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 601 – 800 of 825 Newer› Newest»"Why did you who read this commit that not dissimilar inconsistency of your own, last year, last month, last week?"
Chapter 47 pg. 409
Why do we never stop believing that the impossible is true? The reason is simple, impossible is nothing. There is nothing that we cannot do if we set our minds to it. This determination that Pip has is present in the minds of everyone who challenges impossibility.
"'The one who had been mauled,'"
Chapter 47 pg. 414
So the second convict is back. I think that unless Pip moves quickly Provis' life is in danger as well as his own. How will he get Provis to safety?
"'Do you remember the sex of the child?'" "'Said to have been a girl.'"
Chapter 48 pg. 423
So, Estella's mother is Jaggers' servant, but who is the father? Why was Jaggers so nice to Estella's mother? He is usually not personal with his clients. Does Mr. Jaggers see the same thing in Estella's mother that Pip sees in Estella.
"'My dear! Believe this: when she first came to me, I meant to save her from misery like my own. At first I meant no more.'"
Chapter 49 pg. 429
Miss Havisham wanted to protect Estella but instead she has only hurt Estella and those around her. It is better to love and be heartbroken then never to love anyone at all.
"'I know I am quite myself. And the man we have in hiding down the river is Estella's father.'"
Chapter 50 pg. 438
Both of Estella's parents were coarse and common just like Pip. Estella would have grown up a commoner just like Pip and would have a real heart. Pip and Estella would have been better off if they just grew up commoners. They might have even met each other.
13. "'Now look here, my man,' said Mr. Jaggers, advancing a step, and pointing to the door. 'Get out of this office. I'll have no feelings here. Get out.'" Page 441, chapter 51
Why doesn't Jaggers allow feeling in his office? There is something about Jaggers that tells me that he doesn't quite like his job as much as it sometimes seems. He is always washing his hands from the work he does, and he does not allow any emotion whatsoever in his office. Maybe he just can't handle to see the emotions brought up from certain circumstances. He also might see some of himself when he sees those emotions. He is a man that doesn't show a lot of emotion. This is true of a lot of people. If they like to keep their emotions bottled up, they surely do not want to see people who are somewhat comfortable expressing theirs.
tara
"If you want information regarding your Uncle Provis, you had better come and tell no one and lose no time. You must come alone. Bring this with you."
Chapter 52 pg. 450
Will Pip go and see this mysterious informer? Who is it? Is it Miss Havisham's husband? Why doesn't Pip realize it is a trap? Why would the person want to trap Pip?
"I had never been struck at so keenly for my thanklessness to Joe, as through the brazen imposter Pumblechook."
Chapter 52 pg. 453
Why has Pip changed so much? He was raised by Joe who is the kindest individual. Joe never complains and loves Pip even Pip often does not love Joe back. Why are people so ungrateful?
"The death close before me was terrible, but far more terrible than death was the dread of being misremembered after death."
Chapter 53 pg. 558
It's sad that Pip is worried about how people will remember him. It shows that he regrets what he has done in his life and wants to repair any damage done. If people looked at thier actions and thought about how they would be remembered I wonder if there would be more good in the world.
"It was but for an instant that I seemed to struggle with a thousand mill-weirs and a thousand flashes of light; that instant passed, I was taken on board the galley."
Chapter 54 pg. 478
Pip was close to death for the second time in his life. I wonder what kind of physiological impact the experience will have on Pip. Will it drive him mad or will it harden his drive?
"'Halloa!'" said Wemmick. "'Here's Miss Skiffins! Let's have a wedding.'"
Chapter 53 pg. 486
Everything is happening so quickly now. Why did Dickens choose to end his book so quickly? Wemmick is still a mystery to me. Why is he such a strange character? What does he represent?
"Not wishful to intrude I have departured fur you are well again dear Pip and will do better without Jo.
P.S. Ever the best of friends."
Chapter 57 pg. 506
Jo is the kind of person everyone wants as a friend. He still thinks that Pip is above him though. When will Pip finally tell Joe how thankful he is.
"'It's my wedding-day.'" cried Biddy, in a burst of happiness, "'and I am married to Joe!'"
Chapter 58 pg. 513
Everyone is getting married. I wonder what kind of impact that has on Pip. He has lost Estella and whatever there was between him and Biddy is gone. Pip trully knows what it is like to be alone.
"I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting for her."
Chapter 59 pg. 521
So Pip finally has Estella. He has Joe and Biddy back. He is not rich but he has a job. Is Pip finally happy? It will take some time for him to repair Estella's heart but when he does he will finally live a normal life.
1) “’My uncle,’ I muttered. ‘Yes.’ ‘You saw him, sir?’ ‘Yes. Oh, yes.’ ‘Like wise the person with him?’ ‘Person with him!’ I repeated. ‘I judged the person to be with him,’ returned the watchman. ‘The person stopped, when he stopped to make inquiry of me, and the person took this way when he took this way.’”
Chapter 40, pg. 347
Who is this man who seemed to follow Mr. Provis? Did Provis lead him there? Was it the man on the stairs? Is he a danger to either Pip or Provis?
2) “’There’s something worth spending in the there book, dear boy. It’s yourn. All I’ve got ain’t mine; it’s yourn. Don’t you be afeered on it. There’s more where that come from. I’ve come to the old country fur to see my gentleman spend his money like a gentleman. That’ll be my pleasure. My pleasure ‘ull be fur to see him do it. And blast you all!’ he wound up, looking round the room and snapping his fingers once with a loud snap. ‘Blast you every one, from the judge in his wig to the colonist a-stirring up the dust, I’ll show a better gentleman than the whole kit on you put together!’”
Chapter 40, pg. 351
Why does this man care about Pip? He longs to turn him into a gentleman, but why? Is it because he just feels a fatherly love for this boy? Or is it that he wants to repay him for what Pip did for him in the marshes years ago?
3) “’I cautioned him that I hear no more of that; that he was not at all likely to obtain a pardon; that he was expatriated for the term of his natural life; and that his presenting himself in this country would be an act of felony, rendering him liable to the extreme penalty of the law. I gave Magwitch that caution,’ said Mr. Jaggers, looking hard at me; ‘I wrote it to New South Wales. He guided himself by it no doubt.’ ‘No doubt,’ said I.”
Chapter 40, pg. 355-56
Why doesn’t Jaggers know that he came to London? Would Jaggers chase him out of the country or turn him in? Why doesn’t Pip tell him? What could possibly happen?
4) “Never quite free from an uneasy remembrance of the man on the stairs, I had always looked about me in taking my guest out after dark, and in bringing him back; and I looked about me now. Difficult as it is in a large city to avoid the suspicion of being watched when the mind is conscious of danger in that regard, I could not persuade myself that any of the people within sight cared about my movements. The few who were passing passed on their several ways, and the street was empty when I turned back in to the Temple. Nobody has come out at the gate with us, nobody went in at the gate with me. As I crossed by the fountain, I saw him lighted back window looking bright and quiet, and, when I stood for a few moments in the doorway of the building where I loved, before going up the stairs, Garden Court was as still and lifeless as the staircase was when I ascended it.” Chapter 41, pg. 361
This is another guilty conscience moment of Pip’s that we all enjoy. But now he feels bad for keeping him adopted father in his and Herbert’s home? Why? This man gave him everything he needed to become the gentleman he has become, and much more. Why be ashamed and terrified of him?
5) “’There again!’ said I, stopping before Herbert, with my open hands out, as if they contained the desperation of the case. ‘I know nothing of his life. It has almost made me mad to sit here of a night and see him before me, so bound up with my fortunes and misfortunes, and yet so unknown to me, except as the miserable wretch who terrified me two days in my childhood!’”
Chapter 41, pg. 364
Why does he still fear this man? He cares for him so much, for some reason, and has given Pip a chance at a new life, but Pip still stands afraid. I understand wanting to know about him, but he just seems to be haunted by that one night.
6) ‘”There ws another in with Compeyson, as was called Arthur-not as being so chrisen’d, but as a surname. He was in a decline, and was a shadow to look at. Him and Compeyson had been in a bad thing with a rich lady some years afore, and they’d made a pot of money by it; but Compeyson better and gamed, and he’d have run through the king’s taxes…’”
Chapter 42, pg. 368
So, was either Arthur or Compeyson the man that ran from Miss Havisham? And knowing the nature of these men, were they completely in it for the money?
7) “’… But don’t lose your temper. Haven’t you lost enough without that?’ ‘What do you mean, sir?’ ‘Waiter,’ said Drummle, by way of answering me. The waiter reappeared. ‘Look here, you sir. You quite understand that the young lady don’t ride to-day, and that I dine at the young lady’s?’ ‘Quite so, sir!’”
Chapter 43, pg. 378
Wait! So, now he’s dating Estella? I thought Estella didn’t like him and that she took Pip’s word that he was a brute. Why is he chasing after her? Is it because he loves her, because she’s beautiful, or because he wants what Pip has been trying so hard for years to obtain?
8) “’You would never marry him, Estella?’ She looked towards Miss Havisham, and considered for a moment with her work in her hands. The she said, ‘Why not tell you the truth? I am going to be married to him.’ I dropped my face into my hands, but was able to control myself better than I could have expected, considering what agony it gave me to hear her say those words. When I raised my face again, there was such a ghastly look upon Miss Havisham’s that it impressed me, even in my passionate hurry and grief.”
Chapter 44, pg. 384-85
OUCH!! That one hurt just a bit. He simply confesses his love to her, which would seem flattering, and she flat out says, without any care in the world, that she doesn’t like him and she doesn’t care because she’s marrying Drummle.
9) “Much surprised by the request, I took the note. It was directed to Philip Pip, Esquire, and on the top of the superscription were the words, ‘Please Read This Here.’ I opened it, the watchman holding up his light, and read inside, in Wemmick’s writing: ‘Don’t Go Home.’”
Chapter 44, pg. 387
What could possibly wrong that Wemmick would go out of his way to write a note to Pip? Does it involve Provis or Herbert? Did Provis get caught?
10) “’You have heard of a man of bad character whose true name is Compeyson?’ He answered with one other nod. ‘Is he living?’ One other nod. “Is he in London?’ He gave me one other nod, compressed the post office exceedingly, gave me one last nod, and went on with his breakfast.”
Chapter 45, pg. 392
So, is Compeyson the reason for telling Pip to stay away from his home? Did he and Provis meet? Why is he in London? What trouble is there to be for Pip and Provis now that Pip knows he is in town?
11) “This I did accurately, with the reservation just mentioned, and I told him how Wemmick had heard, in Newgate prison (whether from officers or prisoners I could not say). That he was under some suspicion, and that my chamber had been watched; how Wemmick had recommended his keeping close for a time, and my keeping away from him; and what Wemmick had said about getting him abroad. I added that, of course, when the time came, I should go with him, or should follow close upon him, as might be safest in Wemmick’s judgement.”
Chapter 46, pg.400
So this is the reason for not being able to go home. How long will this last? Why would anyone suspect anything?
12) “In short, I was always full of fears for the rash man who was in hiding. Herbert had sometimes said to me that he found it pleasant to stand at one of our windows after dark, when the tide was running down and to think that it was flowing, with everything it bore, towards Clara. But I thought with dread that it was flowing towards Magwitch, and that any black mark on its surface might be his pursuers, going swiftly, silently, and surely to take him.”
Chapter 46, pg. 403
Why does Pip feel guilt towards keeping his adopted parent safe? Why does he think that he’ll be found?
13) “’It is the strangest thing,’ said Mr. Wopsle, drifting into his lost look again, ‘and yet I could swear to him.’ Becoming alarmed, I entreated Mr. Wopsle to explain his meaning. ‘Whether I should have noticed him at first but for your being there,’ said Mr. Wopsle, going on in the same lost way, ‘I can’t be positive; yet I think I should.’ Involuntarily I looked round me,a s I was accustomed to look round me when I went home, for these mysterious words gave me a chill. ‘Oh! He can’t be in sight,’ said Mr. Wopsle. ‘He went out before I went off. I saw him go.’” Chapter 47, pg. 408
Who could it be? And why would Mr. Wopsle be so upset? So scared?
