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Unit 12: Great Expectations: Detailed Study of Text-I

Mr. Pumblechook insists that Pip be legally bound by law and drags Pip and the entourage Notes
down to the Town Hall to be bound. Mrs. Joe then brings everyone out for dinner.
At the meal, all but Pip seem to be enjoying themselves: “...I was truly wretched, and had a
strong conviction on me that I should never like Joe’s trade. I had liked it once, but once was
not now.”

Analysis

Throughout Great Expectations, Dickens uses meals as a reflection of the relationships at
hand. The meal celebrating Pip’s indenture is reminiscent of the Christmas meal in Chapter
4, where Pip feels none of the enjoyment, human companionship, and hospitality that is
supposed to accompany meals. What is significant about these meals among friends is what
they are not. The uneaten meal and cake in Miss Havisham’s banquet hall stands as a starkly
direct symbol of the lack of love and human companionship that meals commonly signify.
If we look, however, at the first “meal” of the story: the pork pie and “wittels” that Pip gives
to the convict, we see something different. Though the setting of the meal is unglamorous, the
cold, damp marshes, and the manners of the guest (the convict) are likened to a dog, there
appears to be some genuine hospitality in Pip’s words, “I am glad you enjoy it.” And the
convict answers sincerely, “Thankee, my boy, I do.” The meal, in fact, joins the two inexorably.
Dickens will turn to the use of food and meals throughout the story to reflect on relationships
on various levels of society.

Chapter 14

Pip explains his misery to his readers: He is ashamed of his home, ashamed of his trade. He
wants to be uncommon; he wants to be a gentleman. He wants to be a part of the environment
that he had a small taste of at the Satis House. His greatest fear allies his greatest shame. He
fears, beyond everything else, that Estella will see him in his current, dirty, blacksmith state.

Analysis

Throughout all of Dicken’s books, criticism aimed specifically at the Victorian Society can be
seen. In this case, Dickens is contrasting Pip’s shame at having to do honest, hard work with
his desire to be a gentleman which, up until this point, has meant acting as Miss Havisham’s
walking stick. In essence, Dickens is criticizing a Victorian tendency, seen even today, of
looking down on the common laborer as dirty and of less value than the more urbane man
leading a wealthy, leisurely lifestyle. Instead, the gentleman, and his sense of “work,” is held
up as ideal.

Dicken’s criticism is on two levels: one, against the society which enforces these values and
two, against the individuals, like Pip, who adopt society’s values despite their better judgment.

Chapter 15

Biddy continues to teach Pip all she knows including an ironic little ditty about a man who
goes to London and lives a fancy life. Pip continues to teach Joe everything he has learned,
though he doubts Joe is taking much of the information in.
Orlick, a gruff man that Joe employs around the forge, begins one day to insult Mrs. Joe within
her hearing. There is a fight between Joe and Orlick, which Joe wins, but the two continue to
work together as if it is all behind them.

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