For Great Expectations, you will need to write 20 dialectical journals per section. Your first set will be due January 4th. This is the Thrusday after we get back from break. Please keep in mind what good journals look like. Think of the following:
Are you asking deep questions?
Are you presenting new ideas?
Are you giving and in depth analysis?
If you have any problems e-mail me at charlie_gaare@gfps.k12.mt.us. Good luck! Have a great holiday.
825 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 400 of 825 Newer› Newest»14. "home had never been a very pleasant place to me, because of my sisters temper. but joe had sanctified it, and i believed in it. i had believed in the best parlour as a most elegant saloon; i had believed in the front door, as a mysterious portal of the temple of state whose solemn opening was attended with a sacrifice of roast fowls; i had believed in the kitchen as a chaste though not magnificent apartment; i had believed in the forge as the glowing road to manhood and independence."
page 102 chapter 14 secound para.
this paragraph gives really good similies, and also good imagery, of how a home would be to somebody who really loves it(or someone rich). home can lead to what you are going to mount to one day,
"...secretly crossed his two forefingers, and exhibited them to me, as our token that Mrs. Joe was in a cross temper."
pg 30 Ch 4
I like the fact that Joe and Pip both feel the same way about Mrs. Joe's temper. They both know that it is dangerous, and this sign, in a way, helps them avoid it.
"My sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, was more then twenty years older than I, and had established a great reputation with herself and the neighbours because she has brought me up 'by hand.' Having at that time to find out for myself what the expression meant..."
Ch2 P7
Being identified as one brought up by had had to be a very touchy thing. It is basically like saying that my parents beat me as i was groing up, and i ould be un happy to have everyone know that fact about me.
17) “’Now, master! Sure you’re not a going to favour only one of us. If Young Pip has a half-holiday, do as much for old Orlick.’”
Page 126, Paragraph 2, Chapter 15, Section 1
I really don’t think it’s far that Orlick is jealous of Pop’s half-holiday because Pip is actually going to do something constructive, I think this is the mean reason that Miss Havisham gives him the money to go to the school (at least I think it would be her) and she dose it because she wants him to inherit her land and property because all of her other relatives only come and see her on her birthday, even if they don’t really celebrate it, and he would talk to her and tell her things and then he came to see her after she said that he didn’t need to any more.
Katy
20)"Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts."
chapter 19 pg. 177 Paragraph 2
This is a powerful statement. I feel that this is the greatest line in the book so far. I was taken by suprise that he would get so emotional about leaving to persue his dreams. Robert Louis Stevenson had this to say about sobbing. The body is a house of many windows: there we all sit, showing ourselves and crying on the passers-by to come and love us. Pip was going away from the ones he loved. He was headed for the city. He would have to find passers by to help him cope with the loss of his family.-Oliver Jones
18) “’No indeed, Miss Havisham. I only wanted you to know that I am doing very well in my apprenticeship, and am always much obliged to you.’”
I like how they both know he is not there to see Miss Havisham but to try to find Estella, yet they both are nice and kind to each other. I find it weird that Miss Havisham expected Pip to come back and want something from her, when really he did; he wanted her to tell him where Estella was. I also like how Pip was nice and told of how he was doing to Miss Havisham just in case she wanted to know when he had no Idea what she really wanted.
Katy
19) “’By-the-by, the guns is going again,’”
Page 131, Paragraph 10, Chapter 15, Section 1
Again with the escaping people, they are probably just getting to the side of the ship and jumping, have they not decided that this is not a very effective way to hold prisoners?
Katy
20) “I now fell into a regular routine of apprenticeship-life, which was varied,”
Page138, Paragraph 1, Chapter 17, Section 1
It took him more then four years to get into this routine, which is a long time, then saying that the regular routine varied is like an oxymoron.
Katy
“Among this good company I should have felt myself, even if I hadn’t robbed the pantry, in a false position. Not because I was squeezed in at an acute angle of the table-cloth, with the table in my chest, and the Pumblechookian elbow in my eye, nor because I was not allowed to speak (I didn’t want to speak), nor because I was regaled with the scaly tips of the drumsticks of the fowls, and with those obscure corners of pork of which the pig, when living, had had the least reason to be vain."Ch4 page 29
Normal holiday dinners are a time of comfort and joy and usually the kids always get stuck at the odd places at the table(I once had to sit in the middle of a dinner table) but the fact that the only ally Pip had was joe greatly saddends me.
20.Often after dark, when I was pulling the bellows for Joe, and we were singing Old Clem, and when the thought how we used to sing it at Miss Havisham’s would seem to show me Estella’s face in the fire, with her pretty hair fluttering in the wind and her eyes scorning me
Ch. 14 Pg. 122
Pip shared the song with Miss Havisham because it was comforting and familiar. When he did this he inadvertently added his experience with Miss Havisham to the things he felt when he sang the song. He should have kept the song pure, private and untouched. When he keeps adding to the list of experiences he is reminded of when he sings the song, soon it becomes a painful and cathartic exercise he is obliged to take part in. He will not refuse to sing the song as long as Joe wants to sing it because he cares for Joe. Since the song makes Joe happy, Pip is willing to endure it. If Joe knew about the song’s effect on Pip surely he would stop from singing it, but since he doesn’t, he has no choice but to keep hurting Pip. If he knew, he would feel guilty for having done it. So how would Pip do Joe the greatest injustice: by depriving Joe of the song or letting Joe unintentionally hurt Pip?
-Jojo
"As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them, my first fancies regarding what they were like were unreasonably derived from their tombstones."
Page 1, chapter 1
This statement basically sums up the introduction of the book and tells us of our main characters situation. I could not imagine not knowing my parents, much less getting all my information merely from their tombstones. I can predict there will be much hardship in store for young Pip. Parent-offspring relationship is most important in developing values within the child. Without that relationship, the child could look to alternative, often less-then-worthy sources to form their own values and morals. Who will raise the child? How will Pip be brought up? This is a question I'm sure will be brought up in the coming chapters.
"Mind!" said my convict wiping blood from his face with his ragged sleeves, and shaking torn hair from his fingers..."
Pg 39 Ch 5
Notice that Pip says "my convict" as if he is rooting for him. Pip had made a sort of connection with the man from when he first met him and being a nice boy wishes nothing bad to come to this man.
"You mean stole said the sergeant."
"And ill tell you where from. From the blacksmith's."
Pg 43 Ch 5
It seems that the convinct is doing something good. He is covering for Pip who indeed took the food to the convict. Mind you he threatened him, it still seems as if he is being good to Pip. Is it possible that Pip's kindness of bringing the food to the man brought about the convicts kindness of covering for Pip?
15)"Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts."
chapter 19 pg. 177
I actually saw this dialectical on another persons comment but i used it as well because that is a big subject with me. Why are we ashamed to cry in our society? Is it because commonly the people we see cry are "whiners"???
"mI deEr JO i opE U r krWite wEll i opE i shAl soN B haBell 4 2 teeDge U JO woT larX an blEvE ME inF xn PiP."
"I say, Pip, old chap!" cried Joe, opening his blue eyes wide, "what a scholar you are. Ain't you"
pg 49 Ch 6
This shows the extent of a poor boys education, and at that Joe's. But i love that Joe is so very proud of Pip and I think that is how it should be. Joe is the ideal person to raise young Pip because of his positive attitude and constant encouragement, which Mrs. Joe fails to demonstrate.
12. “It was spacious I dare say had once been handsome, but every discernible thing in it was covered with dust and mould, and dropping to pieces.”
Chapter 11, Page 88, Paragraph 1
If Miss Havisham is so rich, then why is it that all of the rooms in her house that have been described up to this point are so dirty and old? I don’t think that it is fair that Pip has to work in those rooms because if they are extremely dusty and mouldy, and dropping to pieces, that can not be good for his health. And with Miss Havisham being old and in poor health already, all of that would probably make her condition worse also. Why doesn’t she just hire somebody to do the cleaning and to take care of the house, I would think she could afford it.
"Having at that time to find out for myself what the expression meant, and knowing her to have a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by hand."
Ch2 pg14
We often like to find similarities between us and our friends to make us feel mor eclose but what is left out isjoe actually has a choice inthe matter as oposed to pip who has to be there.
13)"That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day."
chapter 9, page 79, paragraph 6
How did the day create changes in Pip? How would the day change any life? What changes were they? What does the last sentance mean? Why was the day a memorable day?
14)"He was a sectet-looking man, whom i had never seen before. His head was all on one side, and one of his eyes was all shut up, as if he were takin aim at something with an invisible gun. He had a pipe in his mouth, and he took it out, and, after slowly blowing all his smoke away and looking hard at me all the time, nodded.
So, I nodded, and he nodded again, and made room on the settle beside him that i might sit down there."
Chapter 10, page 82, paragraph 3
Why is there a mysterious man comming into the story right now? There were already two mysterious men in the story. Why did he have his eye shut? Was it shut on purpose? I like the description of what happened between the man and Pip. I wonder if Pip will sit by the man? Why does the man want Pip to sit by him?
13. “I kissed her cheek as she turned it to me. I think I would have gone through a great deal to kiss her cheek. But I felt that the kiss was given to the coarse common boy as a piece of money might have been, and that it was worth nothing.”
Chapter 12, Page 97, Paragraph 1
I don’t understand why Pip continues to like Estella. She is cruel to him every time they meet. The kiss that she offered to him seems like it was just out of pity. She just feels sorry for him because he is having to spend all of his time at the house helping Miss Havisham, how is not particularly nice to him and Estella knows it. On top of it all, Pip is not getting paid; therefore Estella offered him the kiss because she felt sorry for him. Why did Pip take it? To me, it is like a loss of his dignity.
15. "When the fights were over, Biddy gave out the number of a page, and then we all read aloud what we could - or what we couldn't - in a frightful chorus; Biddy leading with a high shrill monotonous voice, and none of us having the least notion of, or reverence for, what we were reading about." Page 77, chapter 10
This passage is an example of how the children would end up having to teach each other. Biddy is a strong individual to take the initiative to make up for what her teacher lacks. It is amazing that she goes through with teaching even though people are fighting over whether or not to let her teach them. Education during this time period lacked a lot, especially good teachers. Good for them there were good students.
tara
"My sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, was more than twenty years older than I, and had established a great reputation with herself and the neighbours because she had brought me up 'by hand'"
Page 6, Chapter 2
It appears as if his sister will be solely responsible for his upbringing. This could be good and this could be bad. It could be good if the child feels comfortable with being brought up by someone close to them, however, it could be bad as well if they feel too comfortable with them and don't feel they need to pay respect to them, especially if it's a sibling. It goes on to say that he was 'brought up by hand'. This is a sign that his sister is serious in raising him right. I assume that 'by hand' refers to her being quite strict and enforcing common rules, values, and guidelines so that young Pip is successful in the future.
16. "'Whom have we here?' asked the gentleman, stopping and looking at me.
'A boy,' said Estella." Page 86, chapter 11
Throughout the entire last chapters, I have noticed that Estella has never referred to Pip by his name; it is always "boy." It is like her so-called pride will not let her call a commoner such as Pip by a name because he doesn't deserve one. That isn't what pride should be. She should be proud about being kind to Pip, not treating him so insignificantly. She needs to straighten out her priorities.
tara
15)"'Mind' said my convict, wiping blood from his face, with his ragged sleeves, and shaking torn hair from his fingers;'I took him! I give him up to you! Mind that!'"
Chapter 5, page 39, paragraph 5
Why is Pip refuring to the mans as 'my convict'? Does the convict think he is good because he gave the other guy up to them? The convict wants the sargents to know that he gave the other man up to them because he wanted to not get in as big trouble so, by helping the sergents he gets an edge over the other guy.
16)"'I know, but this is another pint, a seperate matter. A man can't starve; at least I can't. I took some wittles, up at the willage over yonder-where the church stands a'most out on the marshes.'
'you mean stole,' said the sergent.
'And I'll tell you where from. From the blacksmith.'"
Why is the man not telling the sergent that Pip gave him the wittles? Why is h now protecting Pip after earlier in the book he threatened him? I can understand why the sergent expected the man stole the goods, because the men were fugitives.