14) “’Yes,’ said I. ‘I remember all that.’ ‘Then, Mr. Pip, one of those prisoners sat behind you tonight. I saw him over your shoulder.’ ‘Steady!’ I thought, I asked him then, ‘Which of the two do you suppose you saw?’ ‘The one who had been mauled,’ he answered readily, ‘and I’ll swear I saw him! The more I think of him, the more certain I am of him.’”
Chapter 47, pg. 409
Is Compeyson looking for Pip then? Now that he knows where Pip is and what he looks like, will Pip see and hear of Compeyson more often?
15) “’Hah! He is a promising fellow-in his way- but he may not have it all his own way. The stronger will win in the end, but the stronger had to be found out first. If he should turn to, and beat her-‘ ‘Surely,’ I interrupted, with a burning face and heart, ‘you do not seriously think that he is scoundrel enough for that, Mr. Jaggers?’”
Chapter 48, pg. 413
Why do they think that he’ll beat her? Why doesn’t Pip think that’s it’s possible Drummle would?
16) “I thought how one link of association had helped that identification in the theatre, and how such a link, wanting before, had been riveted of rme now, when I had passed by a chance swift from Estell’s name ot the fingers with their knoitting action, and the attentive eyes. And I felt absolutely certain that this woman was Estella’s mother.”
Chapter 48, pg. 414
Oh snap! So, is this why Jaggers is Miss. Havisham’s lawyer? Because he brought Estella to her from one of his clients? Maybe he isn’t as bad as he seems. If he tried to save this murderer’s child, he must have some heart, at least more than our class will give him credit for.
17) “We took our leave early, and left together. Even when we were groping among Mr. Jaggers’s stock of boots for our hats, I felt that the right twin was on his way back; and we had not gone a half dozen yards down Gerrard Street in the Walworth direction before I found that I was walking arm-in-arm with the right twin, and that the wrong twin had evaporated in to the evening air.”
Chapter 48, pg. 415
Even Pip has realized that Wemmick is completely different around Mr. Jaggers. Not only is he different, but he seem to be a completely different person. Pip says he seems to have a twin. Evil twin and good twin.
18) “In the moment when I was withdrawing my head to go quietly away, I saw a great flaming light spring up. I the same moment I saw her running at me, shrieking, with a whirl of fire blazing all about her, and soaring at least as many feet above her head as she was high.”
Chapter 49, pg. 426
Was this an accident? It seems to me that Miss Havisham, being as depressed as she was over her daughter, could have been trying to commit suicide. Even if it was an accident, how did it happen? It didn’t sound like she was that close to the fireplace.
19) “’… it seems that the woman was a young woman, and a jealous woman, and a revengeful woman; revengeful, Handel, to the last degree.’ ‘To what degree?’ ‘Murder- does it strike too cold on that sensitive place?’”
Chapter 50, pg. 431
I may be confused, or maybe missed something, but I’m going by what I know. So, Is it not Miss Havisham that Compeyson fooled? Or did I miss the part where Provis explained his story with a woman? I am confused.
20) “’I know I am quite myself. And the man we have in hiding down the river is Estella’s father.’”
Chapter 50, pg. 433
Provis is Estella’s father. Hmm. How does that work out? Why didn’t Jaggers know? He was both Molly’s and Provis’s lawyer, and he gave Estella to Miss Havisham. How couldn’t he know?
41. ‘“Now, in groping my way down the black staircase, I [Pip] fell over something, and that something was a man crouching in a corner.”’
Chapter 40, Page 346
Who is this man? Who would be sitting outside Pip’s room late at night? It would not be Herbert back already, besides, he would not be “crouching in the corner,” he would go into his room. Could this man have come with Pip’s current guest, and fortune giver? Why though, would he not tell Pip of his companion? I am extremely curious to find out more about this character and his role.
42. ‘“Likewise the person with him?’
‘Person with him!’ I repeated.”
Chapter 40, Page 347
So there was a person traveling with his fortune giver. It still is not clear why he would not just tell Pip that he had a companion traveling with him. Why would he just make him wait outside the room like that, all hidden from Pip. I wonder if these two are up to no good, and if they are maybe plotting against Pip in some way or another.
43. ‘“Stop!’ said I, almost in a frenzy of fear and dislike, ‘I want to speak to you. I want to know what is to be done. I want to know how you are to be kept out of danger, how long you are going to stay, what projects you have.”’
Chapter 40, Page 351
I do not think that Provis has thought all of these things out yet. It makes sense that Pip is worried about them because he cannot get caught hiding this criminal. He does feel that he owes it to him to keep him safe however because he is the entire reason Pip is living the life he is living right now. This could be hard to keep his identity such a secret to all.
44. “Once more he took me by both hands and surveyed me with an air of admiring proprietorship, smoking with great complacency all the while.”
Chapter 40, Page 353
Provis is so proud of what he feels he has created. By giving Pip the money, Pip became a gentleman, and Provis is extremely excited that he got to take a part in that. For this reason, he continues to want to just admire Pip. If I were Pip I would get sick of this. I mean, how annoying would it be to have somebody grab your hands ever two seconds and just be like, “Wow, I created such a wonderful person by giving them money. It was all me!” That would just push me over the edge, and I would probably freak out!
45. ‘“Then,’ said I, ‘after all, stopping short here, never taking another penny from him, think what I owe him already! Then and no expectations-and I have been bred to no calling, and I am fit for nothing.”’
Chapter 41, Page 362
So Pip is just going to stop taking money from Provis. He feels guilty about taking the money from him to begin with. I suppose it is because Provis himself is not in the best of shape money wise, and could use a little of it for himself. I wonder however, if he were to find out that it really was Miss Havisham that was giving him the money all along if he would have reacted in a similar way, or if he would have thought it was ok as he has thought all along.
46. ‘“Handel,’ said Herbert, stopping, ‘you feel convinced that you can take no further benefits from him, do you?’
‘Fully. Surely you would, too, if you were in my place?’
‘And you feel convinced that you must break with him?’”
Chapter 41, Page 364
This is very bold and brave of Pip in my opinion. Pip has no money of his own, or a job to rely upon. He is not educated very well, and if he really does stop taking money from Provis, completely disconnecting himself from it all, he will have nothing. He does not seem to get along with Joe all that well, and will not want to go back to the forge. This will not be a subtle change in his life, he will go from having everything to nothing, and to top it all off, he is in major debt!
I am Jade and I Love Squirrels with Tails said...
1."It was fortunate for me that I had to take precautions to insure the safety of my dreadful visitor..."
Why does Pip look at his father, and benefactor of his fortunes, as a 'dreadful visitor'? Despite his rough features and shady past, it seems as if, as his child and reciever of his fortunes, would look at him differently; in a more loving way. This seems like a trend for Pip though. Now that he has become a gentleman, he is totally oblivious to those who love him. He pushes away everyone who is pure in heart and kind to him. Joe, Biddy, and now Magwitch all take a back seat to him and his great expectations.
pg. 346, chapter 40
47. “When the evidence was giv in the box, I noticed how it was always me that had come for’ard, and could be swore to, how it was always me that the money had been paid to, how it was always me that had seemed to work the thing and get the profit.”
Chapter 42, Page 371
Provis had worked with and for this man to get a living and to stay alive, and now he is being sold out. He probably had less of a part in all of this than Compeyson himself, but Compeyson has more power than him, therefore, he is the decider of who did what in this situation, and he is not afraid to lie to save his own butt.
48. “…two persons as your eyes can separate wide; one, the younger, well brought up, who will be spoke to as such; one, the elder, ill brought up, who will be spoke to as such…”
Chapter 42, Page 371
This is something that is also true in our own society. Money can get you anything. It even gains you respect. Everybody is so concerned about the materialistic things. Your rank in life is all based on politics: your money, your parents, and your appearance. Shouldn’t people be more concerned with education, work ethic, and hoesty?
in that last one it should be honesty not hoesty or whatever i put
14. "I had never been struck at so keenly for my thankfulness to Joe, as though the brazen imposter Pumblechook. The falser he, the truer Joe; the mean he, the nobler Joe." Page 448, chapter 52
This reminds me of times when I think that someone is really mean, and really fake, and then I meet someone who is ten times worse, and makes the first person look awesome. When Pip is saying this to himself, it is like he doesn't really know what he has until he notices that it is gone. He misses Joe, even though it might be subconscious. He seems to drift more and more towards his old way of life. As do we all. We never know what we want until it smacks us in the face.
tara
49. “He regarded me with a look of affection that made him almost abhorrent to me again, though I had felt great pity for him.”
Chapter 42, page 372
Pip really does not care to be looked at affectionately by Provis. It makes me think of when Provis grabs both of his hands just to admire him. However, then Pip looks at him and thinks about how his life has been, and feels sorry for him. I am going to make a prediction. I think that Pip is not going to disconnect himself with Provis because he feels sorry for him. He is going to become great friends with him, and continue to hide and help him.
50. “Young Havisham’s name was Arthur. Compeyson is the man who professed to be Miss Havisham’s lover.”
Chapter 42, Page 373
This was an interesting twist to the story. I really did not expect to see this happen! This story is so weird like that. It connects the strangest things which give many unexpected twists. I have to say this is one of the few things I do like about this book. How did Dickens think of the convict really being Pip’s money supplier, and having worked with Miss Havisham’s brother and ex-lover? This is a crazy tangled up, messy puzzle.
Chapter 44 Pg.386 Pragraph
"When you first caused me to brought here, Miss Havisham when I belonged to the village over yonder that I wish I had never left."
He does care. He misses his home and he misses his family. He actually cares about the people that brought him up. He actually believes in the family that he once belonged to. He loved his old father figure and he loved his sister. He wishes now that he would have never inherited the money. Now he realizes what a horible life that wealth can bring.
Chapter 44 Pg. 386 Paragraph 5
"Mr. Jaggers," said Miss havisham taking me up in a firm tone, "had nothing to do with it, and knew nothing of it."
Obviously she is trying to cover something up. She is snappy and jumps to random conclusions. She feels the pressure to tell the truth to Pip. It is sad that he already knows her fate. He knows her flaws and he realizes that it is not him who is in the wrong. It is not him who should be powerlessly in love. It is her who was powerlessly in love and lost everything."
51. “But I said to Herbert that before I could go abroad, I must see both Estella and Miss Havisham.”
Chapter 43, page 374
What is Pip planning on saying to Estella and Miss Havisham? I don’t think he should tell Miss Havisham of Provis, or what he knows about Arthur and Compeyson. That will only upset her. Estella may be interested to hear this however. Either that or she will not like him to know all of this information, and get angry for him knowing and trying to talk to her about it. I really don’t think that any of this should be brought up if Pip wants to stay on their good sides.
“Now, in groping my way down the black staircase, I fell over something, and that something was a man crouching in a corner.”’
Chapter 40, Page 346
Wow scary..
I am surprised to read this. A man is crouching in the corner of Pip's room. I wonder if this man is to help Pip, or hurt him.
15. "I knew that every drop it held was a drop of my life. I knew that when I was changed into a part of the vapour that had crept towards me but a little while before, like my own sister's case - make all haste to the town, and be slouching there, drinking at the ale-houses." Page 454, chapter 53
I can't imagine what it would feel like to literally see your life in the hands of another. I would be utterly frantic just being in Pip's position. Orlick has almost complete control of the situation, except for the fact that he is completely drunk. This may work to Pip's advantage.
tara
"Young Havisham's name was Arthur. Compeyson is the man who professed to be Miss Havisham's lover."
Chapter 42 pg. 378
The beggining strands of the story are now starting to get tied together. So Compeyson is the man who stiffed Miss Havisham at her wedding. I think this will play a significant role in the story. I also thing more of the story will come together.
"In the room where the dressing-table stood, and where the wax candles burnt on the wall, I found Miss Havisham and Estella; Miss Havisham seated on a settee near the fire, and Estella on a cushion at her feet. Estella was knitting, and Miss Havisham was looking on."
It seems as if Pip is stepping back in to time, and that Miss Havishame and Estella have been frozen. I like this. It seems like things are the way they used to be, when Pip would come to Miss Havisham's as a young boy.
"What a doleful night! How anxious, how dismal, how long! There was an inhospitable smell in the room, of cold soot and hot dust..."
Ch 45
Once again Dicken's has elaborated and described this scene in a way not many could. I think if another author would have described a night as long, it would be awkward and wrong, but Dicken's pulls it off. The way that i can see the imagery makes the book more interesting.
