How does Dickens build suspense in Great Expectations?

Dickens’s descriptions of settings create suspense in many places throughout the novel. In the first chapter, his description of the marshes where Pip is first introduced in the graveyard where his parents and siblings are buried provides an atmosphere of  bleakness and emptiness, which makes the sudden appearance of the convict Magwitch so startling. The continued threats to Pip, which Pip takes seriously whether Magwitch meant them seriously or not, build a tense mood as...

Dickens’s descriptions of settings create suspense in many places throughout the novel. In the first chapter, his description of the marshes where Pip is first introduced in the graveyard where his parents and siblings are buried provides an atmosphere of  bleakness and emptiness, which makes the sudden appearance of the convict Magwitch so startling. The continued threats to Pip, which Pip takes seriously whether Magwitch meant them seriously or not, build a tense mood as Pip responds to the threats, in danger from the discovery by his sister and then by the soldiers who are searching for the escaped prisoners. Even though Magwitch is eventually captured and imprisoned, Magwitch’s promise that he won’t forget what Pip has done, is taken as forboding by Pip, though Magwitch means it as positive. The continued existence of Pip lies in the background through the middle part of the novel, with his sudden reappearance in the latter section. It is the fear of the discovery of Magwitch, who faces death for returning to England, and Pip and Herbert’s efforts to help him escape, help to drag the suspense out. The death of Magwitch on the surface might seem like a release from the suspense. However, it is a sad occurrence for Pip, how has grown fond of his benefactor, despite his past.