The Opening Chapters in Great Expectations and Jane Eyre Essays

How effective are the opening chapters in Great Expectations and Jane Eyre? In my essay i will be explaining and comparing the opening paragraphs of "Great Expectations" ang "Jane Eyre". The author of "Great Expectations" is Charles Dickens (1812-70). Dickens was a middle class man who was well known and wealthy. He had his own magazine, called "All the year round", in which he published "Great Expectations" over a period of 59 weeks; one chapter a week was published his magazine. He wrote it in 1860 and it was published between December 1860 and August 1861. "Jane Eyre" was published in 1847 and written by Charlotte Bronte but under the name of Currer Bell because it was hard for a women in the Victorian times to publish a book. She was born in Yorkshire but lived a short life of only 39 years (1816-55). It was not just her in her family that dies at a young age, she had two sisters who did not make it to adulthood. She also had a brother and two surviving sisters. Her father was a Vicar. She was not the only literate person in the family; her sisters also had books published. "Great Expectations" starts off with Pip all alone in a deserted graveyard looking at his immediate relatives gravestones. Then a man threatens him "...I'll cut your throat!" The man is an escaped prisoner and instructs Pip to help him by getting his brother-in-laws tools to get his shackles off. Pip agrees to help him so that the prisoner does not kill him. He says if Pip tells anyone that he has seen the man he is going to be killed by a "young man" Jane is an orphan living with the Reed family. She is being bullied by John Reed, and is scared of him. Mrs Reed ignores the bullying even though it happens in front of her ... ...n-laws tools to help the prisoner and how will Pip cope with the pressure of keeping a big secret. I think the cliff hanger in "Jane Eyre" is more sucessful because in "Great Expectations" we can almost guess what is going to happen next, we can predict that Pip is going to help the prisoner and the prisoner has made up the young man to scare Pip so he helps him. In "Jane Eyre" it is more of a cliff hanger because more questions have to be answered later on in the book. We need to know; what the red room is; how long will Jane be in there for; and is the bullying from John Reed going to get worse. I think that "Great Expectations" is more sucessful because it has more of an effective plot which would make us want to read on. I do not feel that "Jane Eyre" has a strong enough plot to keep the readers attenion and it would not make us want to read on.