"Mrs. Whimple," said Herbert, when I told him so, "is the best of housewives, and I really do not know what my Clara would do without her motherly help. For, Clara has no mother of her own, Handel, and no relation in the world but old Gruffandgrim."
"Surely that's not his name, Herbert?"
Ch 46
I found it quite amusing when he says surely that is not his name. I can see him chuckling at first hearing it, and the way this seems easy going makes the story easy to relate to. This makes a reader more apt to understand the story more in depth.
52. “…When I belonged to the village over yonder, that I wish I had never left;”
Chapter 44, Page 381
I had a feeling that Pip would wish that he had kept his life back home with Joe and Biddy and working at the forge. His life of uncommonness is not all that he had hoped for. Especially now that he knows who it was that gave him that life. Everybody makes mistakes sometimes I suppose, but this one was pretty big, and it could mess up his whole life.
"As the time wore on, an impression settled heavily upon me that Estella was married. Fearful of having it confirmed, though it was all but a conviction, I avoided the newspapers, and begged Herbert (to whom I had confided the circumstances of our last interview) never to speak of her to me."
Ch 47
When i read this i had two different emotional reactions. First of all i was sorry for Pip. He had wanted so badly and tried so hard to be with Estella. Secondly, i was angry at Miss Havisham. She is the one who toyed with Pip's emotions, drove Estella to break his heart, and placed Pip in the position he is in now.
16. "He put his pipe back in his mouth with an undisturbed expression of face, and sat as composed and contented as if we were already out of England." Page 466, chapter 54
Why is Provis so mellow? Maybe he is content with whatever happens to him because he has fulfilled what he needed to do in his life. His life is probably complete, and he is ready for anything that comes his way, even death.
tara
17. "I was not related to the outlaw, or connected with him by any recognizable tie; he had put his hand to no writing or settlement in my favour before his apprehension, and to do so now would be idle. I had no claim, and I finally resolved, and ever afterwards abided by the resolution, that my heart should never be sickened with the hopeless task of attempting to establish one." Page 477, chapter 55
Why worry over something that you don't need to? I thought this was a pretty ironic thing for Pip to say, considering the fact that he spent so much time worrying about him and Estella. I think this symbolizes a real turning point in Pip's character. He is not going to let all the little things that should not concern him bother him. He is finally growing up, and becoming a stronger character.
tara
"As we are going in the same direction, Pip, we may walk together. Where are you bound for?"
ch 48
Jaggers "affection", if you will, surprised me. Up until now he has put up a fascade. He has been hard and cold. I think that maybe that isn't really him. Just as Wemmick has 2 personalities, maybe so does Jaggers.
18. "He had spoken his last words. He smiled, and I understood his touch to mean that he wished to lift my hand, and lay it on his breast. I laid it there, and he smiled again, and put both his hands upon it." Page 489, chapter 56
Magwitch turned out to be a really cool character. He has gone through so much and is such a generous person towards Pip. He seems to love him like he was his own son, especially in this passage. When he puts Pip's hand on his heart, it is like he is saying that he wants Pip to be right there with him until his heart stops.
tara
"A wild beast tamed, you called her."
"And what do you call her?"
"The same. How did Mr. Jaggers tame her, Wemmick?"
ch 48
I love Wemmick's personality when he is at home. He is lively and full of humor. Even though he is completely serious, i can't help but giggle of his name for her, a wild beast tamed.
53. ‘“I should have said this sooner, but for my long mistake, it induced me to hope that Miss Havisham meant us for one another.”’
Chapter 44 Page 383
Wow! If Estella does not react in the way that Pip would like her to, (as in saying that she loves him also and wants to be with him), I think that Pip is going to feel like a complete idiot. I know I would if I spent most of my life trying to get a guy and I professed my love for them and I didn’t get the same sort of response back. How embarrassing would that be? Pip has some guts when it comes to Estella. I have never really acknowledged this. I have always thought of him more as a week character, but I think it just takes something that he feels really strongly about for him to show is stronger personality traits.
54. ‘“Is it not true,’ said I, ‘that Bentley Drummle is in town here, and pursuing you?’”
Chapter 44 Page 384
Pip is already extremely worked up about Estella not loving him back. Her admitting to having Bentley Drummle pursuing her could just throw him over the edge. That is probably the last person that Pip would like to have her be with considering their history and his extreme dislike for the man. All I can say is bummer Pip! :)
"I am far from happy, Miss Havisham; but I have other causes of disquiet than any you know of. They are the secrets I have mentioned."
ch 49
I have heard people many times say that they are unhappy or life stinks. I think that if one looks for the good in life, he will find it. Amongst the bad things in Pip's life, there is good if he would only focus on that, he would be much happier. The only bad thing is that this is much easier said than done.
"My hands had been dressed twice or thrice in the night, and again in the morning."
ch 50
Does the work "thrice" mean three times. I wonder if this is proper English or made up like Warren Harding's "back to normalcy".
55. “Then she said, ‘Why not tell you the truth? I am going to be married to him.”’
Chapter 44 Page 385
This is just like the icing on the cake for Pip I bet. The worst part is that Estella waited until pretty far into the conversation to tell Pip this. She let him rant on how he loved her and such, only to find that she is engaged to Drummle. Another interesting thing to me is that Estella has decided to get married. I thought that she was just going to give the whole male race hell her entire life! I never would have guessed that she would get married. I can picture her marriage however as something that he runs more or less. Almost to the extent of Mrs. Joe and Joe’s relationship, I think that Estella is going to be horrible to Bentley.
19. "Another thing in Joe that I could not understand when it first began to develop itself, but which I soon arrived at a sorrowful comprehension of, was this: as I became stronger and better, Joe became a little less easy with me." Page 500, chapter 57
Joe feels inferior to Pip a lot. He shouldn't because he is an all around better person. Many a time, we may feel inferior to those who are supposedly better than we are in society. Their possessions, their friends, and their money blind us. We are blind sighted towards their weaknesses. We come to feel inferior. Possessions do not define people. It may seem like it a lot of the time but we can definitely start changing that fact by changing our outlook and judgments
tara
"I know I am quite myself. And the man we have in hiding down the river, is Estella's Father."
ch 50
Once again the loose strands of the story are being tied together. Now we know that Estella's mother is Molly, and her Father is the convict. I wonder if this information will be revealed.
"What purpose I had in view when I was hot on tracing out and proving Estella's parentage, I cannot say."
Ch 51
I think the purpose, or rather the reason that he is doing it, is because he still likes Estella. Whether or not he wants to admit it he likes Estella and maybe he is trying to feel more conected to her by finding her parentage.
56. ‘“Nonsense,’ she returned, ‘nonsense. This will pass in no time.”’
Chapter 44 Page 386
To me, it is weird that she can say that. I thought she was a lot smarter than that. Can she not realize that Pip is going to dwell upon this marriage for quite possibly the rest of his life? She probably does realize this though. She just does not want to make a bid deal out of it because then she thinks it will be a bigger deal to Pip. Maybe she is trying to cut him some slack and be nice for once. I don’t really know what I think. I am stuck between those two theories.
1. "Then, I washed and dressed while they knocked the furniture about and made a dust; and so, in a sort of dream or sleep-waking, I found myself sitting by the fire again, waiting for-Him-to come to breakfast."
(Chapter 40, page 363, paragraph 3)
Here Pip is talking about the con man that gave Pip the money. Pip describes him with 'Him' implying a form of power. Pip fears this man and his past, yet, he still tells of a power this man has.
2. "'First knowed Mr. Jaggers that way. Jaggers was for me.'"
(Chapter 40, page 365, paragraph 2)
Till now, I had not considered Mr. Jagger's practice as too bad. I had considered it to be a bit on the unethical side, but seeing a specific example of one of his cases, his practice is to be seen more unethical. Having met this man, you can see one of his cases through your own eyes.
57. “I opened it, the watchman holding up his light, and read inside, in Wemmick’s writing: DON’T GO HOME”
Chapter 44 Page 378
This passage made my mind race! What could be happening in his house that he is not supposed to know about? Is something bad going to happen? Is somebody planning to hurt him? How would Wemmick know about this though? This just made the story so much more exciting!
3. "Some of his teeth had failed him since I saw him eat on the marshes, and as he turned his food in his mouth, and turned his head sideways to bring his strongest fangs to bear upon it, he looked terribly like a hungry old dog."
(Chapter 40, page 365, paragraph 4)
Here, again, Dickens is describing a character by comparing it to a dog. He makes this comparison because of a stereotype he had formed based on upper class behaviors. He believed that upper class society was a world where all competed against the other.
4. "What I was chained to, and how heavily, became intelligible to me, as I heard his hoarse voice, and sat looking up at his furrowed bald head with its iron-grey hair at the sides."
(Chapter 40, page 366, paragraph 1)
This sudden realization is one that many experience quite commonly. It is a steady realization of what is to come and what has happened. All of this combines to how everything is linked to others.
"Walworth. Burn this as soon as read. Early in the week, or say Wednesday, you might do what you know of, if you felt disposed to try it. Now burn."
Ch 52
I didnt understand this. I do think, however, that it is significant. Wemmick said to burn it, so he obviously doesnt want any other to read it. What i dont understand is why¿
5. "'No, no. We'll show 'em another pair of shoes than that, Pip; won't us?'"
(Chapter 40, page 366, paragraph 1)
This man is greatly determined to show that not all are the same that others can come into a society, no matter their background, and succeed, no matter what. In a way he represents Dickens. Dickens believed that higher society was overrated and that he could be himself.
6. "'Well, dear boy, the danger ain't so great.'"
(Chapter 40, page 367, paragraph 6)
Pip is a more apprehensive character by nature, while the con is more relaxed. While Pip is worried about someone discovering this man for whom he is, Provis doesn’t care about what happens to him, only about seeing 'his' gentleman.
7. "'And now let me have a look at my gentleman agen."
(Chapter 40, page 368, paragraph 2)
Provis is trying to live through Pip as Miss Havisham is through Estella. In both cases, someone whose life was affected greatly by something raises a younger person in status. Both want a younger person to live the life that they couldn't themselves.
8. "He was to remain shut up in the chambers while I was gone, and was on no account to open the door."
(Chapter 40, page 369, paragraph 3)
In the case that one of the laundry maids found Provis, he appears to have the ability to talk his way out of the situation. When this story had just begun, he convinced the officers of his story of how he came upon the file and the food. Pip, on the other hand, has an ability to not truly be able to lie.
9. "Of course I saw that he knew the man was come."
(Chapter 40, page 370, paragraph 4)
Jaggers could almost be described as an omniscient narrator. He appears to know more than he lets on. He has known about Provis from the beginning, yet never let on. He appears to have secrets that none are to know in any case.
10. "'You can't have verbal communication with a man in New South Wales, you know.'"
(Chapter 40, page 370, paragraph 6)
Mr. Jaggers is a great player on words. Here he avoided having Pip admit to seeing and talking to Provis, while still showing he knows it to be true. He used this ability quite often as he was in court.
11. "'Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence.'"
(Chapter 40, page 371, paragraph 1)
The advice given here by Mr. Jaggers is like that which most receive commonly. He gives the advice 'Don't judge a book by its cover'. Her Mr. Jaggers is telling Pip that essentially.
12. "We shook hands, and he looked hard at me as long as he could see me."
(Chapter 40, page 372, paragraph 2)
As Mr. Jaggers is staring hard at Pip, he appears to be trying to relay a message to him. He is trying to tell Pip of his understanding of the situation with Pip and Provis, and Provis's leaving of New South Wales.
13. "Whatever he put on, became him less (it dismally seemed to me) than what he had worn before.
(Chapter 40, page 372, paragraph 5)
Every time that Pip sees him dressed differently, he thinks that Provis looks more conspicuous. He is being led to believe this based on his conscious. Pip's fear of being found out haunts him, as everything always does.
14. "Once, I actually did start out of bed in the night, and begin to dress myself in my worst clothes, hurriedly intending to leave there with everything else I possessed, and enlist for India, as a private soldier."
(Chapter 40, page 374, paragraph 1)
Pip's conscience is leading him to fear this man again. He had as a child when he met him in the marshes and again now when his whole life could be exposed to have been supported by and escaped con.