17. "I never have been so surprised in my life as I was when I let out the first blow, and saw him lying on his back, looking up at me with a bloody nose and his face exceedingly foreshortened." Page 96, chapter 11
In this passage, Pip is seeing a side of himself that he has never seen before. It seems like Pip is really getting to know himself when he is at Miss Havisham's house. I am still trying to figure out if Pip (or I) likes the changes. I had never seen Pip to be the type of boy who would throw punches at someone. And worse yet, I would never have thought that Pip would have kept fighting this boy after he kept knocking him on the ground. He later says that the boy was asking for more by getting back up, but I would have thought that Pip would have been the bigger man and ended the fight instead of waiting for the other boy to end it.
tara
"My sister had a trenchant way of cutting our bread-and-butter for us that never varied."
Page 8, chapter 2
Dickens goes on to give an in-depth analysis on how Mrs. Joe cut the bread. He goes on for exactly 12 more lines talking about the process in which she took part in cutting the bread. To some, this could be a sign of an ingenious writer. To me, it is just an indication that he had a very bland and drawn out writing style. I severly dislike his going into meticulous detail about every darn thing. I could care less about how the lady cuts the bread and, quite frankly, I don't think it adds anything to the story line or the flow of reading(in fact, it almost takes away from those things). Despite this, I am generally enjoying the book.
14. “And sometimes, when her moods were so many and so contradictory of one another that I was puzzled what to say or do, Miss Havisham would embrace her with lavish fondness, murmuring something in her ear that sounded like, ‘Break their hearts, my pride and hope, break their hearts and have no mercy!”’
Chapter 12, Page 100, Paragraph 2
I think that Miss Havisham suffered serious heart break when she was younger, and she is scared that Estella is going to do the same. She is teaching her to be careful to the point of being malicious towards men. I think it’s good that Miss Havisham cares so much for Estella’s feelings and she is trying to protect her, but I don’t think that she should be interfering with her attitude towards boys to that extent because it could ruin her chances of ever marring and settling down with her own family some day. Like I said I think its good that Miss Havisham is trying to help, but in my opinion she is taking it overboard by making Estella completely despise boys to the point of disconnecting herself from them in a love sort of a way, just as it seems Miss Havisham may have done.
17)"It's a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home.There may be black ingratitude in the thing, and the punishment may be retributive and well deserved; but that it is a miserable thing, I can testify."
chapter 14, page 118, paragraph 1
I understand that you want certain things and your household can't get them like really nice shoes because there really expensive. You began to hate your self for thinking such things. You should be happy with what you have, because some people can't even get the things you have like a house.
18. "And sometimes, when her moods were so many and so contradictory of one another that I was puzzled what to say or do, Miss Havisham would embrace her with lavish fondness, murmuring something in her war that sounded like, 'Break their hearts, my pride and hope, break their hearts and have no mercy!'" Page 100, chapter 12
There is obviously more to Miss Havisham than I know at this point. She has said something about breaking hearts before, when she first met Pip; about how hers was broken. Maybe she is seeking out revenge on an innocent boy like Pip through Estella. Maybe that is why when Estella let Pip kiss her, nothing was felt by either of them. Estella, or Miss Havisham, is trying to make Pip fall in love, just so she can break his heart.
tara
19. "As if he were absolutely out of his mind with the wonder awakened in him by her strange figure and the strange room, Joe, even at this pass, persisted in addressing me." Page 107, chapter 13
This is really weird. Why is Joe addressing Pip when Miss Havisham is asking the questions? It is as if Joe is in some sort of trance throughout his conversation with Miss Havisham. It is amazing what surroundings and certain people can do to affect others. Every time I meet Miss Havisham, things always get stranger than they were before.
tara
18)"Heven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after i had cried, then before-more sorry, more aware of my own ingratiude, more gentle."
Chapter 19, page 176, paragraph 4
It is alright to let out our tears. When we don't let out our tears we tend to hide emotion we want to let out like sadness. When I cry i feel better after i cry then before because I think it trough while I am crying, I can express what I feel a little easier when i cry, becaue i know someone is listenin.
"Mrs. Hubble shook her head, and contemplating me with a mournful presentiment that I should come to no good, asked, 'Why is it that the young are never grateful?'"
Page 25, chapter 4
This is a stereotype that has been used for a long time to describe the youth of that particular era. This, however, is not a fair generalization in the least bit. Sure, some children are outright monstrous and disrespectful towards each other and their elders, however, a lot more do indeed offer the utmost respect and gratitude to all around them. Pertaining to the story, I don't think this is a good description of Pip. Pip seems to be a kind young child who does what he's told and does not get into much mischief(aside from the robbery, which I consider as a necessary task considering the circumstances). It seems as if all of these adults are out to get young Pip and there is nothing he can do to change their minds.
5. "But I loved Joe-perhaps for no better reason in those early days than because the dear fellow let me love him-and as to him my inner self was not so easily composed."
page 41, chapter 6
This is a very important aspect in building a good relationship. It's not enough to try to love someone, it must be consensual. The love must go both ways. The recipient of love must be willing and able to let you love them, and, in return, will love you back. This cooperative is also described as the circle of love(as opposed to the circle of life)
15. “When I got home at night, and delivered this message for Joe, my sister ‘went on the rampage’ in a more alarming degree than at any previous period. She asked me and Joe whether we supposed she was door-mats under our feet, and how we dared to use her so, and what company we graciously thought she was fit for?”
Chapter 12, Page 103, Paragraph 11
It doesn’t make sense why Mrs. Joe is angry at Pip and Joe. It is out their control that they got invited to Miss Havisham’s house to see her. Mrs. Joe was the one who made Pip start going to her house to begin with, and the only reason Joe got invited was on account of Pip. Mrs. Joe has no right to go off on them because technically, they didn’t do anything wrong at all, and it would be quite rude of Joe not to go when he is in a perfectly fine state to do so.
6. "In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as i had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong."
Page 41, chapter 6
This is a very interesting comment, one that I feel needs to be brought up. As many leaders, such as Martin Luther King and Mahatma Ghandi have preached, we need to find courage to do what is right. We must look in ourselves, avoid temptations and outside pressure, and do what we feel is the right thing to do. This is hard for the common man to do, and is especially hard for our young friend Pip. In his mind it was wrong to steal the food, and even more wrong to not tell his family. In essence, it was not wrong for him to steal, but in his mind and heart it was not right. That is what we must base our decisions on: how we feel in our heart. This comes from how we are brought up and the morals we are taught.
"I dont deny that she do throw us back-falls, and that she do drop down upon us heavy. At such times as when your sister is on the Ram-page, Pip." Joe sank his voice to a whisper and glanced at the door, "candour compels fur to admit that she is a Buster."
Pg 54 Ch 7
Once again i can not contemplate why Mrs. Joe has so much hostility towards Joe and Pip. She is always coming down upon them heavy and seemingly for no reason. They fear her. Joe glances at the door in fear of her entering while he is talking of her.
"With that, she pounced on me, like an eagle on a lamb, and my face was squeezed into wooden bowls in sinks, and my head was put under taps of water-butts, and i was soaped, and kneaded, and towelled, and thumped, and harrowed, and rasped, until i really was quite beside myself."
Pg 58 Ch 7
There is some kind of a monster living inside of Mrs. Joe. She unleashes the monster on Joe and in this instance Pip. There were obviously different codes of conduct in relevence to treatment of children. She frequently beats Pip and throws him. It amazes me at her continuous ruthlessness towards Pip.
7. "'Why, here's a J,'said Joe, 'and a O egual to anythink! Here's a J and a O, Pip, and a J-O, Joe.'"
Page 46, chapter 7
This is a prime example of the poor education offered to the less fortunate in the Victorian Age. Joe, who is easily in his late 20's, if not early 30's; is intolerably illiterate and pathetically slow. However, such education was hardly necessary for what his trade was, blacksmithing. Now, he leads a fairly comfortable life despite his lack of education.
8. "Now, if this boy ain't grateful this night, he never will be!"
Page 52, chapter 7
I am concerned with how Mrs. Joe always puts little Pip down. I fear that this might somehow stunt the development of the boy. In scientific studies, it has been said that children who are in a hostile environment often grow up to be hostile as well, however, this may not always be the case. Another noteworthy point to bring up is ol' Pip could suffer major emotional distress from these putdowns. He could lose his confidence and grow up to be very sensitive and timid.
)"Joe made the fire and swept the hearth, and then we went to the door to listen for the chaise-cart. It was a cold dry night, and the wind blew keenly, and the frost was white and hard. A man would die to-night of lying out on the marshes, I thought. And i looked at the stars and considered how awful it would be for a man to turn his face up to them as he froze to death, and see no help nor pity in the all glitteing multiude."
ch7 p55
I dont understand why he would add a negative conotation to such a beautiful description. It is like painting a wonderful painting of osama binladin.
16. “It was very aggravating; but, throughout the interview, Joe persisted in addressing me instead of Miss Havisham.”
Chapter 13, Page 105, Paragraph 7
I am starting to get the impression that Miss Havisham is a very powerful lady who is a very big deal to everybody. Whenever somebody gets to see her or even meet her everybody else is excited to hear about it, and what happened. Or when somebody else is invited but not another person they get angry because they are so jealous. Now, Joe has received the privilege of getting to meet Miss Havisham, and he is too scared to even talk to her. Why is Miss Havisham such an important lady?
9. "'(Miss Havisham) wants this boy to go and play there. And of course he's going.'"
Page 51, chapter 7
It was said earlier that Miss Havisham was a very rich and successful. I wonder why she is having him go play at her house. This is very peculiar to me. Could this mean that our great lad, Pip, might become fortunate enough to gain riches as well from his newfound friend? Hmmmmmm...
20. "Whatever I acquired, I tried to impart to Joe. This statement sounds so well that I cannot in my conscience let it pass unexplained. I wanted to make Joe less ignorant and common, that he might be worthier of my society and less open to Estella's reproach." Page 116, chapter 15
Since when did Pip become so selfish? Lately, Pip has only been thinking of himself: his wants and needs. Why does Pip care what Estella thinks? She is never nice to him and just makes him feel bad about himself. Pip said that he and Joe were equals but he is starting to put himself in a higher, separate class away from Joe. From personal experience, I know how easy it is to put aside the ones who love you for the one that you love, or think you love, even when that person doesn't love you back. It is easy to just forget who was initially there for you and think only of what is best for you. It surprises me that Pip is actually doing this kind of stuff, but what really surprises me is what a great expression of time is in this passage. I can really see Pip growing up. It is a sudden and extreme change, but I realize that everyone goes through this, and I shouldn't be so judgmental about Pip just yet. This passage really shows how some people let others' opinions define them.
tara
"He calls the knaves, Jacks, this boy!" said Estella, with distain, before our first game was out. "And what coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!"
Pg 66, Ch 8
She shows much contempt for Pip and he has done nothing wrong. She makes fun of his social class and up-bringing which are things that he has no control over. The victorian era was built largely on socail status which Pip did not have. Estella boasts of her wealth and social status by putting down poor Pip for his.
19)"The moment they sprang there, the girl looked at me with a quick delight in having been the cause of them. This gave me the power to keep them back and to look at her: so, she gave a contemptuous toss - but with a sense, I thought, of having made too sure that I was so wounded - and left me."
When people make me feel hurt it is my first reaction to make tem hurt back but i cannot intentionally make someone hurt just out of the blue. It puzles me why this girl is so mean to Pip when he hasn't done anything wrong.
"There, there! I know nothing of days of the week; I know nothing of weeks of the year. Come again after six days. You hear?"
Pg 68 Ch 8
It surprises me that she wishes not to know the day or week. I would think that this is so she will not remember a particular day. Maybe something bad happened in the past that she does not wish to recall. Maybe that is why she sits alone in a dark room that seems to never change. She seems like she is always depressed and yet rarely shows any emotion at all. I wonder as to what event caused this, and she does not want to remember.
10. "in a tone of the deepest reproach, as if he(Joe) were the most callous of nephews."
page 53, chapter 7
In this passage, Mrs. Joe yells at Mr. Joe. She berates him in public. It seems as if Mrs. Joe is the head of the household. It seems as if she is the one in charge, not Joe, the male. In this age, it was very much custom for the male to take control of the family. The women would barely be allowed to speak in public, much less yell at their husband. This is a very odd situation and not Victorian-like. Dickens makes Joe out to be almost scared of his wife. This shows a flaw(along with his illiteracy) in Joe's otherwise respectable character.
