summary of chapter one of great expectation
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Philip Pirrip is a young orphan whose unexpected meeting with a stranger in the marshes changes the rest of his life. This lesson will summarize Chapter 1 of Charles Dickens's ''Great Expectations.'' In this chapter, we meet our young protagonist, Pip.
Introducing Pip
Do you have a nickname? How did you get your nickname? In Chapter 1 of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, we meet Philip Pirrip. We learn right away, however, that as a young boy, his ''infant tongue'' could not pronounce his full name, so he called himself by a shortened version. His self-created nickname stuck, as nicknames often do, and he ''came to be called Pip.''
Pip is a young orphan who lives in the marsh country with his sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery. Having never met his parents, whatever Pip knows about his family comes from his sister or the cemetery where both his parents and five infant brothers are buried. The shape of the letters on the gravestones gives Pip impressions of his departed family members. He imagines his father Philip was a ''square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair'' while his mother, Georgiana, was ''freckled and sickly.'' It is while visiting these gravestones that a crying Pip is unexpectedly interrupted by a stranger.
Rudely Interrupted
Pip is crying while sitting in the cemetery beside his parents' graves. All of a sudden, a ''fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg'' jumps up near him. The dirty man tells Pip to stay quiet or ''I'll cut your throat,'' and asks Pip his name. After learning his name, the man wants to know where Pip lives. Pip points to his village and the man, after looking at him for a bit, turns Pip upside down to empty his pockets. The only thing that falls out is a piece of bread. The man places Pip on a high tombstone, and while eating the bread that fell out of Pip's pocket, he asks him where his mother is. He is momentarily alarmed when Pip points behind him and says his mother is there. But, he is quickly relieved when he figures out Pip is pointing to a gravestone.
Pip & Magwitch in the cemetery
After learning Pip's parents are both dead, he asks who Pip lives with. When he learns the boy lives with his sister and her husband, the blacksmith Joe Gargery, the man looks down at the iron on his leg a few times. He seems to come to a decision. A still-scared Pip finds himself trapped by the man, who tightly holds both of the boy