How does Dickens grip the reader in the opening chapter of Great Expectations? what methods has Dickens used?

As Chapter 1 of Great Expectations
opens, Pip, the novel's protagonist, is alone in a cemetary visiting the graves of his
parents and siblings. Dickens describes Pip as a "bundle of shivers...beginning to cry,"
and readers immediately feel sympathy for him and his situation.  Soon after, Pip is
accosted by an escaped convict who threatens Pip with death if he does not return the
next morning with food and a file with which the convict might remove his leg shackles. 
Through Dickens' use of vivid imagery (he describes the cemetary as a frightening place
for a young child to be) and the dialogue he crafts between the convict and Pip, readers
feel a sense of suspense almost immediately after they begin
reading.