20)"But I loved Joe - perhaps for no better reason in those early days than because the dear fellow let me love him - and as to him my inner self was not so easily composed."Ch6 p41
To love is a strpng emotion and i think that Pip truly means that he loves Joe. It does not take alot to love some one but it does take alot to let them love you.
WOOOOOO!!!!!
11. " altogether, she had the appearance of having dropped, body and soul, within and without, under the weight of a crushing blow."
Page63, chapter 8
Why is Miss Havisham so depressed? She has all the money in the world and a beautiful home. What happened so that she became so sullen? Did she lose a loved one? Is money and riches not enough? Lots of times, fortunate people aren't always happy, contradictory to the usual assumption. Maybe having all that money and being so successful has torn her away from the world and the people she loves, leaving her, in essence, with nothing.
"Is forty-three pence seven and sixpence three fardens, for instance?"
Pg 73 Ch 9
The currency system back in the victorian era was very complex. For Mr. Pumblechook to expect understanding out of Pip is almost to much to ask. It also surprises me that their are so many different types of currency: Pence, shillings, farthings, and other types that make the system difficult. It is interesting to see how things were done.
17. ‘“Here am I, getting on in the first year of my time, and, since the day of my being bound I have never thanked Miss Havisham, or asked after her, or shown that I remembered her.”’
Chapter 15, Page 117, Paragraph12
I can tell from this passage that Pip does not care all that much for his job as a blacksmith. He misses Miss Havisham and Estella, and going to visit them on a regular basis. Joe doesn’t seem to want Pip to go back to visit Miss Havisham. I think he is afraid that he could lose Pip to Miss Havisham and Estella, and their life style.
"Its a terrible thing, Joe; it ain't true."
Pg 77 Ch 9
Up until now Pip has proved himself a well behaved and good child. But now, he lied to his sister for no reason. He gained nothing from it at all. I do not understand him. He did somewhat redeem himself when he told Joe the truth. It makes me wonder what is to become of Pip. Will he continue in his lies to his sister, or follow a path of truth.
"The felicitous idea occured to me a morning or two later when i woke, that the best step i could take towards making myself uncommon was to get out of Biddy everything she knew."
Pg 80 Ch 10
I do not like how Pip is trying to conform himself to what Estella wants. He took the meaningless and hurtful things that Estella said to heart and is trying to change himself into and uncommon boy. Although i must say that he is going about it all the right way. He is searching for knowledge which is a good thing. I think he will find knowledge to be very useful.
12. "He calls the knaves, jacks, this boy!" said Estella with disdain, before our first game was out. "And what coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!"
page 62 chapter 8
This is yet another person that constantly brings Pip down. This time, he shows his emotions and how they affect him. He later says how much these comments bother him, as he never considered these things inferior before. This is the first time he lets the readers know how comments like these hurt him.
13. "Through all my punishments, disgraces, fasts and vigils, and other penitential performances...I was morally timid and very sensitive."
Page 65, chapter 8
My prediction earlier was correct. All of Mrs. Joe's harsh comments and punishments have slowly crushed his confidence and forced him to be inward with his feelings. He is scared to do almost anything a normal child would do because of this. This is a very harsh reality that is unfortunate.
"I kissed her cheek as she turned it to me. I think I would have gone through a great deal to kiss her cheek. But I felt that the kiss was given to the coarse common boy as a piece of money might have been, and that it was worth nothing."
Pg 102 Ch 11
I think that Estella is growing upon Pip. He seems to think her beautifull and not as insulting, despite all of the hurtful things she has placed upon him and the slap to his face, he seemed to find a certain satisfaction in the kiss. I think there may be a future for these two. I also think that Pip shall enjoy his next visit.
14. "Pause, you who read this, and think for a moment of teh long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or floweres, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day."
Page 76 chapter 9
I like how Dickens addresses the reader. Also, that saying in which your day-to-day doings affect your long term life is greatly true and affects my life on a personal level.
"My mind grew very uneasy on the subject of the pale yuoung gentleman. The more i thought of the fight in various stages of puffy and incrimsoned countanance, the more certain it appeared that something would be done to me."
Pg 103 Ch 12
This once again shows the innocence of young Pip. Even though the other boy brought the fight upon Pip, he feels guilty for beating the boy, pretty bad. I feel bad for Pip because he is scared that he is to be punished for beating up the kid. He feels as if the world knows of his doing and he will soon be in trouble.
"Estella was always about, and always let me in and out, but never told me I might kiss her again. Sometimes, she would coldly tolerate me; sometimes she would condescend to me; sometimes, she would be quite familiar with me; sometimes, she would tell me energetically that she hated me."
Pg 105 Ch 12
I, as Pip is, am very confused by the many attitudes, or personalities, if you will, that she shows. However, i do think that she has grown quite fond of Pip, and thinks that he is fond of her. However, i am sure that fickle Estella makes for many an interesting trip to Miss Havasham's.
15. "What could I become with these surroundings? How could my character fail to be influenced by them?"
page 101, chapter 12
Is man capable of not being affected by his surroundings? Are we as a society able to totally rely on ourselves to live and form values and morals? Can we be totally self reliant, without the aide(or destruction) of outside sources? In my opinion, no; Some people may be mostly self reliant, but I believe it is impossible to be totally reliant on ones self. We are influenced by many things, our parents, peers, media, society, fashion. I dare someone to contradict me on this statement.
"It was very aggravating; but, throughout the interview, Joe persisted in adressing Me instead of Miss Havasham."
Pg 110 Ch 13
I find this very amusing and yet i feel bad for Joe. He has gone through a great bit of trouble for Pip. He got dressed to the point of discomfort and at this moment is very nervous in talking in Miss Havasham's presence. I like how he gets through, or around this problem by adressing Pip.
"How Joe got out of the room, I have never been able to determine; but, I know that when he did get out he was steadily proceeding up-stiars instead of coming down, and was deaf to all remonstrances until I went after him and laid hold of him."
Pg 112 Ch 13
Joe must never have been in the presence of someone that he so feared, or better was so worried of their opinion. Dickens does a brilliant job of portraying this to the reader and made this quite an interesting read to me. I can relate to a sort of speechlessness when confronting someone of which you highly respect.
"Finally, I remember that when i got into my little bedroom 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."
Pg 117 Ch 13
I feel bad for poor little Pip. But i do not understand the reason for his dislike of Joe's trade. He has always sat with Joe in the forge and very muched liked being there with Joe. He also has always said he would like Joe's trade. Therefore, i also feel bad for Joe who may be disappointed that Pip will not enjoy his trade.
15. "it is not possible to know how far the influence of an amiable honest-hearted duty-going man flies out into the world; but is very possible to know how it has touched ones self in going by."
page 103 chapter 14 para. 2
the world has a great influence over many kids and adults. it sucks us in to our being likeselfish people. you don't know how much it has on you, but you do know it has, and should get rid of it.
16. "i don't mean that sort of remembrance joe; i don't mean a present."
page 106 chapter 15
i don't have anything in my house except for a picture to remember my friends from all the different places i have been too. they will be in my heart forever. i wright there names down so if i do forget i can just look and remember all the good times. a present can be important, but they will always be in your heart.
17. "however, her temper was greatly improved, and she was patient."
page 117 chapter 16 last para.
my mom told me that when i was a baby, i was mean and always crying, and now i have changed. their is always hope in our hearts that we will change and be better, but haven't seen it yet. people do change just like when pips sister turned from mean to friendly. their is such things as miracles because i know from exprerience.
1. "A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin."
(Chapter 1, page 2, paragraph 2)
This description of this man is very vivid. It does not leave a lot to be imagined, Dickens stated exactly what he wanted the man to be seen as. He used a great amount of imagery in which we also saw in The Grapes of Wrath. In contrast, Dickens did not extend his descriptions as Steinbeck did, but described in one sentence instead of a paragraph or more.
2. "'You'll drive me to the churchyard betwixt you, one of these days, and oh, a pr-r-recious pair you'd be without me!'"
(Chapter 2, page 9, paragraph 8)
This statement is left to provoke thought. This statement left me to think of how two people, a man and a boy, would be once they are left alone. It leaves me to think of how Joe and Pip would live without Mrs. Joe to take care of household duties for them when most men were not taught to do such duties.
3."I had seen the damp lying on the outside of my little window, as if some goblin had been crying there all night, and using the window for a pocket handkerchief."
(Chapter 3, page 17, paragraph 1)
This is a wonderful example of Dickens' imagery of which he is known for. In this statement, he leaves a picture, in the mind of the reader, of a creature crying all night long, drying its tears with a handkerchief, and leaving it completely wet. It is a great simile comparing this soaked handkerchief to world around Pip.
4."Mrs. Hubble shook her head and contemplating me with a mournful presentiment that I should come to no good, asked, 'Why is it that the young are never grateful?'"
(Chapter 4, page 28, paragraph 1)
Mrs. Hubble's question is one that is commonly asked. In today's society, younger people are questioned on if they are truly grateful for all they have while others suffer everyday. This questioning is a link from yesterday to today to tomorrow.
5."Everybody, myself excepted, said no, with confidence. Nobody thought of me."
(Chapter 5, page 34, paragraph 10)
When it is questioned on if anyone had seen anything of the convicts, Pip is not questioned. This is contradictory to what should have been done. With Pip having been down to the cemetery within the days previous he should have been the first to be asked.
6."This was all I heard that night before my sister clutched me, as a slumberous offence to the company's eyesight, and assisted me up to bed with such a strong hand that I seemed to have fifty boots on, and to be dangling them all against the edges of the stairs."
(Chapter 6, page 46, paragraph 2)
Despite her appearances and some of her actions, I do not think that Mrs. Joe is completely resentful towards Pip. She is very tough on him most of the time, but she does not appear to be capable to hurt him badly. To me, she appears to care for Pip's well being, at least, slightly.
7."'When I offered to your sister to keep company, and to be asked in church at such times as she was willing and ready to come to the forge, I said to her, 'And bring the poor little child. God bless the poor little child,' I said to your sister, 'there's room for him at the forge!''"
(Chapter 7, page 53, paragraph 3)
Joe, in a sense, saved Pip. Without Joe, Pip could have died and have been buried with his siblings and parents. Pip owes Joe his life. These facts might explain why Joe has taken such a liking towards Pip.
8."It was then I began to understand that everything in the room had stopped, like the watch and the clock a long time ago."
(Chapter 8, page 66, paragraph 6)
Miss Havishem appears to have had something bad having happened in her past. She appears to fear the passing of time.
9."'You do,' said she. 'You have been crying till you are half blind, and you are near crying again now.'"
(Chapter 8, page 71, paragraph 5)
This statement by Estella is very contradictory towards anything we read in The Odyssey where people were constantly crying. This shows the change in beliefs towards the showing of emotions to others.
10."'The king upon his throne, with his crown upon his 'ed can't sit and write his acts of Parliament in print, without having begun, when he were an unpromoted Prince, with the alphabet-Ah!' added Joe, with a shake of the head that was full of meaning, 'and begun at A too, and worked his way to Z. And I know what that is to do, though I can't say I've exactly done it.'"
(Chapter 9, page 78, paragraph 4)
Despite his lack of education, Joe proves that he is capable of giving good advice. His advice here to Pip, that you have to start at the beginning to get somewhere, is very good advice. He shows that he is capable of thinking about a situation and finding a good resolution.
11."I coaxed myself to sleep by thinking of Miss Havisham's next Wednesday; and in my sleep I saw the file coming at me out of a door, without seeing who held it, and I screamed myself awake."
(Chapter 10, page 87, paragraph 1)
Pip's conscience here reminds me of The Tell Tale Heart with the way that the main character would continually here the heartbeat. Pip's conscience will not let him forget about giving that file to the convict until something is done.
12."Like the clock in Miss Havisham's room, and like Miss Havisham's watch, it had stopped at twenty minutes to nine."
