Charles Dickens - Great Expectations 

2.   GETTING THE QUESTION STRAIGHT

Next, we need to look carefully at the question:

How does Dickens create sympathy for his characters in Great Expectations?   Focus on Pip and two other characters you have studied.

The first and most important thing you need to get clear here is that the question is NOT asking how Dickens makes us FEEL SORRY for the people in the book.

In this sense, it is asking how Dickens gets us to sympathise with the characters, which is much more about 'being on their side'.   The question is really asking you how Dickens gives the people in Great Expectations (despite their failings) attractive characters - personalities which are appealing to us.

An easier way to ask this question, therefore, would have been:

How does Dickens get us to like his characters in Great Expectations?

To help you:

There is a really clear PowerPoint display, about how to write the essay, here (ppt./ swf).