15. "The imaginary student pursued by the misshapen creature he had mad, was not more wretched than I, pursued by the creature who had made me, and recoiling from him with a stronger repulsion, the more he admired me and the fonder he was of me."
(Chapter 40, page 374, paragraph 1)
The reasons behind funding Pip's gentleman ship also include the want for Pip to 'grow a backbone'. Provis wants Pip to stand up for himself and not be pushed around. The more annoyed Pip becomes with Provis, the prouder he becomes.
16. "'Now you're on your oath, you know. And never believe me on mine, if Pip shan't make a gentleman on you!'"
(Chapter 40, page 375, paragraph 4)
Here, Provis appears to be like a proud father. He has the greatest beliefs in Pip to be right and be able to do all. His attitudes show that he once wanted to be in this same situation.
17. "When it closed upon him, I experienced the first moment of relief I had known since the night of his arrival."
(Chapter 41, page 377, paragraph 1)
Here, again, is Pip's conscience playing with him. Since Provis showed up, Pip had been on edge. He had been cautious of all. This sense of Provis disappearing, even for a short while, was very relaxing.
18. "The chair that Provis had occupied still remaining where it had stood-for he had a barrack way with him of hanging about one spot, in one unsettled manner, and going through one round of observances with his pipe and his negro-head and his jack-knife and his pack of cards, and what not, as if it were all put down for him on a slate-I say, his chair remaining where it had stood, Herbert unconsciously took it, but next moment started out of it, pushed it away, and took another."
(Chapter 41, page 377, paragraph 3)
Provis resembles a person's grandmother in a way described here. He lingers in a place long after he has gone. In the grandmother's sense, it is a good thing. With Provis, his lingering is a bad feeling of something is not right.
19. "'How can I?' I interposed, as Herbert paused. 'Think of him! Look at him!'"
(Chapter 41, page 378, paragraph 5)
Pip is again insulting his background here. He is putting down the life that he came from. He is insulting the life that made him who he is now.
20. "He came round at the appointed time, took out his jack-knife, and sat down to his meal."
(Chapter 41, page 381, paragraph 1)
Provis is attached to this jack-knife. He always has it with him. It makes you wonder as to if this knife got him into trouble in the first place.
"It was a dark night, though the full moon rose as I left the enclosed lands, and passed out upon the marshes."
Ch 53
Altough i believe that this passage was intended to be dark and mysterious. I find it peaceful. My grandfather and I used to walk out upon his fields and look to the horizon. This reminded me of the times (late night, early morning) when we used to do this.
"We loitered down to the Temple stairs, and stood loitering there, as if we were not quite decided to go upon the water at all."
ch 54
I have never understood the word "loitering". I think that in this passage it means simply standing around undecided. I can see why in this moment of uncertainty they would "loiter".
"He was taken to the Police Court next day, and would have been immediately committed for trial"
ch 55
Although the man was indeed a convict, Dickens made the reader feel compassion towards him. I think that in order to be a good writer you must be able to evoke emotions among your reader. Dickens achieved this.
"He lay on his back, breathing with great difficulty. Do what he would, and love me though he did, the light left his face ever and again, and a film came over the placid look at the white ceiling."
ch 56
When i read this passage i thought of the very first chapter when Pip met the convict. That single day when Pip helped the convict led to this incredible story, and Pip has gained and is now loosing a friend.
"For a day or two, I lay on the sofa, or on the floor - anywhere, according as I happened to sink down - with a heavy head and aching limbs, and no purpose, and no power. Then there came one night which appeared of great duration, and which teemed with anxiety and horror; and when in the morning I tried to sit up in my bed and think of it, I found I could not do so."
ch 57
I can relate to Pip, not in the fact that he lost a friend, but that he is feeling meloncholy. I have felt this depressing mood in which you feel like you could lay their and die. I feel sorry for Pip and all of his troubles, but i think that he will end the story on different terms.
20. "I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her." Page 516, chapter 59
I loved this ending! When Pip says that he sees no shadow parting from Estella, it is saying that she is finally true, she has no other part that is keeping her from being herself. It seems as if she has learned to love, and it seems that Pip has learned to move on. He has moved on in the way that he didn't fall all over himself when he saw Estella. They are friends, who have respect and possibly more, that will know the meaning of feeling with their hearts. This ending made me wonder what was going to happen from here on out, but it also gave me a sense that everything will turn out ok, because the characters are strong enough to handle whatever comes their way; whether it be love, heart break, or just friendship.
tara!!! Last one y'all
"Little more than skin and bone!" mused Mr. Pumblechook, aloud. "And yet when he went from here (I may say with my blessing), and I spread afore him my humble store, like the Bee, he was as plump as a Peach!"
ch 58
I think that this very statement can be a metaphor for Pip's entire journey. In the beggining he was content and had a family, plump as a Peach. When he came back, however, he has lost almost everything there is to lose, he is nothing but skin and bones.
"I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her."
ch 59
Earlier i made the prediction that Pip would end the story on better terms, i think he achieved this. He is back to a state of contentness with his life and himself, that i think he never should have left. I think that he and Estella will be married as well, and live happily ever after.
58. “But all this time, why I as not to go home, and what had happened at home, and when I should go home, and whether Provis was safe at home, were questions occupying my mind so busily that one might have supposed there could be no more room in it for any other theme.”
Chapter 45 Page 389
If I were Pip, I would be so scared right now. I would probably tell the authorities or something. This does however give me the idea that Pip really does care for Provis. He says that he wonders if Provis is safe at home or not. I think my earlier prediction is going to come true.
1)1) “I fell over something, and that something was a man crouching in a corner.”
Chapter 40, Section 3
Why is there some random guy crouching in the corner of the stair well? Why did “it” decide to be right there? Maybe that’s as far as he got before Pip came back down the stairs, maybe it way a set up and something more was supposed to happen but didn’t because Pip came back with the guard.
Katy Hill
2)2) “’and this,’ said he, dandling my hands up and down in his, as he puffed at his pipe, ‘and this is the gentleman what I made! The real genuine One! If does me good fur to look at you, Pip. All I stip’late, is, to stand by and look at you, dear boy!’”
Chapter 40, Section 3
Why would this guy do this for Pip, nothing that good happened? He gave him a file and that was it. Now this guy is giving him so much money to spend on stuff he would have been fine without. Why is this guy so interested with the fact the Pip is now is now a gentlemen I wonder? Now that I have read on it became obvious that he was once in contact with a man who was a gentlemen who could get away with thing because of the way he presented himself.
Katy Hill
59. ‘“You have heard of a man of bad character whose true name is Compeyson?’
He answered with one other nod.
‘Is he living?’
One other nod.
‘Is he in London?’
He gave me one other nod, compressed the post office exceedingly, gave me one last nod, and went on with is breakfast.”
Chapter 45 Page 392
So does this mean that the Compeyson is trying to do something bad to Pip? No, wait! I bet he is trying to find Provis! So I bet that that is who Pip stumbled over on the stairs that night that Provis arrived! This is all coming together. I wonder however, if he has found Provis, or if Provis even know he is looking for him?
3)“’There’s something worth spending in that there book, dear boy. It’s yourn. All I’ve got ain’t mine; it’s yourn. Don’t you be afeerd on it. There’s more where that come from.’”
Chapter 40, Section 3
Why is this guy giving away all that money, Again all this kid did was give him a file. I don’t understand, giving him a whole bunch of money is not going to do anything he had already said thank-you for it by taking the rap for the missing food and file. I don’t really understand why he still thinks that he owes it to Pip.
Katy Hill
4) “’Don’t commit yourself,’ said Mr. Jaggers, “and don’t commit any one. You understand – any one. Don’t tell me anything: I don’t want to know anything; I am not curious.”
Chapter 40, Section 3
I don’t get why Mr. Jaggers is so like I don’t care he is usually the guy saying you give me the money it will happen and its not like he didn’t know that they had the money.
Katy HIll
5) “I ain’t made Pip a gentleman, and Pip ain’t agoing to make you a gentleman.”
Chapter 41, Section 3
What the heck yes he did he was the money man who made it all happen.
Katy HIll
6) “’And what wind,’ said Miss Havisham, ‘blows you here, Pip?’”
Chapter 44, Section 3
I can’t tell if she is mad she is mad or if she is ok with it? She doesn’t sound that mean but it could also be that she doesn’t really care any more. Here she sounds like she is really calm and not really wanting to fight with anyone any more.
Katy Hill
7) “’What I had to say to Estella, Miss Havisham, I will say before you, presently-in a few moments. It will not surprise you, it will not displease you. I am as unhappy as you can ever have meant me to be.’”
Chapter 44, Section 3
In this part he is saying that good job Miss Havisham I am very unhappy and its your fault but hey that’s what you wanted so I am happy for you that you accomplished your goal.
Katy Hill
8) “’Estella,’ said I, turning to her now, and trying to command trebling voice, ‘you know I love you. You know that I have loved you long and dearly.’”
Chapter 44, Section 3
How much time must he tell her that she is cared for so much. This is one of many times he says that he likes and or loves her, how many times must he say it for her to get the hint and how many times will he say it before he realizes that she dose not like him back?
katy Hill
9) “’Why not tell you the truth? I am going to be married to him.’”
Chapter 44, Section 3
Why did she wait so long to say this, she had just heard him say that he loved her then she continues on as if she can’t feel love the is like yeah so you hate Drummle why not just say it then I am going to marry him. It’s like she is marring him because Pip hates him.
Katy Hill
10) “’You will get me out of your thoughts in a week.’”
Chapter 44, Section 3
Why would he forget about her in a week he has had her on his mind or many years and has always liked her? I think that he should forget about her but its not that easy. I think that now that Miss Havisham has let her free she doesn’t know how to act so she is still mean. I think that raising someone this way will keep them that way for life.
Katy HIll
10) “’You will get me out of your thoughts in a week.’”
Chapter 44, Section 3
Why would he forget about her in a week he has had her on his mind or many years and has always liked her? I think that he should forget about her but its not that easy. I think that now that Miss Havisham has let her free she doesn’t know how to act so she is still mean. I think that raising someone this way will keep them that way for life.
Katy HIll
11) “’If you mean, Miss Havisham, what have you done to injure me, let me answer. Very little. I should have loved her under any circumstances – Is she married?’”
Chapter 49, Section 3
I love how he adds on the is she married at the end of it, saying that I would have loved her no mater what and if she is still signal I will take her.
Katy Hill
12) “’Whose child was Estella?’
She shook her head.
‘You don’t know?’
She shook her head again.”
Chapter 49, Section 3
Why would you not ask about where this random kid came from? So guy shows up and is like here take a kid, oh ok I will. Why would you not ask? How would you not know that the kid was not stolen or whatever that is just crazy.
Katy Hill
13) “…..I saw her running at me, shrieking, with a whirl of fir blazing all about her…”
Chapter 49, Section 3
Did she lean into the fire or was that an accident? Well it is like she is sitting there and then jumps up on fire. I could really go either way.
Katy Hill
1) “Well! He went into that pr tot his life, and a dark wild part it is. Shall I tell you? Or would it worry you just now?”
Chapter 50, Section 3
I hate how in this book they are like oh you are in pain so I am to going to tell you that because you are in pain and I don’t want to worry you.
Katy Hill
15) “’You was always in Old Orlick’s way since ever you was a child. You go out of his way, this present night. He’ll have no more on you. You’re dead.”
Chapter 53, Section 3
How could Pip be in the way? It doesn’t make sense unless its that Pip was to be Joe’s apprentice and that’s what he wanted. Why would you try to kill someone for that? It is something you can’t change. Maybe its because back then jobs were really hard to find and losing a good one to a child would be really bad.
Katy Hill
16) “’It was you, villain,’ said I.”
Chapter 53, Section 3
Why would Orlick do this and them blame it on Pip, how what it his flat? What is it with people in this time blaming stuff on the kids?
Katy Hill
17) “For a day or two, I lay on the sofa, or on the floor – anywhere, according as I happened to sink down – with a heavy head and aching limbs, and no purpose, and no power.”
Chapter 57, Section 3
It would suck to not be able to do anything at all and have to just deal with what came with time while not being able to move at all.
Katy Hill
18) “Evidently, Biddy had thought Joe to write. As I lay in bed looking at him, it made me, in my weak state, cry again with pleasure to see the pride with which he set about his letter.”