(Chapter 11, page 88, paragraph 2)
Miss Havisham fears time passing from an event in her past at 8:40. You are left to assume that something happened on her wedding day as she was preparing. You assume this by her having only one shoe on and wearing a white wedding dress.
13."She said no more at the time; but she presently stopped and looked at me again; and presently again; and after that, looked frowning and moody."
(Chapter 12, page 107, paragraph 6)
Miss Havisham is upset about the passing of time. After spending a year with Pip and seeing him growing older, Miss Havisham is seeing time pass that she tries to avoid by staying in her room where she stops time.
14."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."
(Chapter 13, page 117, paragraph 1)
Pip's feelings towards being a blacksmith are that of most when they receive what they want. He finds that what he thought that he has always wanted is something that he truly doesn't want anymore.
15."For, though it includes what I proceed to add, all the merit of what I proceed to add was Joe's."
(Chapter 14, page 119, paragraph 2)
Pip is determined to work as a blacksmith for Joe. This feeling of doing something all for someone else is a feeling that I feel often, it is a feeling that you are not doing something for yourself, only to please others.
16." When the gat was closed upon me by Sarah of the walnut-shell countenance, I felt more that ever dissatisfied with my home and with my trade and with everything; and that was all I took by that motion."
(Chapter 15, page 129, paragraph 9)
How Pip felt, the feeling of his life meaning nothing, is very depressing. His feelings appear to be that his life means nothing, that his life has led nowhere.
17."As she was (very bad handwriting apart) a more than indifferent speller, and as Joe was a more than indifferent reader, extraordinary complications arose between them, which I was always called in to solve."
(Chapter 16, page 135, paragraph 2)
This situation, of no being able to communicate, can be thought to be like watching people who speak completely different languages try to talk to each other. They usually find a way to tell things to each other through some way or another. Joe and Mrs. Joe do so through writing.
18."At those times I would decide conclusively that my disaffection to dear old Joe and the forge, was gone, and that I was growing up in a fair way to be partners with Joe and to keep company with Biddy-when all in a moment some confounding remembrance of the Havisham days would fall upon me, like a destructive missile, and scatter my wits again."
(Chapter 17, page 146, paragraph 6)
The times that Pip is going through are common. When everything appears to be right, something has to go wrong. It happens in life all the time. It can be said in this situation, like most others, that good things don't last forever.
19."I have been thinking, Joe, that when I go down town on Monday, and order my new clothes, I shall tell the tailor that I'll come and put them on there, or that I'll have them sent to Mr. Pumblechook's. It would be very disagreeable to be stared at by all the people here.'"
(Chapter 18, page 159, paragraph 6)
Being stared at is, and will be, the least of Pip's worries. He should be worrying about how this money will affect him. With money comes greed. With greed comes unhappiness. Pip should be wondering about the money and how it will affect others around him.
20."'You are dissatisfied on account of my rise in fortune, and you can't help showing it.'"
(Chapter 19, page 165, paragraph 7)
Pip's real problems start here. He assumes that Biddy is jealous, she may be, and does not think of anyone else anymore. He started caring about himself and his image before he even got to London.
18. "and that the plain honest working life to which i was born had nothing in it to be ashamed of, but offered me sufficient means of self-respect and happiness."
pg 127 chapter 17
i feel like i can really relate to this book, because it has many things that are true in my life. i don't have a perfect life, i do not have rich parents, or have everything my heart desires. i love the way i live, and never want to change that. i see kids around these days, who complain they have a horrible life because their parents abuse them, or they have to do choirs. im not ashamed of how i grew up, even though not many people grow the way i do. i was born into a family with 9 aunts and 9 uncles, and im proud of that. anybody ashamed of how they lived should be ashamed of themselfs
19. "but if you think as money can make compensation to me for the loss of the little child-what come to the forge-and ever best of friends-"
pg 136 chapter 18
This book brought back horrible memories in my life, but this was the worst. i lost the only friend in my life who really cared about me. i know how joe must feel having the thought of losing pip. it makes me feel sad for him. i have never got over losing him, and that is why i have changed. money has tried to replace him, but money can not replace the ones you love.
20. "oh! there are many kinds of pride." said Biddy, looking full at me, and shaking her head. "pride is not all of one kind."
page 144 chapter 19
many times pride can get the best of people. it can make them do ridiculos things like hurt sombody because they have something you want. that is just one example of pride. pride can also be a good thing. it can help you achieve your goals in life. i try to avoid it, but it is really hard to do. pride is sometimes the cause in many wars like WWI, and can not be stopped unless you want it to stop being inside of you.
19)"We went in at the door, which stood open, and into a gloomy room with a low ceiling, on the ground floor at the back. There was some company in the room, and Estella said to me as she joined it,
"You are to go and stand there, boy, till you are wanted." "There being the window. I crossed to it, and stood "there," in a vary uncomfortable state of mind, looking out."
chapter 11, page 88, paragraph 3
Why is Estella leading Pip to a new part of the house? Why does Estella call Pip, boy? I understand why Pip would be standing in an uncomfortable state of mind because he was invited here and he is just standing there doing nothing staring into the distance. Pip is treated really rudly at the house by Estella even in front of Miss Havisham. Why doesn't Miss Havisham stop it? Does she enjoy seeing Pip be teased by a girl?
20)"She stood looking at me, and, of course, I stood looking at her.
"Am I pretty?"
"Yes; I think you are vary pretty."
"Am I insulting?"
"Not so much so as you were last time," said I.
"Not so much so?"
"No"
She fired when she asked the last question and she slapped my face with such force as she had, when I answered it.
"Now?" said she. "You little coarse monster, what do you think of me now?"
"I shall not tell you."
"Because you are toing to tell, up-stairs. Is that it?"
"No," said I, "that is not it."
"Why don't you cry again, you little wretch?"
"Because I'll never cry for you again," said I."
Chapter 11, page 91, paragraph 2
Why does Estella ask if Pip thinks she is pretty and insulting? Does Estella secretly like Pip, and that is why she asks him if he thinks she is pretty? Why doe she insult him even more? Does she get pleasure from seeing Pip suffer from the insults? Does she slap him to stop him from liking her? Does she know he like her and that is why she is asking if she is insulting and pretty?
16. “The contention came, after all, to this-the secret was such an old one now, had so grown into me and become a part of myself, that I could not tear it away.”
Page 129, chapter 16
I am torn between the debate of whether secrets are a good thing or not. This is hard for me because I can see both views. On one hand, I can see Pip’s view and on the other hand I can see a more negative view. I think having some secrets is healthy for a person. Sometimes things may be personal and you don’t want anyone knowing about it. Some things need to be just between you and maybe a couple of close friends, or even just you. I think having those very personal things to yourself or your group helps you to bond with that group or just be comfortable with yourself. However, on the other hand, I can see how secrets are a bad thing. Sometimes, keeping stuff from people and pushing it deep down inside of you and sort of burying it so it won’t bother you anymore is unhealthy. The grief never goes away and eventually you can’t take it anymore. In Pip’s situation, I believe he has the right to keep it a secret even though I feel there is no need to. It was not his fault in the least bit that his sister was attacked. I think that he should tell Joe so that Joe might make him feel better and tell him it wasn’t his fault so that guilt can be lifted off of Pip’s tiny shoulders.
chapter 9,page 65,para.1-7-
"'She was sitting,' I answered, 'in a black velvet coach.' Mr. Pumblechook and Mrs. Joe stared at one another-as they well might-and both repeated, 'In a black velvet coach.' 'Yes,' said I. 'And Miss Estella-that's her niece, I think-handed her in cake and wine at the coach-window, on a gold plate. And we all had cake and wine on gold plates. And I got up behind the coach to eat mine, because she told me too.' 'Was anybody else there?' asked Mr. Pumblechook. 'Four dogs,' said I. 'Large or small?' 'Immense,' said I. 'And they fought for veil-cutlets out of a silver basket.'"
He not only exaggerated his vist to Miss Havisham's, he told nothing of the truth. Was he ashamed of what he saw and maybe he felt that he would be punished for telling stories that his sister felt were untrue. Judging by his sister's violence, anything that she didn't like she freaked out on him for. What he saw at Miss Havisham's was not only morbid or weird but also not very likely.
[[kathrin hardy]]
chapter 8,page 56,para. 7-
"It was when I stood before her, avoiding her eyes, that I took note of the surrounding objects in detail, and saw that her watch had stopped at twenty minutes to nine, and that a clock in the room had stopped at twenty minutes to nine."
Hands down, no doubt about it, something went down at this time. Or better yet, something on a very special day hasn't happened yet. I know the feeling of stopping time, because in your world you think if you make the time stop yourself, then what you don't want to happen(perhaps an event) won't because it's not time yet. Miss Havisham is stuck in the past, there is no evidence to dis prove this, it's true, but everyone including myself is dying to know what happened? It gives the book, some kind of edge, like when will you find out what happened? It's kind of like a page turner, suspensful!!! : )
[[kathrin hardy]]
chapter 10,page 74,para. 5-6-
"And he stirred it and he tasted it: not with a spoon that was brought to him, but with a file. He did this so that nobody but I saw the file; and when he had done it he wiped the file and put it in a breast-pocket."
So this is the file that Pip gave the convict, but how did he end up with it? This is a curious man, the man who's eye half opens like he's aiming his invisible gun at Pip, almost just as antagonizing. He must know "Pip's" convict, and he knows that Pip is the one who gave the file up. This is pecooliur. : )
[[kathrin hardy]]
chapter 14,page 103,para.4-
"Never has that curtain dropped so heavy and blank, as when my way in life lay stretched out straight out before me through the newly-entered road of apprenticeship to Joe."
Pip doesn't get excited working in the forge with Joe, hate is a strong word, but he really, really, really doesn't like it.!! But the relationship between Pip and Joe is stellar, major. Pip lives in this run down house with his monsterous sister who treats like dookie and yet he survives because of Joe, without him, i doubt Pip would've lasted long. There is only a certain amount of time a person can sufice with no one to confide in, he would probably go insane, develop some disease, but Joe is there for him, so Pip is there for him.
[[kathrin hardy]]
chapter 13,page 98,para. 3-
"I am afraid I was ashamed of the dear good fellow-I know I was ashamed of him-when I saw that Estella stood at the back of Miss Havisham's chair, and that her eyes laughed mischievously."
Uhhh, if that's not harsh. But, sadly it happens all the time, people always feel that they need to live up to a certain standard. With Pip being in the presence of Miss Havisham and especially Estella he feels inferrior, and when Joe comes along, he feels like dookie. Lower than dirt and yet he doesn't stand strong and defend his long time friend, the one person that he confides in other than Biddy, he shoots him down. After he cried because Estella did the same to him. He learns from the best.
[[kathrin hardy]]
18. “Old Orlick felt that the situation admitted of nothing less than coming on, and was on his defense straightway, so, without so much as pulling off their singed and burnt aprons, they went at one another, like two giants.”
Chapter 15, Page 121-122, Paragraph 8/1
It doesn’t ever even seem like Joe really likes or cares for Mrs. Joe very much, so the fact that he is now fighting a fight in her defense confuses me. Why would he stand up for somebody who is nothing but cruel and rude to him? She does nothing but criticizes and makes unpleasant comments towards Joe. She often seems more interested in Mr. Pumblechook than she does in her own husband. I understand that they are married, but I really don’t get why Joe would get into a brawl with a co-worker because they made some rude comments about his wife when he doesn’t ever even seem to care that she is his wife.
19. “She (Biddy) had not been with us more than a year (I remember her being newly out of mourning at the time it struck me), when I observed to myself one evening that these had curiously thoughtful and attentive eyes; eyes that were very pretty and very good.”
Chapter 17, Page 132-133, Paragraph 3/1
I think this could turn out to be a good lasting relationship that is forming. Biddy is much more kind and compassionate towards Pip and other people than Estella is. She is very smart, and a has proven to be a good care taker as she has taken care of Mrs. Joe so well. I am sorry that it took Pip so long to realize what a nice and pretty person Biddy was, but hopefully he will now give up on Estella, and move on to Biddy. She will make him happier in the long-run I think.
20. “ Further, that it is the desire of the present possessor of that property that he be immediately removed from his present sphere of life and from this place, and be brought up as a gentleman-in a word, as a young fellow of great expectations.”
