magwitch

• “I lived rough so that you could live smooth” 


  juxtaposition mirrors antithetical standards of living and dichotomy of social class
• “I am your second father. You are my son”


  parallel phrasing represents the closeness by which Magwitch feels bound to Pip - paternal influence
• “wretched man”


  spurned by Pip
• “I must put something into my stomach, musn’t I?”


  interrogatives mirrors the cyclical nature of crime - Magwitch are stolen food as a child and then again as an adult (from Pip)
• “just like the dog” “growling”

  • zoomorphic language echoes Victorian dehumanisation of criminals
  • Magwitch is subject to Victorian social prejudice - represents the under class
• “a fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg”


  Pip is instantly prejudiced due to Magwitch’s clear social class
• “I noticed how heavy it all bore on me, and how light on him”


  lambasts upper class hypocrisy - juxtaposition elucidates the upper class profit from injustice
• How does Dickens use Magwitch as a didactic vehicle?


  From his experience as a court reporter, social reformer, and his father’s experience in Marshalsea Debtors Prison, Dickens uses Magwitch as a didactic vehicle to condemn the Victorian judicial system.