Chapter 57, Section 3
I am glad that we finally see that Joe is smarted then he used to be. I like the fact that he was very happy that he did change and am happy that he can now show it off to Pip saying I am too smart.
Katy Hill
19) “So Herbert and Clara say, but I don’t think I shall Biddy. I have so settle down in their home, that it’s not at all likely. I am already quite and could bachelor.”
Chapter 59, Section 3
I don’t think this is all that is going on with Pip I also think that the dose not what to settle down because he can not have any of the two girls that he had lave. I think that it served him right that he could not pick one now he gets none.
Katy Hill
20) “I little thought,’ said Estella, ‘that I should take leave of you in taking leave of this spot. I am very glad to do so.’”
Chapter 59, Section 3
I don’t really understand Estella. I think she thinks pip is a good guy but does not want to have that so she is mean to him and pushes him away when she really wants him.
Katy Hill
60. ‘“Dear boy,’ he answered, clasping m hands, ‘I don’t know when we may meet again, and I don’t like good-bye. Say good night!”’
Chapter 46 Page 401
This is kind of sad. It seems as though Pip and Provis have just gotten close, and now Provis has to leave. I hope that they meet up soon because I think that they were beginning to form a great friendship. They had both kind of saved each other’s lives in a way, and I think that formed a strong bond. One that could never be broken.
41. “He ate in a ravenous way that was very disagreeable, and all his actions were uncouth, noisy, and greedy. Some of his teeth had failed him since I saw him eat on the marshes, and as he turned his food in his mouth, and turned his head sideways to bring his strongest fangs to bear upon it, he looked terribly like a hungry old dog.”
(page 350, para 4, Ch. 40)
Charles Dickens, throughout this work, refers to human actions, especially eating, as very much like those of dogs. In this section, Pip describes the convict as eating like a dog. Perhaps this is to show how Charles Dickens felt about the human race at this time because people were acting very much like dirty animals.
-Mauro Whiteman
42. “’As to what I dare, I’m a old bird now, as has dared all manner of traps since first he was fledged, and I’m not afeerd to perch upon a scarecrow. If there’s death hid inside of it, there is, and let him come out, and I’ll face him, and then I’ll believe in him and not afore.’”
(page 353, para 1, Ch. 40)
I think Magwitch makes a very good point in this statement, and I believe people should live their lives based on this statement. Magwitch simply states that he doesn’t fear death, and he will risk anything because he will not believe in death until he is faced with it.
-Mauro Whiteman
43. “’There was another in with Compeyson, as was called Arthur--not as being so chrisen’d, but as a surname. He was in a decline, and was a shadow to look at. Him and Compeyson had been in a bad thing with a rich lady some years afore, and they’d made a pot of money by it;’”
(page 368, para 9, Ch. 42)
I wonder if this Compeyson guy is actually Miss Havisham’s brother and if Arthur is Miss Havisham’s lover, or vice versa. This seems very strange how interconnected the stories of all these peoples lives are. This also shows how great of an author Charles Dickens was.
-Mauro Whiteman
44. “Why should I pause to ask how much of my shrinking from Provis might be traced to Estella?”
(page 374, para 1, Ch. 43)
This passage shows how controlled Pip is by Estella, especially in his relationships. This also shows how weak of a person Pip is because he allows Estella to change his entire character. It also symbolizes people turning from righteousness to be with the enticing evil.
-Mauro Whiteman
45. “and as Drummle leaned down from the saddle and lighted his cigar and laughed with a jerk of his head towards the coffe-room window, the slouching shoulders, and ragged hair of this man, whose back was towards me, reminded me of Orlick.”
(page 379, para 1, Ch. 43)
Orlick seems to be associating with a lot of bad people and seems to be found in a lot of bad situations. Here he is fraternizing with Drummle, and earlier he seemed to have been in on the attack on Mrs. Joe Gargary. I wonder if Orlick is really as shadowy of a character as he seems to be.
-Mauro Whiteman
46. “’Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil.’”
(page 386, para 5, Ch. 44)
Pip seems to admit in this sentence that Estella is part of the evil in him, which I think is very true. She seems to be the main reason for him being corrupt and for him acting cruelly and for him being an all-around bad person. I think that if he realized this he might have changed his actions throughout life.
-Mauro Whiteman
47. “At about the same time, the eyes on the wall acquired a new expression, and in every one of those staring rounds I saw written, Don’t go home.”
(page 389, para 1, Ch. 45)
I am amazed at the fear that Pip feels here. It is like when I was a young child, and I would be afraid of the shadows on the walls. He sees the words all around him, and with them the fear that these words make him feel. I think this is good insight on how the human mind works.
-Mauro Whiteman
48. “’But what a blessing it is for the son of my father and mother to love a girl who has no relations, and who can never bother herself, or anybody else, about her family!’”
(page 398, para 5, Ch. 46)
I wonder why Herbert thinks it is a good thing for the girl he loves to have no relations. Perhaps his father and mother do not like having relations, and so he has always grown up with the idea that they are bad. Or maybe he doesn’t want to be embarrassed by her relations, which his parents might find unworthy?
-Mauro Whiteman
49. “’I don’t know when we may meet again, and I don’t like good-bye. Say good night!’”
(page 401, para 5, Ch. 46)
I think this is a strange thing for Provis to say, and yet I feel that it is very significant. I think that people shouldn’t say goodbye because it sounds like you’re not going to see the person for a long time. However, when you say “good night” it sounds as though you are just going to be gone for the night, and you will see them again very soon. I think that this is a very insightful statement.
-Mauro Whiteman
50. “Why I hoarded up this last wretched little rag of the robe of hope that was rent and given to the winds, how do I know? Why did you who read this commit that not dissimilar inconsistency of your own, last year, last month, last week?”
(page 404, para 3, Ch. 47)
I was confused by the questions that Pip presented in this paragraph. I think he is speaking of his hoarding up a little bit of hope for the love of Estella, though he knows that she will never love him. However, I do not understand why he says that the reader does the same thing. I think he realizes what a silly thing it is that he is doing, and so he wishes to pin the blame on someone else.
-Mauro Whiteman
51. “I cannot exaggerate the enhanced disquiet into which this conversation threw me, or the special and peculiar terror I felt at Compeyson’s having been behind me ‘like a ghost.’”
(page 409, para 10, Ch. 47)
I think this is a scary situation that Pip is in, because I don’t know if Compeyson knows everything about Pip and Magwitch and if Compeyson wants revenge of any sort on either of them. I think Pip should flee England pretty fast, lest he wants to get killed by Compeyson in a dark alley somewhere.
-Mauro Whiteman
52. “And I felt absolutely certain that this woman was Estella’s mother.”
(page 414, para 5, Ch. 48)
This is an interesting twist in the story. I thought that Estella would actually have really rich parents somewhere in France, but instead she has a maid for a mom. Also, this explains the ghost that Pip sees every time he looks at Estella.
-Mauro Whiteman
53. “I fancied that I saw Miss Havisham hanging to the beam. So strong was the impression that I stood under the beam shuddering from head to foot before I knew it was a fancy--though to be sure I was there in an instant.”
(page 426, para 1, Ch. 49)
I wonder why Pip always sees Miss Havisham hanging in the same room. I don’t know if this is a premonition of what is to come with Miss Havisham. Perhaps this is even foreshadowing what will happen to Estella when she grows old and cold like Miss Havisham did. I don’t know which one is scarier.
-Mauro Whiteman
54. “When I saw her again, an hour afterwards, she lay indeed where I had seen her strike her stick and had heard her say she would lie one day.”
(page 427, para 2, Ch. 49)
I don’t understand exactly what happened to Miss Havisham, or how all of the things got arranged like this, and yet Miss Havisham seemed to know exactly what would happen and when it would happen. This was a strange thing, and yet Miss Havisham knew exactly how the whole story would unfold. I also wonder what Miss Havisham wants Pip to forgive her for.
-Mauro Whiteman
55. “’it seems that the woman was a young woman, and a jealous woman, and a revengeful woman; revengeful, Handel, to the last degree.’”
(page 431, para 2, Ch. 50)
All the intertwined story lines in the book are starting to become a lot clearer now. I am shocked at how brilliantly put together the book was by Charles Dickens. It now seems as though Provis is Estella’s father and the maid at Mr. Jaggers house is her mother, which contradicts what I thought would happen. Perhaps there is still hope for Pip with Estella if he reveals all this to Estella.
-Mauro Whiteman
56. “’then I tell you that you had better--and would much soon when you had thought well of it--chop off that bandaged left hand of yours with your bandaged right hand, and then pass the chopper on to Wemmick there, to cut that off, too.”
(page 440, para 9, Ch. 51)
I thought that this entire statement by Mr. Jaggers was strangely true. It is often true in the case of having found out a large secret: sharing the secret will do no one any good, and will probably end up hurting someone in the end. So maybe everyone could take some advice from Mr. Jaggers and just cut off their hands when they have an “in” on a big secret.
-Mauro Whiteman
57. “So the unfortunate Mike very humbly withdrew, and Mr. Jaggers and Wemmick appeared to have re-established their good understanding, and went to work again with an air of refreshment upon them as if they had just had lunch.”
(page 442, para 1, Ch. 51)
I was amazed at the reestablishment of the good understanding between Mr. Jaggers and Wemmick. All that Wemmick had to do was be totally heartless to Mike and Mr. Jaggers again accepted him. I think this also reflects the transformation that Wemmick has between Walworth and the office. At home, Wemmick is a nice person, but at work he is cold and cruel, just like Mr. Jaggers.
-Mauro Whiteman
‘“That’s it my dear boy! Call me uncle.’
‘You assumed some name, I suppose, on board ship?’
‘Yes, dear boy. I took the name of Provis.’
‘Do you mean to keep that name?’
‘Yes, my dear boy, it’s as good as any other—unless you’d like another.’
‘What is your real name?’ I asked him in a whisper.
‘Magwitch,’ he answered in the same tone; ‘chrisen’d Abel’
‘What were you brought up to be?’
‘A warmint, dear boy.’
Ch 40 pg 364 para 3
Why is the man letting Pip/Handel call him uncle? It gives the man a nice homley feeling even though he is a varmint. Being called uncle makes the man seem kinder and kid friendly. Why was the man wanting to be called uncle, fake name Provis? How did he come up with the name Provis? Why did he have to use a fake name? Does he like the name Magwitch? Were his parents mean to him or was he picked on that made him not like his name?
58. “It was the only good thing I had done, and the only completed thing I had done, since I was first apprised of my great expectations.”
(page 443, para 1, Ch. 52)
I was surprised at how low Pip feels about himself, though with good reason. I think he has been extremely cruel to all his friends, and yet I think he deserves a little more credit than he gives himself. I am sure he has done more things in his time as a gentleman, and I am just as sure that some of those things were good things.
-Mauro Whiteman
59. “I had never been struck at so keenly for my thanklessness to Joe, as though the brazen impostor Pumblechook. The falser he, the truer Joe; the meaner he, the nobler Joe.”
(page 448, para 3, Ch. 52)
I think it is very good that Pip finally realized how ungrateful he has been to Joe. Perhaps he will now go to Joe and tell him how badly thanked he has been. However, I doubt very much that Pip has a strong enough character to do this, and he will stay thankless to Joe for a long time. Also, Pip realizes how clean Joe is in this very dirty world.
-Mauro Whiteman
“‘It’s all right, dear boy,’ said Provis coming forward, with his little clasped black book, and then addressing himself to Herbet. ‘Take it in your right hand. Lord strike you dead on the spot, if you split in any way sumever. Kiss it!’
‘Do so as he wishes it,’ I said to Herbert. So, Herbert looked at me with a friendly uneasiness and amazement, complied, and Provis immediately shaking hands with him, said, ‘Now you are on oath you know. And never believe me on mine, if Pip shan’t make a gentleman on you!’
Ch40 pg375 para 4
Why does he make Herbert kiss the black book? Why does he have to kiss the black book? Is Provis religious? Does Provis mean that Pip has to make Herbert a gentleman? If Pip doesn’t make Herbert a gentle man then what shall Herbert never believe Provis on?