Chapter 18, Page 146, Paragraph 5
This is rather strange. Somebody, but it is not known who, wants to offer Pip a life of being a gentleman, and being rich. The only person who Pip informed of his desire to be a gentleman was Biddy. There is no way that she could be offering him this opportunity; therefore I ponder who could be doing this? Who out there secretly cares a large amount for Pip, and his well being, so much that they would be willing to offer him this wonderful life of money and luxury? I am curious to find out who this opportunity is being offered from.
chapter 15,page 115,para.3-
"The unemployed bystanders drew back when they saw me, and so I became aware of my sister-lying without sense or movement on the bare boards where she had been knocked down by a tremendous blow on the back of the head, dealt by some unknown hand when her face was turned towards the fire-destined never to be on the Rampage again, while she was wife of Joe."
Girl got served. Now see i beilieve greatly in karma, and she kind of had it coming, she was a very violent person, and who ever did this to her, probably got on her last never-as that wasn't very hard-and her and theirs. Yes, it is romotely sad, but she's not dead, sooo, it's not like she's gone forever. Looks like that hand that brought up Pip and Joe came back at her!! ohhh.. just kidding.
[[kathrin hardy]]
17. “by no more remarkable circumstance than the arrival of my birthday and my paying another visit to Miss Havisham…I may mention at once that this became an annual custom.”
Page 133, chapter 17
How old is Pip now? He must be significantly older than he was at the beginning of the book. How long has he been going back to Miss Havisham’s for his birthday? I am guessing he is 15 or 16 years old by now. He was 7 when we first met the ol’ chap and then he went to school for awhile, now he has been Joe’s apprentice for quite a little bit of time, and now he visits Miss Havisham every birthday. This sudden change of age caught me quite off guard. I don’t believe that Dickens did a very good job of explaining the age of our main character. However, this may have not been important in his mind at the time he was writing it. I think Pip’s age was just something for the reader to figure out on his/her own and is insignificant enough not to be included in the story.
18. “I am instructed to communicate to him,” said Mr. Jaggers, throwing his finger at me sideways, “he will come into a handsome property. Further, that it is the desire of the present possessor of that property that he be immediately removed from his present sphere of life and from this place, and be brought up as a gentleman-in a word, as a young fellow of great expectations.”
Page 146, chapter 18
This appears to be the climax of this first section and will set the precedent for the rest of the story. Up until now has all been introduction. This is a classic rags-to-riches story. This passage also explains the title of the book. These ‘great expectations’ could refer to one of two things, or both. It could refer to the great expectations Pip has for himself, or it could mean the great expectations set upon him by the giver of this very generous gift. Who gave it to him? I believe that the most logical guess right now with the little information we have been given would have to be Miss Havisham. She is rich, about to perish is fond of Pip, and we first met Mr. Jaggers sitting on her stoop a few chapters back. All signs so far point to her. We shall see in the next section.
19. (Referring to his newfound fortune) “My heart was beating so fast, and there was such a singing in my ears, that I could scarcely stammer I had no objection.”
Page 146, chapter 18
Will Pip change because of his sudden good luck? Will he grow to be an arrogant big wig, stuck up snob? How will the powers of money affect our little guy? His great expectations of learning as much as he can and becoming a gentleman will finally become reality for him. Will these fulfillments make him happy like he thinks? What will happen between him and Biddy now that he is rich? What about Estella? Will she finally accept him now that he will become a gentleman? There are many questions with very few answers at this point.
chapter 13,page 98,para. 5-
"'Joe!' I remonstrated; for he had made no reply at all. 'Why don't you answer-'"
Like I said before, being in the presence of Miss Havisham and Estella has made both Pip and Joe feel inferrior. In this passage you can see how Joe feels intimidated by Miss Havisham and retorts only to Pip as if he were the relay boy between the rich and the poor. You kind of get that feel that Joe percieves himself unworthy to talk directly to Miss Havisham.
[[kathrin hardy]]
20. “’Biddy,’ I cried, getting up, putting my arm around her neck, and giving her a kiss, ‘I shall always tell you everything.’”
Page 137, chapter 17
I am very puzzled by Pip now. I think he is a generally nice kid who is quite smart. However, I really think he is being a, in absence of a better word, a dumb-dumb head when it comes to chicks. I think he is making a huge mistake in going after Estella the Teenage Witch instead of the charming Biddy. Estella has been nothing but mean to him since the moment they met. Granted, she is very pretty, that is just not enough. Biddy is charming, cute, fun, exceedingly kind to Pip, and a very good friend. He seems to have a great relationship with Biddy already and she likes him for who he is. Pip thinks Estella will be taken with him once he becomes a gentleman. That is not certain, however. A person should not change themselves to be accepted by others. The obvious choice is Biddy. Who shall he choose?
chapter 19,page 151,last paragraph-
"She stretched out her hand, and I went down on my knee and put it to my lips. I had not considered how I should take leave of her; it came naturally to me at the moment, to do this."
I really like this passage, I think it's cute and it tells a lot about Pip's character and even though he is quite snobbish at this point, he is a fine gentlemen, and I think that even though he seems as if he is in over his head, he'll turn out good, good mannors and if he surrounds himself with good people, he'll make it.
[[kathrin hardy]]
chapter 15,page 112,para.8&9-
"'Abroad,' said Miss Havisham; 'educating for a lady; far out of a reach; prettier than ever; admired by all who see her. Do you feel that you have lost her?' There was such a malignant enjoyment in her utterance of the last words, and she broke into such a disagreeable laugh, that I was at a loss what to say."
So she uses Estella to deal out her vengence on the male soul that burned her like a match. Could she ever learn to get over what happened? Will she dwell on this for the rest of her life, as she has already lost most of it.
[[kathrin hardy]]
chapter 19,page 153,para. 3-
"It was a hurried breakfast with no taste in it. I got up form the meal saying with a sort of briskness, as if it had only just occurred to me, 'Well! I suppose I must be off!' and then I kissed my sister who was laughing and nodding and shaking in her usual chair, and kissed Biddy, and threw my arms around Joe's neck. Then i took up my little portmanteau and walked out."
Well, geez I don't think that he was in a hurry. I'm sorry but that's just plain rude, he is getting this huge ego and thinking that he is too good for them and the fact that he didn't want Joe to be with him as he left, was kind of insulting, i mean come on, Joe has always been there for Pip and now all he cares about is being a gentlemen. So not cool.
[[kathrin hardy]]
chapter 18,page 139,para. 3-
"Anyhow, I sat with my elbow on my knee and my face upon my hand, looking into the fire, as those two talked about my going away, and about what they should do without me, and all that. And whenever I caught one of them looking at me, though never so pleasantly (and they often looked at me-particularly Biddy), I felt offended: as if they were expressing some mistrust of me."
He seems kind of hawty in this, as if everything that they are saying must be about him and they must mistrust him because they are being so secretive and now that Biddy knows, trying to impress her, though it didn't really seem to work and I think that's what makes him even more mad.
[[kathrin]]
chapter 18,page 133,para. 12-
"My dream was out; my wild fancy was surpassed by sover reality; Miss Havisham was going to make my fortune on a grand scale."
Though the offer came from someone anonymous, Pip instantly thinks that the offer is from Miss Havisham. Yes, indeed this is a very good educated guess but it's techinacally not proven yet. However, even though this is a secret, there are many hints pointing to Miss Havisham, like when the lawyer says that he must always bear the name Pip.
[[kathrin]]
chapter 20,page 156,para.3-
"'Then it must be a shilling,' observed the coachman. 'I don't want to get into trouble. I know him!' He darkly sclosed an eye at Mr. Jagger's name, and shook his head"
Humph, so yeah Mr. Jagger looks dark and mysterious, but maybe it's not just a look, maybe he is hiding something.
chapter 20,page 156,para. 8-10-
"With those words, the clerk opened a door, and ushered me into an inner chamber at the back. Here we found a gentleman with one eye, in a velveteen suit and knee-breeches, who wiped his nose with his sleeeve on being interrupted in the perusal of the newspaper. 'Go and wait outside, Mike,' said the clerk. I began to say that I hoped I was not interrupting-when the clerk shoved this gentleman out with as little ceremony as I ever saw used, and tossing his fur cap out after him, left me alone."
Uhh.. so who is this Mike character? I hope he is important, he seems intersting. with his one eye, kind of reminding me of the cyclops. He seems kind of like a regular to Mr. Jagger only the type of person who is always getting into trouble and always needing a way out.
[[kathrin hardy]]
"After this escape, I was contet to take a foggy view of the Inn through the window's encrusting dirt, and to stand dolefully looking out, saying to myself that London was decidely overrated."
Chapter 21 pg. 190
I wonder what London would have looked like. People would have been crowded together like animals and probably did not get to eat much more than animals either. I think it is strange that Pip doesn't describe London further. He doesn't express much feeling for the people living in the dirt. I wonder how much the wealth has changed Pip?
"As I stood opposite to Mr. Pocket, Junior, delivering him the bags, one, two, I saw the starting appearance come into his own eyes that I knew to be in mine, and he said, falling back"
Chapter 21 pg. 191
How will Pip react to being reacquainted with the pale young gentleman? The reappearance of the pale young gentleman shows that all of the characters in the book have their own purpose. So, the convict, the man in the Jolly Bargeman with the file, Orlick, and the people at Miss. Havisham's will come back in the book, and often unexpectedly.
"'When she received,'" I struck in, "'When she was dressing for her marriage? At twenty minutes to nine?'"
Chapter 22 pg. 198
Now that Pip knows why Miss Havisham is so eccentric the next step is to meet her husband. I believe then he will unravel the mystery of Miss Havisham and Estella.
"'You said just now that Estella was not related to Miss Havisham, but adopted. When adopted?'"
Chapter 22 pg. 199
So, Estella is an orphan just like Pip and Biddy. Why did Miss Havisham adopt her? Was it create a new powerful weapon, or was it because she was lonely and needed someone to be there for her? I think that it was probably the first, but I still believe that deep down even Miss Havisham and Estella have some good in them.
"He then knocked at the doors of two other similar rooms, and introduced me to their occupants, by name Drummle and Startop."
Chapter 23 pg. 206
Are Drummle and Startop also supported by the same person as Pip? They could be fellow competitors. But what is the prize, wealth, Estella? I think that Pip is probably the best canididate, if he doesn's get to big for his shoes.
"They may not be worth much, but, after all, they're property and portable."
Chapter 24 pg. 219
This line shows the poor economic conditions of the time. Wemmick seems like is pretty smart. He realizes that unless you carry your property with you, you can't garantee it won't be taken.
At, last when we got to his place for business and he pulled out his key from his coat-collar, he looked as unconscious of his Walworth property as if the castle and the draw-bridge and the arbour and the lake and the fountain and the Aged had all been blown into space together by the last discharge of the stinger.
Chapter 25 pg. 228
It is too bad the society looks down upon peoples' interests and misfourtune. Wemmick can never talk about his little castle or the Aged to anyone for fear of losing his dignity. I don't understand why people can't put aside each others differences and learn not to judge people until they understand their character.
"I embrace this opportunity of remarking that he washed his clients off, as if he were a surgeon or a dentist."
Chapter 26 pg. 229
I understand why Jaggers has to find some way of getting his clients out of his mind. How would it feel to sentence a man to death for being in debt, or killing a man for stealing bread for his family? I don't know how anyone could work in that profession, or take that kind of internal suffering.
"So throughout life our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise."
Chapter 27 pg. 238
Dickens has a way of putting wisdom into his writings that seems to stick with you. Now I realize just how true this statement is. Reading this book doesn't just give you an understanding of how to be a better reader or writer, but how to be a better person.
"I entertain a conviction, based upon large experience, that if in the days of my prosperity I had gone to the North Pole, I should have met somebody there, wandering Eskimo or civilized man, who would have told me that Pumblechook was my earliest patron and the founder of my fortunes."
Chapter 29 pg. 251
Why is it that people always try to take credit for themselves? Why can't we all just swallow our pride and admit that we wrong. None of our problems will ever be solved unless we learn to overcome these instinctive evils and follow our hearts.
