Student Essay on The Character of Magwitch in "Great Expectations"

Describes how Charles Dickens uses the character of Magwitch to explore crime and punishment in "Great Expectations."

In the year 1861 the great British author Charles Dickens wrote a novel that was originally published in newspapers as a serial, the soap opera of the day. This now world famous novel - Great Expectations - was written in three parts of nineteen or twenty chapters each, fifty chapters in all (quite the read!). The novel focuses on the character of Phillip Pirrip, Pip for short, and his journey through life. A main theme of the story and a subject Pip encounters a lot is that of crime and punishment. This was an important subject in Dickens's day, not only as a political problem but one of personal importance to Charles Dickens himself. His father had been a debtor when Dickens was young and was put in prison. Thus Charles was forced to work for.....