60. “humbly beseeching pardon, as I did, of Heaven; melted at heart, as I was, by the thought that I had taken no farewell, and never now could take farewell, of those who were dear to me, or could explain myself to them, or ask for their compassion on my miserable errors;”
(page 454, para 1, Ch. 53)
I think this is a very sad realization that Pip has in the face of death. He realizes that he will never have the chance to ask forgiveness from all the people who he has wronged over the years, and he finally feels bad about how ruthless and cruel he has been throughout his life.
-Mauro Whiteman
”’ Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.”
Ch 40 pg 371 para 1
This is true it’ just like ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ you don’t judge something by how it looks or how it seem because there is always something under the cover or skin or what ever it is. You also don’t accuse someone did something with out the proper evidence, you don’t go by how it looks. This is a good lesson.
)”’Dear boy, and Pip’s comrade, you two may count upon me always having a gee-teel muzzle on. Muzzled I have been since that half a minuet when I was betrayed into lowness, muzzled I am at the present time, muzzled I will ever be.’”
Ch 41 pg 376 para 3
Provis is muzzled, I think by muzzled I mean he is gentler or has softened. He is more gentle to people then he used to be. Provis will never try to hurt Pip or he will never betray anyone. He doesn’t like being betrayed and doesn’t want to betray anyone.
61? “I only saw a man who had meant to be my benefactor, and who had felt affectionately, gratefully, and generously towards me with great constancy through a series of years. I only saw in him a much better man than I had been to Joe.”
(page 475, para 1, Ch. 54)
I think this realization puts Pip’s entire life into perspective. He has always had around him a group of people who truly love him, and yet he ventured out to gain the love of more (a very bad case of greed). And throughout his adventure, he never really shows gratitude to any of the people who have helped him or loved him, and he has never shown any love back to them, all because he wants to have Estella.
-Mauro Whiteman
”’Then,’ said I, ‘after all, stopping short here, never taking another penny form him, think what I owe him already!’”
Ch41 pg 378 para 8
Pip feels bad because he is using Provis’ money that he worked to get. Pip feels horrible because he thinks of what he has to pay back and he doesn’t know how he will ever pay Provis back. How is Pip going to pay Provis back? Will he pay him back? How long will it take?
”’Then,’ said I, ‘after all, stopping short here, never taking another penny form him, think what I owe him already!’”
Ch41 pg 378 para 8
Pip feels bad because he is using Provis’ money that he worked to get. Pip feels horrible because he thinks of what he has to pay back and he doesn’t know how he will ever pay Provis back. How is Pip going to pay Provis back? Will he pay him back? How long will it take?
”Young Havishan’s name was Arthur. Compeyson is the man who professed to be Miss. Havisham’s lover.”
Ch 42 pg 389 para 9
I understand now. I have one question now. Who are Estella’s parents? Does Miss Havisam know who they are? Does Estella know? If so how? Maybe once Pip knows who Estella’s parents are then he can actually talk to her without getting hurt in one wa or another.
”You will never marry him, Estella?”
Ch 44 pg 401 para 2
Why does Pip still love Estella after he knows she is to be married? Does he regret showing Bentley Drummle to Mr. Jaggers? Why is Estella getting married to Bentley Drummel? Who wants Estella to marry Bentley Drummel? Deep down does Estella want to marry Bentley Drummel?
”’Take him, and I bear it better for your sake!’”
Ch 44 pg 401 para 5
Pip must really care for Estella, willing to let go of her so she will be happy. If only Estella could see this but she doesn’t. Is Pip really ever going to stop loving Estella deep down in his heart? Pip made the ultimate sacrifice to someone you love by disregarding what he feels to do what is better for the other person.
”Much surprised by the request, I took the note. It was directed to Philip Pip, Esquire, and on the top of the superscription were the words “PLEASE READ THIS, HERE.” I opened it, the watch man holding up his light, and read in side in Wemmick’s writing: “DON’T GO HOME.””
Ch 44 pg 403 para 6
Why doesn’t Wemmick want Pip to go home? Why did he address Pip as ‘Philip Pip’? Is something the matter? Has something happened to Wemmick? Someone else?
“’The one that had been mauled.’”
Ch 47 pg 427 para 9
Why is the other convict in the story now? I don’t like how everyone in the beginning of the story comes back at the end. This adds question to the readers mind. I like how Charles Dickens did that. Is this the guy who betrayed Provis?
“ “Do you remember the sex of the child?” “Said to have been a girl.” “
Ch 48 pg 436 para 4
I see Estella’s mother is Jagger’s servent. Why is Mr. Jagger so nice to Estella’s mother? Does he love her like Pip loves Estella? Who is Estella’s father? Could it be Mr. Jaggers? That could be why he is so nice to Estella’s mom. He looked at Estella rather shyly when he was eating with Miss Havisham, Estella, Pip, Startop, and Bently, in the second stage of Pip’s expectations.
“’My Dear! Believe this: when she first came to me, I meant to save from misery like my own. At first I meant no more.’”
Ch 49 pg 436 para 4
Miss Havisham loved Estella so she tried teaching Estella her ways even though they made her ice cold and mean. Miss Havisham wanted to protect Estella at first but she grew greedy and wanted to make someone pay and that was the male sex. She wanted to protect Estella but end up hurting her and everyone around her.
2) “’I have been informed by Wemmick,’ pursued Mr. Jaggers, still looking hard at me, ‘that he has recived a letter , under date Portsmouth, from a colonist of the name Pruvis, or--‘
‘Or Provis,’ I suggested.
‘Or Provis—thank you, Pip. Perhaps it is Provis? Perhaps you know it is Provis?’
‘Yes,’ said I
‘You know it’s Provis. A letter, under date Portsmouth, from a colonist of the name Provis, asking for the particulars of you address, on behalf of Magwitch.”
Ch 40 pg 371 para 7
That is the man that asked Pip to call him uncle. Does Mr. Jaggers know who Provis or Pruvis is? Why does Pip correct Mr. Jagger on the name? Does Magwich want Mr. Jaggers to think that Pip knows who Provis is
)”Herbert received me with open arms, and I had never felt before so blessedly, what it is to have a friend. When he had spoken some words of sympathy and encouragement, we sat down to consider the question, What was to be done?’
I know how Pip feels, after something hard the only thing you want is a friend to talk to or hug. You feel happy or strong around a certain someone or a bunch of certain someone’s. Is Herbert the only friend Handel/Pip has? What happened with Bently and Startop?
"It was you villian, said I."
ch 53 section 3
Why would Orlick blame what he did on Pip? Does Orlick hate Pip? Why did Orlick do what he did? Was it to try to get Pip into touble?
2. “There’s something worth spending in that there book, dear boy. It’s yourn. All I’ve got ain’t mine; it’s yourn.”
Page 351 chapter 40
This is a very interesting quote in the book. I think this because I’m not too sure about ol’ Magwitch. He seems like a nice guy to Pip, and a generally good person, but his past is very, very shady. He’s been in jail numerous times for shifty business among other things. I think he might have some sort of hidden agenda. I just cannot fathom what that would be. I mean, he had a bunch of money, and then gave it to Pip, so he couldn’t want money. It just seems like a very odd situation. Hopefully, this will clear up in later chapters.
3. “’I am not so unreasonable, sir, as to think you at all responsible for my mistakes and wrong conclusions, but I always supposed it was Miss Havisham.’”
Page 355, chapter 40
Dickens does a wonderful job of building up an idea and foreshadowing a logical conclusion, and then proving it FALSE right when the reader thinks there could be no other answer then the one he built up. He even got Pip to believe that Havisham was the one responsible for his fortunes!
4. “…from head to foot, there was convict in the very grain of the man.”
Page 357 chapter 40
This quote stirs up very hard and thought provoking questions in my little brain: can a man (or woman) be born evil? Is it possible for people to actually, truly change for the better, or will they always be evil? I’ve thought long and hard about these questions and I’ve come to the conclusion that I cannot, in assurance, answer either of those questions. It comes down to nature .vs. nurture. Are people born evil? Or are they raised evil? There are so many different instances where both can be true. I, however, have trust and faith in people and think that people can be born again and turn over a new leaf. I wonder if Pip will consider this way of thinking. Could I get some feedback on this topic?
5. “’Now, you’re on your oath, you know. And never believe me on mine, if Pip sha’n’t make a gentleman on you!’”
Page 359 chapter 40
This is very ironic. Provis is talking to Herbert Pocket. It is ironic because Provis is assuring Herbert that Pip will make a gentleman out of him. It was not too long ago that Herbert was the sensei teaching the young grasshopper how to be a gentleman.
6. “Herbert received me with open arms, and I had never felt before so blessedly what it is to have a friend.”
Page 361 chapter 41
I’m glad that Pip can finally say that he has a true, genuine friend now that he is a gentleman. He makes it seem like he has never had a friend before, however. He must have totally forgotten about Joe and Biddy at this point. This part saddens me. I don’t think it’s fair to them that he is such a jerk. I hope that they are moving on without him because, quite frankly, I think they are much better off without him.
7. “’More than that, he seems to me (I may misjudge him) to be a man of a desperate and fierce character.’”
Page 363 chapter 41
Although I can see where they would get this presumption about Magwitch, I think it very unfair that they don’t even give him a chance. He’s been there for only a couple of days and they think they know all about him. I think they should at least give him a chance to show his true colors. So far, he seems to be a man of noble character; giving all his fortune for his son that he barely knows. Sometimes, we have to look past first impressions and outer appearances and get to know people before we have an opinion of them.
8. “Yes; even though I was so wretched in having him at large and near me, and even though I would far rather have worked at the forge all the days of my life than I would ever have come to this!”
Page 363 chapter 41
It is interesting that Pip now longs to be common. He now realizes that there are certain things that come with being fortunate including dealing with the person that supplied him with his riches. I bet he wishes that he would have stayed with Joe and Biddy now. Oh my, how the tides have turned.
9. “…and Compeyson’s wife (which Compeyson kicked mostly) was a-having pity on him when she could and Compeyson was a-having pity on nothing and nobody.”
Page 369 chapter 41
This is the first example of male dominance in this book. It blows my mind that it takes 300-odd pages to show how males dominated in this very unequal period in history. Most of the examples in the book, including Mrs. Gargery and Estella, have the chick being the “Alpha Male” and taking control. This quote also shows us Compeyson’s character. We don’t get a very good impression of him. He seems to be a ruthless business man, and little else.
10. “’Sally, she really upstairs along me now, and I can’t get rid of her…she’s awful mad, and she’s got a shroud hanging over her arm, and she says she’ll put it on me at five in the morning.’”
Page 369 chapter 41
This passage reminds me of the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”. This man, Arthur, is so paranoid about a ghostly figure in his room who wants to kill him. This parallels “Yellow Wallpaper” almost to a ‘T’. Hopefully, this guy’s fate turns out better than the lady’s in the other story!
11. “Young Havisham’s name was Arthur. Compeyson is the man who professed to be Miss Havisham’s lover.”
Page 373 chapter 42
Wow. This book gets more and more complicate. Let’s see if I can break it down for y’all. Pip knows Miss Havisham from childhood days playing at her house. Jaggers is Havisham’s lawyer as well as a colleague and friend of Magwitch. Magwitch used to be a partner with a gentleman named Compeyson who had a friend by the name of Arthur Havisham. Arthur was Havisham’s brother and Compeyson was the man responsible for Havisham’s hatred of all men. That is why she invited Pip over to get his heart broken by the monster she created named Estella. Magwitch is Pip’s long lost father. This definitely beats ANY soap opera!
12. “’I should have said this sooner...It induced me to hope that Miss Havisham meant us for one another. While I thought you could not help yourself, as it were, I refrained from saying it. But I must say it now.’”
Page 383 chapter 44
This is a weird turn of events. Pip finally has the confidence to confess his love for Estella. It is also odd that Pip has such high thoughts of Havisham. He thinks of her as wanting the two of them to be together, when in all reality, she just wanted Estella to break the little fella’s heart. I wonder what Estella will do now. What will she say?
13. “’When you say you love me, I know what you mean as a form of words, but nothing more. You address nothing in my breast, you touch nothing there. I don't care for what you say at all. I have tried to warn you of this, now, have I not?’”
Page 384 chapter 44
Whoa. I totally saw this coming. Estella once and for all breaks Pip’s little heart, except, it was done in a way that is rather unexpected. She is neither mean nor cynical about it, she just, politely as possible, tells him how she feels. Love, I believe, is two sided. One side cannot do all the work. It is a cooperative effort between two people with an emotional and physical connection with one another. I think she feels bad about it, though. She seems a lot different than she was in previous chapters. I wonder what will now become of Estella. What about Pip? Will he go back to Biddy?