"She reserved it for me to restore the desolate house, admit the sunshine into the dark rooms, set the clicks a-going and the cold hearths a-blazing, tear down the cobwebs, destroy the vermin-in shour, do all the shining deeds of the young knight of romance, and marry the princess."
Pip is trying to predict the future as he wants it to be not as it will be. What we hope for is often not what we receive. Our ambition can often lead to our failure. I think that sometime in the story Pip will undergo a change of heart and realvize that he doesn't want to be rich and uncommon and that he was happy when he was just common Pip.
My last comment was found in Chapter 29 pg. 252
"It was but a day gone, and Joe had brought the tears into my eyes; they had soon dried-God forgive me!-soon dried."
Chapter 29 pg. 264
I think that Pip is beginning to understand that he needs to remember who his true friends are, the ones who will stand beside him no matter what. His mind is telling him to be uncommon, yet his heart is split between his two lifestyles. I think that whatever decision he makes it will haunt him for the rest of his life.
21. "We Britons had at that time particularly settled that it was treasonable to doubt our having and our being the best of everything: otherwise, while I was scared by the immensity of London, I think I might have had some faint doubts whether it was not rather ugly, crooked, narrow, and dirty."
(page 170, para 2, Ch. 20)
I think this is a good description of the feelings during Victorian Age. Many of the cities in England were crowded and dirty, but people didn't admit these things because they had so much pride in their country. Also, perhaps it is a parallel to Pip and how he was dirty and poor, but he should have had pride in his job and lifestyle. Maybe if he had seen this before he left Joe and Biddy, Pip wouldn't have wanted so badly to be a gentleman.
-Mauro Whiteman
22. "'That girl's hard and haughty and capricious to the last degree, and has been brought up by Miss Havisham to wreak revenge on all the male sex.'"
(page 185, para 6, Ch. 22)
Herbert seems to have a very good understanding of the truth about Estella. He knows that she is evil on the inside but beautiful on the outside. It seems as though Herbert is trying to warn Pip, though I highly doubt that anything anyone says will make a difference. I also think that Herbert is a very true person; he doesn't seem to be hiding anything, which is something that most the characters in the book do.
-Mauro Whiteman
21. “I wondered whether the two swollen faces were of Mr. Jaggers’s family, and, if he were so unfortunate as to have had a pair of such ill-looking relations, why he stuck them on that dusty perch for the blacks and flies to settle on, instead of giving them a place at home.”
Chapter 20, Page 172, Paragraph 2
This makes it sound like Pip thinks that the people in these pictures look like they do not belong being Mr. Jaggers’s family. He refers to them as “ill-looking relations”. It makes me think that Pip thinks that they look common. That seems to be Pip’s latest obsession and he critics everybody by it. He thinks that Mr. Jaggers should be embarrassed by displaying them in his office, and he should take them home where his clients and co-workers will not see them.
22. “As I declined the proposal on the plea of an appointment, he was so good as to take me into a yard and show me where the gallows was kept, and also where people were publicly whipped, and then he showed me the debtors’ door, out of which culprits came to be hanged, heightening the interest of that dreadful portal…”
Chapter 20, Page 173, Paragraph 2
Pip is at a new place, with people he does not know around him, trying to live a life that he has not yet experienced before, by becoming uncommon. If I were him, I would already be completely terrified. Then, on top of it all, he has a strange man come up to him and ask kindly if he wants to watch a court session, and when he declines, he shows him the gallows and where people are whipped and where the culprits come out to face their punishment. Pip has to be a little bit scared! It would be like an out-of-body experience. To look at the place where so many have been killed or tortured, and where they will continue to be killed and tortured would be creepy to me.
23. “…I found him to be a dry man, rather short in stature, with a square wooden face, whose expression seemed to have been imperfectly chipped out with a dull-edged chisel. There were some marks in it that might have been dimples, if the material had been softer and the instrument finer, but which, as it was, were only dints.”
Chapter 21, Page 179, Paragraph 1
The description of this man’s face continues on for like five more lines just talking about the dints that are not dimples, just dints. When reading this, I was reminded of the lengthy description of Mrs. Joe making bread. Dickens uses so much description on topics that really do not need that much description. These are parts that really do not add to the main story here, they are just unneeded details for really, unnecessary parts of the story. That bothers me a bit, that he just added silly things like this only to make his story longer.
24. “So imperfect was this realization of the first of my great expectations that I looked in dismay at Mr. Wemmick. ‘Ah!’ said he, mistaking me, ‘the retirement reminds you of the country. So it does me.’”
Chapter 21, Page 181, Paragraph 3
Pip was expecting this inn to be spectacular. He had dreamed of the uncommon life as being more luxurious and beautiful than this rundown inn. His look of dismay was then interpreted as something completely different, as Mr. Wemmick thinks Pip is happy because this inn reminds him of the country. So far Pip’s “great expectations” have not quite turned out the way that he had expected. Will this make him want to go back to the life of the common person? Will he decide that this life is really not all he thought it would be and want to go back to Biddy and Joe?
25. “As I stood opposite to Mr. Pocket, Junior, delivering him the bags, one, two, I saw the starting appearance come into his own eyes that I knew to be in mine, and he said, falling back: ‘Lord bless me, you’re the prowling boy!’
‘And you,’ said I, ‘are the pale young gentleman!’”
Chapter 21, Page 183, Paragraph 4
The fact that Pip and the pale young gentleman have been reunited is an interesting twist to the story. I had thought that the part of Pip beating up this fellow was just one of those random meaningless parts that Dickens seems to put in, and that we would not be seeing him later in the story. This makes me wonder if there will be some sort of a significant relationship that is going to form between the two of them, or if after this part, Mr. Pocket, Junior will even be brought back into the story.
26. “’I don’t say no to that, but I meant Estella. That girl’s hard and haughty and capricious to the last degree, and had been brought up by Miss Havisham to wreak revenge on all the male sex.’”
Chapter 22, Page 185, Paragraph 6
Now Herbert is pointing out to Pip what we have all realized from the beginning that Estella is mean and Miss Havisham has had every intention of bringing her up to be against the male race. So if Herbert knew that that really was the intention of Miss Havisham, he probably knows the reason for her being the way she is and wanting Estella to hate all men.
27. “’Which she received,’ I struck in, ‘when she was dressing for her marriage? At twenty minutes to nine?’
‘At the hour and minute,” said Herbert, nodding, at which she afterwards stopped all the clocks…”
Chapter 22, Page 190, Paragraph 3-4
Miss Havisham seems to make a lot more sense to me now. I still think she is crazy because she completely put her life on hold when she had a bad experience, trying to stop time by not changing anything: he clothes, the time, etc. I do however think that it makes more sense now that we know the whole story behind her. She must have been really in love to have stopped all her clocks at the exact time of her wedding being called off, and deciding never to again see the light of day.
28. “This was very like his way of conducting that encounter in the garden; very like. His manner of bearing his poverty, too, exactly corresponded to his manner of bearing that defeat.”
Chapter 22, Page 193, Paragraph 7
Pip is talking about Herbert and his idea of how he will make his capitol in this passage. I think it says a lot about Herbert and his character. When Pip and Herbert fought in the garden that day, Herbert would get knocked over and over again time after time, but still he would continue to get up again. He has the same attitude in trying to find his capitol. He is having a hard time, and not doing so well, but still, he is continuing to try. That is a good attitude to have, he handles defeat well.
29. “I have an affection for the road yet (though it is not so pleasant a road as it was then), formed in the impressibility of untried youth and hope.”
Chapter 25, Page 214, Paragraph 2
This is such a statement about youth. It was said earlier about Pip and Herbert that on their first night when they were eating dinner, they were enjoying their independence with no adults. This is much the same. When you are young the longer walks do not seem to be so long if there is a great reward waiting at the other end. This road was the road that took them back to their independent spot of meeting, Barnard’s Inn.
30. “Not with pleasure, though I was bound to him by so many ties; no; with considerable disturbance, some mortification, and a keen sense of incongruity. If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money.”
Chapter 27, Page 229, Paragraph 4
In this passage, Pip expresses how reluctant he is towards seeing Joe. Joe was his best friend, before his good fortune of the opportunity to become uncommon, you would think that he would show a little more respect and excitement towards seeing him after all this time. When Pip said, “If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money,” I think that it is an example of what money has done to Pip. He is used to getting what he wants through his money, and he certainly would not think of it this ways but by saying that, it sounds as if he is almost bragging that he has money, and Joe does not, so Joe would be so excited to get it that he would not care that Pip had just paid him not to come see him.
1. "casting my eyes on mr. Wemmick as we went along, to see what he was like in the light of day, i found him to be a dry man, rather short in stature, with a square wooden face, whose expression seemed to have been imperfectly chipped out with a dull edged chisel."
chapter 21 1st para.
i was picturing this man to look like ponochio, a wooden doll that could walk. i was waiting for it to say that his nose appeared to get bigger when he lied but it didn't come.
2. "Pray let me take these bags from you. i am quite ashamed."
chapter 21 pg 167
why does Herbert say pray a lot? is he like a religous folk, who likes to pray, or is it just a word he likes to use? why does it say that he is ashamed? ashamed of what, not offering to hold pips bags sooner.
3. "there has always been an estella, since i have heard of a miss havisham."
chapter 22 page 174
what up with estella. if she is about pips age, which makes her 13 or 14, then how long has herbert heard of miss havisham? is he as old as pip or younger? if hes older, then shouldn't estella be older too.
4. "she had a serpentine way of coming close to me when she pretended to be vitally interested in the friends and localities i had lef, which was altogether snaky and fork-tongued;"
chapter 23 pg 184
i liked how dickens compared miss coiler with a snake because her name is like a snakes actions, snakes coil up and her name is coiler, so i thought it was pretty cool of him to make that comparison.
"Miserably I went to bed after all, and miserably thought of Estella, and miserably dreamed that my expectations were all cancelled..."
Chapter 31 pg. 279
Why is Pip never optimistic? He must suffer from some kind of depression. Maybe he still can't believe how lucky he really is. Sometimes things we thought we wanted the most, hurts the most.
5. "'and you said you could write greek. yah, bounceable! what a liar you were! i never met such a liar as you!' befor putting his late friend on his shelf again,"
chapter 24 pg 194
now that was pretty strange of mr Wemmick talking to his photographs. is this guy nuts or what, and how can a man be bounceable. although if my brother was, i would bounce him around the house all day.
"What was the nameless shadow which again in that one instatnt had passed?"
Chapter 32 pg. 285
The nameless shadow of Pip's uncertainty and fear seems to pass as soon as he leaves the jailhouse and meets Estella again. Pip first encountered the shadow during his childhood when he meet the criminal in the marshes. Will it ever leave him?
6. "he never lets a door or window be fastened at night."
"is he ever robbed?"
"thats it!" returned Wemmick, "he says and gives it out publicily, 'i want to see the man who'll rob me.'"
chapter 25 pg 196
now this jaggers guy is crazy. how does he sleep at night knowing someones going to rob him? how does he even know who will rob him? somethings fishy about him, and he is starting to creep me out. he reminds of me of something my aunt will do. doesn't care if they get robbed because theres nothing valuable to take.
23. “Yet in the London streets, so crowded with people and so brilliantly lighted in the dusk of evening, there were depressing hints of reproaches for that I had put the poor old kitchen at home so far away; and in the dead of night, the footsteps of some incapable impostor of a porter mooning about Barnard’s Inn, under pretence of watching it, fell hollow on my heart.”
(page 193-194, para 9, Ch. 22)
This shows how horrible Pip’s conscience is. Even in the hustle and bustle of the big city, he still feels guilt for leaving his friends and family to try to become a gentleman and win over the heart of a girl who he knows will not make him happy.
-Mauro Whiteman
24. “This practical authority confused me very much by saying I had the arm of a blacksmith. If he could have known how nearly the compliment had lost him his pupil, I doubt if he would have paid it.”
(page 204, para 1, Ch. 23)
I am very surprised at how ashamed Pip is of his own background. He doesn’t want to be associated with the forge or the trade that he was once so happy and intent on filling. This shows how much the money, and Estella, have changed Pip.
