanged would have been a cruel end to Magwitch.

5. Pip repays Magwitch before he dies by telling him about Estella and telling Magwitch that she is well loved by himself.

6. Own response on how you think the book will end.

1. Magwitch tells Pip that Pip cannot appreciate freedom. This is because Magwitch has been imprisoned several times in his life and knows the difference between being free and being locked up.

2. Magwitch uses the river as a metaphor for life as there are rough and smooth bits and it comes to an end. Magwitch knows he doesn’t have long left.

3. Despite being in danger in this chapter, Magwitch becomes calm. This in in part due to his realisation that he has achieved what he wanted to from his life and being able to see Pip being successful.

4. The men set out on the start of the escape. Pip worries because a servant at the inn tells him that there is a boat out on the water. Pip thinks it is watching them.

5. Just as Magwitch is about to get on the ship to freedom, Compeyson and policemen catch Magwitch, Pip, Herbert and Startop in the Thames. Magwitch and Compeyson fight in the water, until Compeyson is drowned. It is unclear whether Magwitch intentionally killed him.

6. Pip is finally able to accept and love Magwitch because he sees him as a human being with flaws. Pip is no longer judgemental of people. Magwitch also appreciates that Pip has helped him once more when he is a ‘criminal’ and not a citizen.

1. The mood as Pip sets out for the sluice house is very grim. The night is dark and cold and the moon is red. This suggests that something bad is about to happen.

2. The candle blows out which makes the scene scarier. The candle symbolised Pip’s sense of control in the situation.

3. Orlick seems dangerous. He wants to kill Pip because he believe Pip cost him his place at the Blacksmiths working for Joe and also he feels Pip put Biddy off of him.

4. In Chapter 43 Pip saw a man whilst at the Blue Boar with Drummel he thought was Orlick. This shows Orlick has been watching him for a while.

1. Pip goes to Little Britain to see Wemmick to confirm his suspicions about Magwitch being Estella’s daddy.

2. Pip persuades Jaggers to share the information on Estella by telling him that he loves her and that he could present it to him as a hypothetical ‘case’.

3. Jaggers refers to Wemmick as the most ‘cunning imposter in all of London’ because Jaggers did not know anything at all about Wemmick’s personality or life outside of work.

4. Jaggers did not know that Wemmick could be playful.

5. Jaggers poses his story about Estella as hypothetical so that the story cannot be used against him.

6. When Pip arrives at Clarriker House he discovers that the business is expanding and Herbert is to take charge of the new premises.

7. Startop is involved in the plan to rescue Magwitch because Pip cannot row with his burnt hands. Startop is a friend who is trustworthy and will not need paid.

8. Pip leaves London for the Marshes on Monday as he receives a letter telling him to come there to get more information on Magwitch. He decides to go because it might have something to do with Magwitch’s escape. He needs to get back to London for the escape plan to work.

1. Miss Havisham asks that she is not revealed as Herbert’s benefactor.

2. Pip forgives Miss Havisham because he understands her heartbreak.

3. Miss Havisham means it when she tells Pip that she ‘meant to save her from misery like my own’. She believed that her intentions were good. There is also an element of revenge and spite here too that she was perhaps unaware of till later, and realises that Estella blocks her out sometimes too.

4. When Pip says that he is stuck in the ‘vanities of sorrow… unworthiness [and] penitence’ he is basically talking about how self-pity and wallowing in your sorrows is a bad thing to do. You never move forward from it. Pip, Miss Havisham and Estella all suffer from these vanities.

5. Own opinion as to whether Miss Havisham purposefully sets herself on fire.

6. Pip shows real courage and character in this scene as he rushes to Miss Havisham’s rescue and stays with her through the doctor’s visit. He only leaves because he needs to get back to London to protect Magwitch.

7. Pip deduces that Estella is Magwitch’s daughter.

1. Miss Havisham asks that she is not revealed as Herbert’s benefactor.

2. Pip forgives Miss Havisham because he understands her heartbreak.

3. Miss Havisham means it when she tells Pip that she ‘meant to save her from misery like my own’. She believed that her intentions were good. There is also an element of revenge and spite here too that she was perhaps unaware of till later, and realises that Estella blocks her out sometimes too.

4. When Pip says that he is stuck in the ‘vanities of sorrow… unworthiness [and] penitence’ he is basically talking about how self-pity and wallowing in your sorrows is a bad thing to do. You never move forward from it. Pip, Miss Havisham and Estella all suffer from these vanities.

5. Own opinion as to whether Miss Havisham purposefully sets herself on fire.

6. Pip shows real courage and character in this scene as he rushes to Miss Havisham’s rescue and stays with her through the doctor’s visit. He only leaves because he needs to get back to London to protect Magwitch.

7. Pip deduces that Estella is Magwitch’s daughter.

1. Pip describes his primary concern as a ‘high mountain above a range of mountains’ – this concern is that Magwitch will be caught.

2. Pip returns Magwitch’s unopened pocketbook because he does not wish to spend any more of his money. Especially as the money is needed to pay for Magwitch’s escape and Pip is in debt to a lot of people.

3. Pip runs into Wopsle and is scared by what Wopsle says. Wopsle says there was a man with Pip when Pip wasn’t with anyone. This tells Pip he is being followed.

4. Pip finds out that Estella has been married . Jaggers suggests that Drummle will make a poor husband. He will either ‘beat or growl’ at Estella. Jagger’s predicts a bad ending for one of them, with Drummle’s weapon his strength and Estella’s her intellect.

5. At Hounslow Heath 20+ years ago a woman had been found strangled to death. Mr Jagger’s housekeeper, Molly, was accused (she wasn’t his housekeeper yet) and Mr Jagger’s defended her. She was let off. We discover that she had a daughter who went missing.

6. Jagger’s defended Molly and won the case. He referred to her strong hands in front of Pip as she strangled the woman to death, even though the woman was physically stronger and bigger than her. Pip deduces that Molly is Estella’s mum as she has the same eyes and hands as her.

1. The mood at the Hummums is very dismal. The Hummums is a hostel that is open 24 hours a day. Pip has to go here because his home is being watched for Magwitch.

2. Pip receives news from Wemmick that Compeyson is in London and that he knows that Magwitch has returned to London. This news shows us that Wemmick is a true friend. He is not obliged to tell Pip anything as a clerk at Jaggers. He shares this information because he is Pip’s friend.

3. Clara’s house is neat and tidy and well-kept. The house has a nervous edge to it, as Clara is constantly waiting on her bed-ridden father who gets angry if kept waiting, and shouts and stamps a stick off the floor.

4. Pip tells Magwitch (who is being kept at Clara’s) that people in London know he is there and that they need to get him out the country. Pip doesn’t tell him about Compeyson as he knows this will make Magwitch want to stay and revenge himself.

5. They have a plan for Pip to buy a boat and create the impression that Pip goes out rowing. They will then take Magwitch out to a ship that is going abroad.