14. “Herbert had sometimes said to me that he found it pleasant to stand at one of our windows after dark, when the tide was running down, and to think that it was flowing, with everything it bore, towards Clara. But I thought with dread that it was flowing towards Magwitch, and that any black mark on its surface might be his pursuers, going swiftly, silently, and surely to take him.”
Page 403 chapter 46
I think it is interesting that two people have totally different perspectives while looking at the same river from the same window. Herbert only sees Clara, while Pip thinks of Magwitch. This is very much correlated with what is on each of their minds. Pip is worried about Magwitch and doesn’t want to see anything bad happen to him. Herbert on the other hand, is most taken with Clara. She is all he thinks about. I think this happens with lots of things in real life situations.
15. ‘”…And the man we have in hiding down the river is Estella's father.’”
Page 433 chapter 50
This quote made me want to throw up a little bit. I’m not sure if Pip fully grasps the idea either. All this time, he has ‘wanted’ his apparent sister. This fact is very disturbing and Pip only alludes to the fact that he is happy to know what her parentage is. This unsuspecting, and very weird, surprise is just one more in a long line of unsuspecting and weird surprises hidden within the covers of this great book.
Question: Are Pip and Estella biologically related? Or are they of totally different blood?
16. “If you want info regarding you Uncle Provis (Magwitch), you had much better come and tell no one and lose no time. You must come alone. Bring this with you.”
Page 445 chapter 52
Will Pip respond to this mysterious letter? Will he go to the marshes to seek this person’s information? I wonder if this is some sort of trap. It seems odd that he would specifically tell him to ‘come alone’ and ‘tell no one’. I am skeptical about this letter. I’m not sure that, if I were Pip, that I would go. We’ll see what happens.
17. “’…we can no more see to the bottom of the next few hours than we can see to the bottom of this river what I catches hold of. Nor yet we can’t no more hold their tide than I can hold this. And it’s run through my fingers and gone, you see!’ holding up his dripping hand.”
Page 466 chapter 54
This is an interesting metaphor for life. I like how Dickens compares life to a river. He says that we must live for the moment and concentrate on what is on the surface rather than trying to go deeper and dwell on things that won’t happen until later. Also, he says that we must make the best out of the opportunities handed to us or else they will run through our fingers and be gone.
18. “You had a child once, whom you loved and lost. She lived and had powerful friends. She is alive and is beautiful. And I love her!”
Page 490 chapter 56
This passage reveals the 180 degree turnaround of Pip’s character. He now sees Estella, who was his ideal woman; rich, high in social status, of nobility, in a different light. Now that he knows that she came from rags (Magwitch), his entire ideology of how people should be is totally out the window. The morals he has based his life upon over the past several years now seem so wrong. His view of social status and hierarchy is no longer important. He now disregards them and is content with just being common and values love, inner beauty, and loyalty more than status of possessions.
19. “’And now, dear Biddy, if you can tell me that you will go through the world with me, you will surely make it a better world for me, and me a better man for it, and I will try hard to make it a better world for you.’”
Page 503 chapter 57
Now that he has reconciled with Joe and showed how deeply sorry he was for being an ungrateful little twerp to him all these years, what will Biddy say about marrying him? I wonder if they will accept this change in him. If I were Biddy, I don’t think I would marry him. He once had me, but decided that he liked someone else better; and even though he knew that I loved him, he was a total jerk to me and pretty much tried his hardest to break off all association with me whatsoever. I really hope that Biddy realizes this and does not marry him. Even though he has changed, I don’t believe that makes up for all the pain and suffering she had to endure over those long years.
20. “I took her (Estella’s) hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her.”
Page 516 chapter 59
This is an odd ending to the book. I would’ve never expected for them to end up together at the end. I guess they are perfect for each other though. They came from the same background, however were split and raised quite differently, but both underwent great change in the past couple years. They changed their whole outlook on life and redetermined what, in their hearts, was important. I think they will live a common life; happily ever after.
DONE
41. Some of his teeth had failed him since I saw him eat on the marshes, and as he turned his food in his mouth, and turned his head sideways to bring his strongest fangs to tear upon it, he looked terribly like a hungry old dog.
Ch 40 Pg. 355
Throughout Dickens’ writing, he uses eating like a dog to signal a change in the character’s nature. Dickens was frequently going to prisons to visit the rest of his family and he witnessed the atrocities perpetrated on the prisoners. He probably drew a connection that went along the lines of that people will revert to primal habits when they are treated primally. He then took this phenomenon and added it to his writing.
42. Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.
Ch 40 Pg. 360
As Mr. Jaggers tells this to Pip, he retains his neutrality in the reader’s opinion. Mr. Jaggers never does anything to signal that he cares about any other character but Molly. Never the less, he never does anything of any great harm either. He remains ambiguous. I was expecting a revelation after Pip lost his expectations, but his actions could still be motivated by money or friendship.
43. A ghost could not have been taken and hanged on my account, and the consideration that he could be, and the dread that he would be, were no small addition to my horrors.
Ch 40 Pg. 363
Why would Pip feel anything but relief when Magwitch is hanged? Pip regarded Magwitch from the beginning as an intense and dangerous madman. Pip is often said to be a character driven by guilt. Could this be applicable even when the guilt is not deserved? What keeps Pip obliged to appease Magwitch?
44. “Then said I, “after all, stopping short here, never taking another penny from him, think what I owe him already! Then again, I am heavily in debt…and I have been bred to no calling, and I am fit for nothing.”
Many times while reading this book, I found myself sympathetic to Magwitch. I do not think the cause is just. I think more and more and I have drawn a parallel between Pip and Magwitch and Estella and Mrs. Havisham. Estella was brought to Mrs. Havisham and became the result of Mrs. Havisham’s selfish ploy. Similarly, Pip was not raised out of the compassion of Magwitch’s morals, but out of his selfishness. Magwitch constantly refers to “owning” Pip. Magwitch helped Pip not for Pip’s sake, but for his own.
45. Of course I broke down there, and of course Herbert, beyond seizing a warm grip of my hand, pretended not to know it.
Ch. 41 Pg. 367
Although Pip and Herbert claim to be the best of friends, they are not as close as they will become by the end of the book. Up until now, both men have only seen each other at their better times. It is not hard to enjoy the company of someone who always is agreeable. Now that a strain will come into the relationship and escalate, the reader will be shown how strong their bond will become. They will support each other despite their faults and show that they are willing to sacrifice in order to help the other.
46. “This is a terrible hardened one,’ They says to prison visitors, picking out me. ‘May be said to live in jails, this boy,’
Ch. 42 Pg.374
It is impossible to interact with someone without changing them in some small fashion. This in mind, was the guard simply a good guesser and correctly predicted Magwitch’s fate, or did Magwitch subconsciously make this so because he felt that was the only expectation he had to live up to? Magwitch’s entire life could be simplified into a trivial game of chicken or the egg. How much of a role does expectation make in everyone’s life?
47. Him and me was soon busy, and first he swore me (being ever artful) on my own book- this here little black book, dear boy, what I swore your comrade on.
Ch. 42 Pg. 375
Can Magwitch recognize the evil that that book has placed in his life? If he can, how can he bear to use it against the friend of Pip? If Magwitch wants to become a part of Pip’s life, and also one of Pip’s adoptive family similarly to Herbert, he should become trustful of Herbert, not just Herbert’s fear of God’s wrath. Love cannot grow out of fear.
48. ‘And now,’ says I, ‘as the worst thing I can do, caring nothing for myself, I’ll drag you back,’
Ch 42 Pg.377
Magwitch sacrificed his safety and freedom in order to take away someone else’s. He hates Compeyson more than he loves himself. His mental state is so incredibly twisted that hatred became his principle motivator. His behavior shows that he considered himself as having “lost” and seeing that he was beyond recovery, he started to focus on inflicting as much damage as he could as he “went down”. His total lack of self worth makes him a dangerous character that is hard to predict.
49. Miss Havisham motioning to me for the third or fourth time to sit down, I took the chair by the dressing-table, which I had often seen her occupy. With all that ruin at my feet and about me, it seemed a natural place for me, that day.
Ch. 44 Pg. 385
How much is this mood derived from his setting and how much of his setting is affected by his mood? In the Great Expectations, the environment can almost be considered a character. It reacts to the action, and responds to others thoughts. At the least, it can be considered a barometer of Pip’s emotions. When something sinister is taking place, it is foggy out. When he sees Estella outdoors, he often describes the cloudy sky which can be compared to his relationship (mostly cloudy, with a few light patches).
When he was working in the forge, the description made it seem to be an independent organism, breathing through the bellows and eating metal in its fiery hearth.
50. When I raised my face again, there was such a ghastly look upon Miss Havisham’s that it impressed me, even in my passionate hurry and grief.
Ch. 44 Pg. 390
What makes Pip different from the other characters in the book is the way he handles his grief. The richer characters become destroyed by their grief because they are not allowed to express the emotional frankness that is necessary to start healing. Because the poor families, like the one Pip grew up in, had to work to survive, they were forced to deal with deaths quickly in order to start working again. Because of this, Pip can remain empathetic to Miss Havisham even in his most traumatic moments.
51. Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil.
Ch 44 Pg. 391
In recognizing both sides to Estella’s personality, the good and evil, he shows more devotion to her than simply praising her goodness alone. When he acknowledges her evil side, he shows that he recognizes it and will accept it and love it equally. If he were to only accept the goodness, she would have to live a lie all her life and could not be herself. Pip offers her the ultimate freedom, yet she rejects it.
52. But ever afterwards, I remembered… that while Estella looked at me merely with incredulous wonder, the spectral figure of Miss Havisham, her hand still covering her heart, seemed all resolved into a ghastly stare of pity and remorse.
Ch 44 Pg. 391
Can Miss Havisham’s redemption even be considered so anymore? The cost of her remorse is the destruction of two lives. Sure she recognized her mistakes and she wished she had not perpetrated them, but does she deserve forgiveness? Can she be considered a victim? Remember, she was blinded to other people’s needs when she herself was so incredibly heart broken. Where does the blame belong?
53. When I had got into bed, and lay there, footsore, wary, and wretched, I found that I could no more close my own eyes than I could close the eyes of this foolish Argus.
Ch. 45. Pg. 393
While Dickens wrote powerfully and vividly, it is his own education that makes his writing susceptible to becoming dated. The themes that he relates to are universal and the situations that the characters are in could happen today. His writing becomes misunderstood when he begins to reference literature that was common during his time period. For instance, Argus Panoptes was a many eyed giant in Greek Mythology. At the time of writing, the reference was made to make the language more dramatic and pleasing. To a modern ear, the writing is awkward and inaccessible.
54. This led me to speculate whether any of them ever tumbled down, and then I fancied that I felt light falls on my face- a disagreeable turn of thought, suggesting other and more objectionable approaches up my back.
Ch 45 Pg. 394
While my last post explored how Dickens has become dated, this post will discuss how it is universal. Man will continue to fear the wills of animals that he cannot understand. The cavemen feared the lion and wolf, the Victorian feared the spiders and today we fear the microbe. We will continue to fear what we do not understand and since we will never understand everything, we will always have something to fear.
55. “So, Pip! Our friend the Spider,” said Mr.. Jaggers, “has played his cards. He has won the pool.”
Ch. 48 Pg.418
Was Mr. Jagger’s purpose for befriending Drummle to set him up with Estella? This seems to be the only act he performs without money being a motive. If we are to judge his moral worth by this act alone, since it is the only one without his job being a consideration, he comes across as impersonal and callous. Maybe the reference this holds to his employment is lost to present day readers and would make more sense if we grew up with the right allusions.
56. “Well!” said Wemmick, “that’s over! He’s a wonderful man, without his living likeness, but I feel that I have to screw myself up when I dine with him-and I dine more comfortably unscrewed”
Ch 48 Pg.420
One of the oddities in the Great Expectations is the way in which Wemmick has split his personality. He took the opposites that existed within him and suppresses one set of traits and values at the office, and the other set at home. The conclusion that I came to at first was that this is wrong and can only be a hindrance on his life. I read more and more and reevaluated the story with a let conventional eye and mind. Wemmick faces a challenge with his location where he must separate two characters out from one. He is not wrong in doing so because he has not created a fake character to be his façade. The “work” Wemmick is just as natural and necessary as the “home” one.