-Mauro Whiteman
25. “’If at any odd time when you have nothing better to do, you wouldn’t mind coming over to see me at Walworth, I could offer you a bed, and I should consider it an honour.’”
(page 211, para 2, Ch. 24)
I am surprised that the money that Pip has has changed the way people feel about him. If a poor person from a forge had come into the office and talked to Mr. Jaggers, I doubt that Wemmick would have invited him over to his house. However, when a rich gentleman comes into the office and talks to Mr. Jaggers, Wemmick considers it an honor to have him over at his house. Either the money changes how people react to Pip or Pip is a nice person who people want to have over for dinner. I don’t know which one is true for Pip.
-Mauro Whiteman
26. “By degrees, Wemmick got dryer and harder as we went along, and his mouth tightened into a post office again. At last, when we got to his place of business and he pulled out his key from his coat-collar, he looked as unconscious of his Walworth property as if the castle and the drawbridge and the arbour and the lake and the fountain and the Aged had all been blown into space together by the last discharge of the stinger.”
(page 220, para 2, Ch. 25)
This shows the transformation between Wemmick’s home life and his work life. He seems to have two totally different personalities, one for each part of his life. I think this is to parallel the two sides of Pip, the difference between his life at the forge and his life being a gentleman. It seems as though Charles Dickens likes to make these small parallels within his story.
-Mauro Whiteman
"It was impossible for me to avoid seeing that she cared to attract me..."
Chapter 33 pg. 291
Estella must like Pip. Why else whould she try to attract him? I think that she probably likes him but doesn't know why. She is split between Miss Havisham's game and Pip.
27. “I cannot say whether any diseased affection of the heart caused her lips to be parted as if she were panting, and her face to bear a curious expression of suddenness and flutter, but I know that I had been to see Macbeth at the theatre a night or two before, and that her face looked to me as if it were all disturbed by fiery air, like the faces I had seen rise out of the witches’ caldron.”
(page 223, para 7, Ch. 26)
This is a great description of the maid who was trained by Mr. Jaggers. Earlier, Wemmick said she was a beast who had been tamed by Mr. Jaggers, and it seems in this description that she might have some pent-up emotions, perhaps a wildness or hatred for Mr. Jaggers. I liked the comparison between her face and the distorted faces that rise from a wicked witch’s caldron.
-Mauro Whiteman
28. “’But I like the fellow, Pip; he is one of the true sort. Why, if I was a fortuneteller--’”
(page 228, para 5, Ch. 26)
I wonder why Mr. Jaggers likes Bentley Drummle so much and why Mr. Jaggers calls Drummle one of the true sort. Perhaps Mr. Jaggers sees some of himself in Bentley Drummle, though I don’t know if Mr. Jaggers was like Drummle when he was a child or not. I think it will be interesting to see what happens to Drummle; Mr. Jaggers seems to think that he will become important or something. Maybe Mr. Jaggers is going to train Drummle to become like him.
-Mauro Whiteman
29. “Not with pleasure, though I was bound to him by so many ties; no; with considerable disturbance, some mortification, and a keen sense of incongruity. If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money.”
(page 229, para 3, Ch. 27)
I am surprised at the change that Pip has undergone. He used to be best friends with Joe and liked to see him everyday, at home and in the forge. However, now that Pip is a gentleman, he doesn’t even want to see Joe. In fact, he would have even paid Joe money for Joe not to come to see him. I think that this is a very sad change in character.
-Mauro Whiteman
7. "come, mr Drummel, since we are on the subject, i'll tell you what passed between herbert here and me, when you borrowed that money."
chapter 26 pg 206
i have always believed that you should never lend money to anybody but your parents because noone can be trusted, even your best friends. i give money to my friends because i know i wont expect to get it back. also, never loan money from your friends, because you never know whats going to happen.
30. “So throughout life our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise.”
(page 230, para 1, Ch. 27)
I think Pip hit the nail on the head with this statement, and if he would have just realized this, perhaps he wouldn’t act so harshly towards Joe. Maybe he wouldn’t even want to be a gentleman because I think on the inside Pip despises Estella for how hard she is on him. If he new that he was ruining everyone else's lives by chasing her, maybe he wouldn’t be off becoming a gentleman.
-Mauro Whiteman
31. “’Pip, dear old chap, life is made of ever so many partings welded together, as I may say, and one man’s a blacksmith, and one’s a whitesmith and one’s a goldsmith, and one’s a coppersmith. Diwisions among such must come, and must be met as they come.’”
(page 236, para 7, Ch. 27)
I think Joe shows a lot of insight in this comment. I also think that it hurts Joe very badly to have to say this; I think that Joe doesn’t want to part with Pip, but he can’t stop Pip from chasing his dream. It really hurts Joe to say these things to Pip because most of the time Pip is too conceited to understand what brilliance Joe has.
-Mauro Whiteman
32. “I was not by any means convinced on the last point, and began to invent reasons and make excuses for putting up at the Blue Boar. I should be an inconvenience at Joe’s; I was not expected, and my bed would not be ready;”
(page 238, para 1, Ch. 28)
I am shocked at how Pip’s mind works in this section. He despises his own background so much that he doesn’t want to stay at his own home in his own bed. He makes up excuses for not staying with Joe, even though it is obvious that the reasons are false. I am sure he wouldn’t be an inconvenience; I’m also sure that he was expected since Joe delivered the message, and I’m sure that Pip’s bed would always be ready. How can Pip dislike his own family that much, only because they are poor?
-Mauro Whiteman
33. “His arms and legs were like great pincushions of those shapes, and his attire disguised him absurdly; but I knew his half-closed eye at one glance. There stood the man whom I had seen on the settle at the Three Jolly Bargeman on a Saturday night, and who had brought me down with his invisible gun!”
(page 240, para 1, Ch. 28)
I was wondering if the convict would come back later in the story. I wonder if he will recognize Pip and acknowledge him in any way. Perhaps he will be angry because he has been arrested again. I wonder if it was this convict who hit Mrs. Gargery over the head with the leg iron. Perhaps he is going to try to hurt Pip, too.
-Mauro Whiteman
34. “According to my experience, the conventional notion of a lover cannot be always true. The unqualified truth is that, when I loved Estella with the love of a man, I loved her simply because I found her irresistible.”
(page 245, para 2, Ch. 29)
I don’t understand how Pip can believe that he loves Estella when he can admit that he only likes her because she is irresistible. I don’t understand how Pip can believe that his life will be happy with someone who he doesn’t love in a conventional sense but rather because she is beautiful. He should realize that his life won’t be happy with Estella, and he should go back to people who actually have a personality (Joe and Biddy) and live out his life as a happy blacksmith.
-Mauro Whiteman
35. “’And necessarily,’ she added, in a haughty tone; ‘what was fit company for you once would be quite unfit company for you now.’”
(page 250, para 11, Ch. 29)
I think Estella clearly expresses what Pip feels, and she is truly his bad side. She makes him want to despise his home and his family, which is a very sick and sad thing to do. She uses her beauty to overpower Pip and make him do everything that she wants him to do. I believe that she is the bad side of Pip’s conscience and Biddy is the good side of his conscience. He has to chose between the enticing bad side and the virtuous good side. I think he will chose the bad side.
-Mauro Whiteman
36. “She said the word often enough, and there could be no doubt that she meant to say it, but if the often-repeated word had been hate instead of love--despair--revenge--dire death--it could not have sounded from her lips more like a curse.”
(page 253, para 10, Ch. 29)
I am surprised at how Miss Havisham acts in this passage. I think Miss Havisham showed her true personality; and, if I were Pip, I would be afraid right now because Miss Havisham went evil on him. It shows that Estella is only meant to be loved but not to love back. She is a tool trained to smite the hearts of all the men who behold her. I think Pip should realize this and try to forget Estella, but I think it might be too late for that.
-Mauro Whiteman
"And still I stood looking at the house, thinking how happy I should be if I lived there with her, and knowing that I never was happy with her, but always miserable."
Chapter 33 pg. 292
There are always people in your life that you can't live with and you can't live without. I think that Pip loves Estella for her appearance. For example if Estella's character was inside of Biddy's body I don't think he would love her. He keeps trying to convince himself that Estella is really good deep down but he knows that it is not true.
37. “He wore the blue bag in the manner of my great-coat, and was strutting along the pavement towards me on the opposite side of the street, attended by a company of delighted young friends to whom he from time to time exclaimed, with a wave of his hand, ‘Don’t know yah!’ Words cannot state the amount of aggravation and injury wreaked upon me by Trabb’s boy,”
(page 260, para 1, Ch. 30)
I am surprised at how angry Pip feels towards Trabb’s boy when he himself probably acts just like that without knowing it. Perhaps Pip is just ashamed of what he has become without realizing it. I think that Trabb’s boy might be putting it into perspective for Pip and that makes Pip mad. I think Pip is going to realize, sooner or later, how big of a jerk he has been to all the poor people he knows.
-Mauro Whiteman
38. “It struck me that Wemmick walked among the prisoners much as a gardener might walk among his plants.”
(page 276, para 1, Ch. 32)
I like this comparison between Wemmick and his prisoners to a gardener and his plants. It seems as though Wemmick checks on his plants, but he feels very little compassion for them because they die. When a plant dies, the gardener simply replaces it. I think this is much the same for Wemmick and his prisoners. When a prisoner gets sentenced to death, Wemmick must find another to replace him. I think it is a very sad side of the law, but Charles Dickens puts it into good perspective with this simile.
-Mauro Whiteman
8. "pip, dear old chap. life is made of ever so many partings weilded together, as i may say."
chapter 27 pg 215
many people don't know what leaving your friends and family is like. from experience i can tell you it is hard. you get to know them and become best friends but them all of a sudden there gone, and you havent got a chance to say goodbye. life is going to be that way, and it happens to everybody. sometime in your life you are going to leave the ones you love behind.
39. “What was the nameless shadow which again in that one instant had passed?”
(page 280, para 1, Ch. 32)
I wonder what the ghost is that Pip always sees in Estella’s face. He hasn’t explained it at all, and it is very strange that it appears at random times when he looks into her face. Perhaps it is building suspense until the end. But I don’t know what the shadow could possibly be.
-Mauro Whiteman
40. “Her reverting to this tone, as if our association were forced upon us and we were mere puppets, gave me pain; but everything in our intercourse did give me great pain. Whatever her tone with me happened to be, I could put no trust in it, and build no hope on it; and yet I went on against trust and against hope. Why repeat it a thousand times? So it always was.”
(page 284, para 9, Ch. 33)
I don’t understand why Pip would want to spend the rest of his life with someone who causes so much pain on him. I don’t understand why Pip would carry on without trust and hope to get such a mean girl. She must be very good-looking because she certainly doesn’t have much of an agreeable personality.
-Mauro Whiteman
9. "i could not of said what i was afraid of, for my fear was altogether undefined and vague, but there was a great fear upon me."
chapter 28 pg 221
never be afraid to say whats on your mind. if your afraid your friends wont like you, then there not really your friends, and you can tell your parents anything and they will understand. everything is your opinion, and you shouldn't be afraid to express it(just keep the rude ones to yourself)
" I used to think, with a weariness of my spirits, that I should have been happier and better if I had never seen Miss Havisham's face..."
Chapter 34 pg. 294
I think that in the end Pip might actually be happy. It is hard to believe since Pip complains about his life so much and is so unsure of his future. I think that once he fully understands his expectations he will live a happy life.
"Mr. Wemmick,' said I, 'I want to ask your opinion. I am very desirous to serve a friend.'"
Chapter 36 pg. 314
Pip actually wants to help someone. I am glad to see Pip helping others. Hopfully he will use his gift to help others. I wonder if Herbert will ever be successful?
10. "oh! i have a heart to be stabbed in or shot in, i have no doubt," said estella, "and, of course if it ceased to beat i should cease to be. but you know what i mean. i have no softness there, no-sympathy-sentiment-nonsense."
chapter 29 pg 228
so estella is just a regular human. i bet miss havisham has raised her to not have these things in her heart. deep down i know she has these things, but can't feel or express them, and i think pip can see that too.
11. "and indeed, i think we are all engaged, except for the baby."
chapter 30 pg 241
this book has some weird things in it. how old is little jane, and the rest of mrs pckets kids. how old can you get married in this book. my brain is confused. its talking about marriage of a girl who i might be wrong, is like 5, and engaged.
"A great event in my life, the turning point of my life, now opens on my view..."
Chapter 37 pg. 324
What is the turning point in Pip's life? He has already risen to wealth what could be more important than that? Will Pip finally realize his expectations, or will he meet the convict again?
1. "So imperfect was this realization of the firt of my great expectations that I looked in dismay at Mr. Wemmick . 'Ah!' said he, mistaking me, 'the retirement reminds you of the country. So it does me.'"
Page 182, chapter 21
It may just be me, but i find Pip's expectations to be somewhat of a mystery to me in this passage. What expectation is he alluding to? Is it that he wants to own an inn or be successful in entrepreneurship? Or is it something else that I am totally missing? Before, I understood that his expectations were to become a gentleman and learn as much as he possibly could. I am guessing that he still has these aspirations, but I don't think that is what he is talking about in this particular part of the book. Hopefully, this question will be answered later in the book.
1. "'Then it must be a shilling,' observed the coachmen. 'I don't want to get into trouble. I know him!' he darkly closed an eye at Mr. Jaggers's name, and shook his head." Page 171, chapter 20
My first impression of Mr. Jaggers is of mixed feelings. I can certainly tell that he is a man of status, and seems pretty well known throughout London. But I am not sure of whether or not he is well liked. Maybe he is like those people who are respected not for their kind and generous personalities but for their shrewdness with money. He seems like a person who is respected and feared for reasons one in the same; I have yet to find out why.
tara
2. "'You may get cheated, robbed, and murdered in London. But there are plenty of people anywhere who'll do that for you.'" Page 180, chapter 20
I think that what Wemmick is saying is true with a lot of things. Even though you may think that things only happen to you in certain places, that is wrong. Danger is everywhere. But I also think that what Wemmick is saying is true about people too. Just as London appears to be the place for cheating, robbery, and murder, so also do some people. London may look the part, but other cities that do not also have the potential for these qualities. The same principle applies to people.
tara
3. "So imperfect was the realization of the first of my great expectations that I looked in dismay at Mr. Wemmick. 'Ah!' said he, mistaking me, 'the retirement reminds you of the country. So it does me.'" Page 181, chapter 20
What is the first of Pip's great expectations? Before he arrives at Barnard's, his great expectations are not mentioned. Maybe one of his expectations is the way people of the upper class live. He wants the luxury, the comfort. But Barnard's proved him wrong, and Pip seems let down. I think that he is starting to realize that the life he supposedly wants is not all that it is cracked up to be, and that if he wants better, he is really going to have to work for it. The luxury and comforts of wealth are not just handed out like flyers.
tara
12. "thus, we walked through Wemmicks greenhouse, untill he turned to me and said, 'notice the man i shall shake hands with,'"
chapter 32 page 251
is there a greenhouse in this jail, and does the jail belong to wemmick. that is pretty weird. when i read this it sounded as if the cells are inside a greenhouse. maybe thats how they were back in the era. im learning some interesting things about this era.
13. "we have no choice, you and i, but to obey our instructions. we are not free to follow our own devices, you and i."
chapter 33 page 254
is the world sucking us in to where we must follow the world and not what we believe in. we will never be free, but at least we can be free inside ourselves. follow your heart and stop listening to what the world wants you to do
14. "as i had grown accustomed to my expectations, i had insensibly begun to notice their effect upon myself and those around me. their influence on my own character i disguised from my recognition as much as possible, but i knew very well that it was not all good."
chapter 34 pg 261
a change in your personality can have a huge effect on not only you, but the people associated with you. sometimes it can be a good thing but sometimes it can be bad. influence does happen and it could happen to anybody.
15. "i was an honoured sir, and that they begged to inform me that mrs j. gargery had departed this life on monday last at twenty minutes past six in the evening and that my attendance was requested at the interment on monday next at three o' clock in the afternoon."
chapter 34 page 266
pip probably thought that nothing was going to spoil his new life, and then that letter came. how is pip going to take this, will he be sad, happy, or just not care?
31. “I had neither the good sense nor the good feeling to know that this was all my fault, and that if I had been easier with Joe, Joe would have been easier with me. I felt impatient of him and out of temper with him; in which condition he heaped coals of fire on my head.”
Chapter 27, Page 234, Paragraph 3
I think that Pip deserved to be treated the way he was by Joe. After all, he did pretty much completely disconnect himself from the life that formerly included Joe. He wanted to be uncommon, and now Joe is treating him as he would treat somebody who was uncommon. Frankly, I think that Joe is just giving Pip exactly what he asked for, to be a gentleman that was uncommon.
32. “’Would you tell him, then,’ said she, ‘that which Estella has come home, and would be glad to see him.’”
Chapter 27, Page 235, Paragraph 12
I figured this would be coming up fairly soon. One of the main reasons that Pip wanted to be uncommon so badly was to impress Estella, so sooner or later they had to meet up again to see what Estella thought of the new Pip. I wonder though, if Estella will really be all that excited to meet with Pip again, or if they will end up having a relationship where Estella is no quite so mean considering Pip’s new manners and way of life.
33. “There stood the man whom I had seen on the settle at the Three Jolly Bargemen on a Saturday night, and who had brought me down with his invisible gun!”
Chapter 28, Page 240, Paragraph 1
Now what were the odds that one of the convicts that were to ride with Pip was the one that he had seen on a night a while past at the Three Jolly Bargemen? I wonder if this convict will end up having more significance to this story now that he has been brought back into it. That Saturday night he had shown Pip his file, I wonder if that will play a key role to something, or if he even still has it. If he does, and he uses it to escape will Pip assume that that is the reason and turn him in, or will he even remember still?
34. “As soon as I arrived, I sent a penitential codfish and barrel of oysters to Joe (as reparation for not having gone myself), and then went on the Barnard’s Inn.”
Chapter 30, Page 260, Paragraph 4
This passage makes me think even less of Pip. He continually treats Joe horribly, and his actions keep getting worse. Earlier when he got mad because Joe was calling him sir, I thought he was just contradicting himself because that is what Joe had thought he wanted, to be uncommon. Now he is close to home and he does not even bother to stop and say hi to the one man that truly brought him up with kindness and respect in spite of his sister’s horrible way of bringing him up by hand. I almost think that he sending Joe the fish is more of an insult than just not going to see him. It is like saying I am too good to come and see you in person, so I will use my new found money that you do not have any of and have somebody else deliver this expensive fish to you. What a jerk!
1) “Mike looked hard at my guardian, as if he were trying to learn a lesson from his face, and slowly replied, ‘Ayther to character, or to having been in his company and never left him all the night in question.’”
Page 169, Paragraph 10, Chapter 20, Section 2
Who are they asking to say that they were with somebody the whole night of the night in question? Who is he saying he is with? Why is he saying he was with him? What happened that someone needs to have an alibi for? Was it a murder, was it that the person who hit Miss Joe.
2) “For a reason that I had, I felt as if my eyes would start out of my head. I acknowledge his attention incoherently, and began to think this was a dream.”
Page 174, Paragraph 12, Chapter 21, Section 2
Why was this like a dream, has he never been treated kindly before? Was he always treated like dirt? Now that you think about it he never really had any respect, from anyone. The person who gave the most respect in my onion was the little boy in the garden that he fought. I think this mostly because he would let Pip hit him and just get back up, I think if he really wanted to he could have fought it in some way at least a little.
-Katy-
3) “’Lord bless me, you’re the prowling boy!’
‘And you,’ said I, ‘are the pale young gentleman!’”
Page 175, Paragraph 5, Chapter 21, Section 2
Ok is this guy who Pip ran into when he was bringing the convict food or was it the guy that Pip got into a fight with? I think it is the guy that he got into a fight with at Miss. Havisham’s house, what will the past they have together do to how well they get along, or it they will fight again? Will al be ok or will they not get along for the time they are together.
-Katy-
4) “’I don’t take to Philip,’ said he, smiling, ‘for it sounds like a moral boy out of a the spelling-book, who was so lazy that he fell into a pond, or so far that he couldn’t see out of his eyes, or so avaricious that he locked up his cake till the mice ate it or so determined to go to a birds-nesting that he got himself eaten by bears who lived handy in the neighborhood. I tell you what I should like. We are so harmonious, and you have been a blacksmith- would you mind it?’”
Page 178, Paragraph 6, Chapter 22, Section 2
What I don’t understand why he thinks Philip is a name of a boy in a story book, it is not that wired of a name. I think this is a good example of Charles being paid by the word. I mean it goes on and on about what he would be doing if he was in a storybook. I really don’t think that this passage helps the story along, but it could be part of the reason that he chose Pip as the name of his main character.
-Katy-
5) “In truth, he said this with so much delicacy, that I felt the subject done with, even though I should be under his father’s roof for years and years to come. Yet he said it with so much meaning, too that I felt he as perfectly understood Miss Havisham to be my benefactress, as I understood that fact myself.
Page 183, Paragraph 6, Chapter 22, Section 2
How small is this world, this is the guy who he beat up in the garden and that came to Miss Havisham’s to meat Estella so he could see if he was good enough for her. Now they are all good and hanging out while telling each other what they know about Miss Havisham, how do they go from fist fighting to best friends so fast? I think its more they didn’t really know each other and now they kind of have to get along.
-Katy-
6) “So successful a watch and ward had been established over the young lady by this judicious parent, that she had grown up highly ornamental, but perfectly helpless and useless.”
Chapter 23, Page 189, Paragraph 2, Section 2
I think this is a really good representation of how the rich women were different from the poor women. It shows how the rich women were there for show because they would have others to do the house work, how they wouldn’t even take car of their own kids. On the other hand it makes you think about what he said about Miss Joe, how she was always worrying and working on house work, how she had brought up Pip on here own and how she would speak her mind.
-Katy-
7) “’Well,’ said Wemmick, ‘you’ll see a wild beast tamed. Not so very uncommon, you’ll tell me. I reply, that depends on the original wildness of the best, and the amount of taming. It won’t lower you opinion of Mr. Jaggers’s powers. Keep you eye on it.’”
Chapter 24, Page 202, Paragraph 1, Section 2
Why did the beast need to be tamed, why would you not just get one that is already they way you want them so you don’t have to do the work. Maybe it’s that they want them to do the house work they way they like it to be done, maybe they have to tame or retrain them to do the house work that way.
-Katy-
8) “’That’s it!’ returned Wemmick, ‘He says, and gives it out publicly, ‘I want to see the man who’ll rob me!’ Lord bless you, I gave heard him, a hundred times if I have heard him once.’”
Chapter 25, Page 205, Paragraph 8, Section 2
Why would the person who robed your house tell you who they were and why would you hear him? I think he means more that he hopes he has the respect of people so that he wont be rob and if he is he wants to know who did it so that he can gain that persons respect too.
-Katy-
9) “Drummle, without any threat or warning, pulled his hands out of his pockets, dropped his round shoulders, swore, took up a large glass, and would have flung it at his adversary’s head, but for our entertainer’s dexterously seizing it at the instant when it was raised for that purpose.”
Chapter 26, Page 216, Paragraph 2, Section 2
I am very glad that Pip did not get hurt, although it would be a very good twist, but I do think that Pip needs to be scared. Just so that he knows what life really is about I think that with all that he has had handed to him he thinks he is above all the bad stuff that happens, I think that he should be brought back down to earth.
-Katy-
10) “’Why,’ said Joe, ‘yes, there certainly were a peck of orange-peel’”
Chapter 27, Page 220, Paragraph 7, Section 2
Well orange-peel means like people threw stuff at him, dose that mean he really can’t act? Or was Joe just making conversation? I find it quite wired how Charles is having random characters come in and out of play; I think it helps show how complicated life can really get.
-Katy-
11) “(when I married your sister, sir, I said ‘I will;’ and when I answered your friend, Pip, I said ‘I am’)”
Chapter 27, Page 223, Paragraph 11, Section 2
When you marry someone you say ‘I do’ not I will, unless he was talking about something he said to someone else that he would do to his wife. Then if he is talking to Miss Havisham I don’t get why he would say ‘I am’?
-Katy-
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