57. “My name is on the first leaf. If you can ever write under my name, ‘I forgive her,
‘though ever so long after my broken heart is dust, pray do it!”
Ch. 49 Pg. 427
Why do material objects make people feel better? What difference would the paper make to a long dead Havisham? The human mind has a need to understand. The truth is that we do not understand abstract things like love and forgiveness, we merely experience them. Much in the same way that π stands for a number that we will never know, forgiveness and redemption are just names that we give to vague ideas. If she can not understand forgiveness, the least she can do is to give it a name and make it tangible.
58. “Better,” I could not help saying,”to have left her a natural heart, even to be bruised or broken.”
Ch. 49 Pg. 429
Better for who? Better for Pip. Pip wants nothing more in life than to love and be loved by Estella. What harm has come to Estella for her lack of heart? None. She can not feel joy but she is also saved from pain. Just as Miss Havisham was living as if she were dead, Estella is living as if she was never born. What harm can be afflicted to something that doesn’t exist?
59. “Perhaps I know more of Estella’s history than even you do,” said I. “I know her father, too.”
Ch. 51 Pg. 441
What does Pip hope to gain? How could he benefit from revealing all of his trump cards just as Mr. Jaggers looses all legal obligations to him. For however moral and vindicated Pip ends up, he is rather stupid, but his stupidity is not without value. I think it is because of his unwise decisions that Mr. Jaggers continues on friendly terms with Pip. As long as Pip will not turn against him, or become out of control, he is a valuable person to have on Mr. Jaggers’ side. A gentleman makes a better witness than a homeless person.
60. I was very glad afterwards to have had the interview, for in her face and in her voice, and in her touch, she gave me the assurance that suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham’s teaching, and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be.
Pip’s eventual happiness comes from the pleasure found in Estella’s pain. His last revelation is not one of love, but of bitter revenge. After the entire book where he wants noting but her success, he is glad when she begins to suffer, just like Miss Havisham was glad to see his suffering and so on and so forth. Humanity seems to pass down suffering as we grow more numerous. This revenge has become so comforting to have that we are happier to know that we are not alone in suffering even if under normal circumstances, we would never wish ill on the people we love. Perhaps Estella was better of before with the unsusceptible heart of steal that her name suggests.
-Jojo
Chapter 44 Pg. 345 Paragraph 6
"It will not surprise you, it will not displease you. I am as unhappy as you can ever have meant me to be."
It is interesting to me that he has finally realized what has happened. He realizes now that he was the one being played. He wasn't the one seeking. They were they found him and they hurt him in such a way that he can't understand. He will always be hesitant now. He will always be agraid of getting to close. He will always be afraid of falling in love.
Chapter 44 Pg. 386 Paragraph 6
"Striking her stick upon the floor and flashing into wrath so suddenly that Estella glanced up at her in surprise,"
This is a very telling paragraph it shows that Miss Havisham is actually angry. If Estella believes she is angry then she is definately angry.
Chapter 45 Pg. 395 Paragraph 5
"It's a good rule never to leave documentary evidence if you can help it."
It is amazing to me how smart Wemmick is. He has such an interesting character. He is brilliant. He can cover his true character. He knows the rigamoral of law, and he is just smart.
Chapter 46 Pg. 401 Paragraph 2
" It matters not what stranded ships repairing in dry docks I lost myself among, what old hulls of ships in course of being knocked to pieces."
This is an interesting similie of his journey. He says that it doesn't matter how many different things he encounters. He will always have to high of expectations. he will over shoot the moon, and under shoot the waste basket.
Chapter 47 Pg. 409 paragraph 1
Some weeks passed without bringing any change. We waited for Wemmick, and he made no sign. If I had never known him out of Little Britain, and had never enjoyed the privilege of being on a familiar footing at the castel I might have doubted him; not so for a moment knowing him as I did."
It is amazing to me that he never doubts Wemmick. He never doubts his character. He respects him for what he has done. He respects him for his different personalities. Wemmick has the true power. He is amazing.
Chapter 48 Pg. 419 Paragraph 3
"Mr. Jaggers had seen me with Estella, and was not likely to have missed the sentiments I had been at no pains to conceal."
This reminds me of what people do sometimes. They realize that people know that they have feelings for others. They have this notion that people care. It is interesting to me that no one actually cares. No one sincerely cares about there feelings, and they will do what is right for number one.
Chapter 48 Pg. 419 Paragraph 3
"Mr. Jaggers had seen me with Estella, and was not likely to have missed the sentiments I had been at no pains to conceal."
This reminds me of what people do sometimes. They realize that people know that they have feelings for others. They have this notion that people care. It is interesting to me that no one actually cares. No one sincerely cares about there feelings, and they will do what is right for number one.
1) Ch40 p 352 para 2"It troubled me that there should be a lurker on the stairs, on that night of all nights in the year, and i asked the watchman, on the chance of elicting some hopeful explanation...."
This confused me becuase when i first heard about the lurker i just figures that it was a homeless person that had snuck into the court and wanted to gert out of the rain but pip in his paranoia imagined the worse.
Chapter 48 Pg. 419 Paragraph 4
"Only twice more did the housekeeper reappear, and then her stay in the room was very short, and Mr. Jaggers was sharp with her. But her hands were Estella's hands, and her eyes were Estella's eyes, and if she had reappeared a hundred times I could have been neither more sure nor less sure that my conviction was the truth."
Wow! I smell a plot twist. This is Dickens genius. He bors us at times with his writing style, but he always delivers his twists in the story perfectly. He uses the cleashea that it's a small world perfectly. He is a master of the twist and this is a great line. It makes you cringe and turn the page.
ch 40 p 356 para 2&3 " He took out of his pocket a great thick pocket book, bursting with papers, and tossed it on the table. 'There's something worth spending in that there pocket book, dear boy. It's yourn. All I've got ain't mine,; it's yourn."
This paragraph really tells me the extent of which he was dedicated to making Pip a gentleman. He is not only risking his own safety to see his creation, but is also willing to give this creation all of is earnings.
Chapter 48 Pg. 421 Paragraph 3
"Mr. Jaggers was for her," pursued Wemmick, with a look full of meaning, "and worked the case in a way quite astonishing. It was a desperate case..."
It is amazing what a single man will do for a women. They will spend their life with them,and they will protect them. I know why, but I don't understand in this instance why. Jaggers is somewhat of a flat character in a way. Now we see that he has fire. He has conviction, but for the right reasons.
ch 41 p 366 para 3. " Never quite free from an uneasy remembrance of the man on the stairs, I had always looked aobut me in taking my guest after dark, and in bringing him back ;and i looked about me now."
It seems that even though pip is unhappy with the fact that the criminal is his benefactor, he also doesn't wasnt to be responsible for his demise. This may take the place of affection, but I think that is what it is being mistaken for by his benefactor.
Chapter 49 Pg. 424 Paragraph 1
Putting Miss Havisham's not in my pocket, that it might serve as my credentials for so soon reappearing at Satis House."
I love having a reason to drop in. If there is any excuse to drop in then it makes it even better. I love showing up unexpected, but having a reason to do so is even better. I feel like Pip is at the point where he needs an excuse to return to this place. He needs an excuse to see Estella.
Chapter 49 Pg. 424 Paragraph 1
Putting Miss Havisham's not in my pocket, that it might serve as my credentials for so soon reappearing at Satis House."
I love having a reason to drop in. If there is any excuse to drop in then it makes it even better. I love showing up unexpected, but having a reason to do so is even better. I feel like Pip is at the point where he needs an excuse to return to this place. He needs an excuse to see Estella.
ch 41 p 369 para 2"' There again!' said I , stopping before herbert, with my open hands held out, as if they contained the desperation of the case.' I know nothing about his life It has almost made me mad to sit here of a night and see him before me, so bound up with fortunes and misfortunes, and yet so unknown to me, except as the miserable wretch who terrified me two days in my childhood!'"
The root of pips fear in not knowing tht his benefactor is a criminal,it is not knowing that what he has done to become a criminal. Pip's negative emotional guilt mainly comes from the unknown althought it occasionally come from what is known.
ch 42 page 75 para 2"' Compeyson took it easy as a good riddance for both sides....."
Magewitch, having seen all this at a rather young age, must have been heavily influenced by the fact that this "not so good" man was very well off. That is why i think he led his life of crime. When one fo your first experiences has an influence on you, all of the your choices there after will be influenced by that experience.
Chapter 50 Pg. 434 Paragraph 2
"When Herbert had been down to Hammersmith and had seen his father, he came back to me at our chambers, and devoted the day to attending on me."
The friendship that Herbert gives to Pip is undeserved. Pip does not deserve the friendship given to him by Herbert. Just like he doesnt deserve the love his father and mother figure gave him. He is one minded. He is weak, but he is stupid.
ch 42 p 377-8 para 8&1 " "He wiped himself again, as he had done before, and then slowly took his tangle of tobacco from his pocket, and plucked his pipe from his button-hole, and slowly filled it, and began to smoke."
This attribute in Provis, the smoking, showed that he knew when he was worked up and in turn used tobacco to calm himself down. This also may be the reason that he has a criminal record trailing him. When you get worked up, you dont always have time to smoke a quick pipe to get your head on straight, which may lead to some of his bad decisions.
ch 43 page 381 para 2 " Pretending to read a smeary newspaper long out of date, which had nothing so legible as the foreign matter of coffee, pickles fish-sauces, gravy, melted butter, and wine with which it was sprinkled all over,as if it had taken the measels in a highly irregular form, I sat at my table while he stood before the fire.
The description in this paragraph it really what makes this a Charles Dickens work. The way he realates the different smatterings of food to measles certainly gave me an interesting view of how absurd he must have looked trying to read it.
Bores is spelled like that
ch 43 page 383 para 14 " When the waiter had felt my fast cooling tea-pot with the palm of his hand, he looked imploringly at me, and had gone out, Drummle, careful not to move the shoulder next to mine, took a cigar from his pocket, bit the end off, but showed no sign of stirring."
This truly is one of the more modern-day-child thisgs that i can relate to. I used to always outlast my brothers at things to prove who was right and this is one we did ver often.
Chapter 51 Pg. 439 Paragraph 1
"It will presently be seen that the question was not before me in a distinct shape until it was put before me by a wiser head than my own."
Wow! He admits that he isn't the brightest. He realizes that he needs an alternate view on the subject. He in this way is smart? Yes, he is he understands what he needs to see. He realizes he needs his best friend.
"' I did. Why they would have it so! So would you. What has been my history that I should be at pains of entreating them or you not to have it so! You have made your own snares. I never made them."
This turly shows the depth of mis havishams hatred. I can only hope she does not always bleve that. She was in fact the one that aranged the meetings between pip and estella so from there on she is responsible for any pain that that meeting may have caused
Chapter 52 Pg. 449 Paragraph 4
"Our plan would be to get down the river by a previous ebb-tide, and lie by in some quiet spot until we could pull off to one."
The careful planning that goes into this is only because of Wemmick. If Pip had not agreed with him. It would be some half ass plan that would not work in the least bit. I do like the fact that Pip realizes his strengths.
ch 44 p 387 para 2"' I did. Why they would have it so! So would you. What has been my history that I should be at pains of entreating them or you not to have it so! You have made your own snares. I never made them."
This turly shows the depth of mis havishams hatred. I can only hope she does not always bleve that. She was in fact the one that aranged the meetings between pip and estella so from there on she is responsible for any pain that that meeting may have caused
Chapter 53 Pg. 453 Paragraph 2
"A stranger would have found them insupportable,and even to me they were so oppressive that I hesitated, half-inclined to go back."
It is interesting to me the style of forshadowing that Dickens uses. He has an ingenius way of building a situation from nothing to high tention. He uses different sets of words to make different places and situations feel important.
ch 44 page 391 para 6"'....Estella, to the last hour of my life,you cannot shoose but to remain apart of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil......."
Pip is acknowledging the fact that hew has shown to himself and the people around him tht he is more evil that good and is incorporating estella to be the cause of both in some way or another. more so in the evil part of him.
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