1) How has Dickens used humour in this meeting? How does Pip react to Joe and the meeting? What does this say about Pip?
2) Look carefully at the description of the courthouse where Pip is taken to sign his indentures.....btw....what is an indenture? What impression do we get of the legal system here? (p 117-118) Quote some lines to support your conclusion.
3) In chapter 14, we see a major turning point in the novel. Pip is "ashamed of home" where all is "course and common", and he becomes miserable at the thought of being apprenticed to Joe. What and/or who has caused this change? Do you sympathize with Pip, or do you look down on him for his change in attitude? Or something else..... Explain your reasons.
3) I think Miss Havisham and especially Estella helped Pip become ashamed of his home. Before he went to the manor Pip respected Joe and his career as a blacksmith but once he came home from being with Estella and Miss Havisham he started to dislike his apprenticeship. "...had a strong conviction on me that I should never like Joe's trade. I had liked it once, but once was not now" (page 105). I don't think Pip should be ashamed of being apprenticed to Joe because Joe is a good man who works hard and could teach Pip a lot. Pip shouldn't have let Estella and Miss Havisham change his mind about his home and family as they were only in his life for a short time while Mrs.Joe and Joe will be in his life forever. Miss Havisham and Estella's opinions shouldn't have made Pip ashamed because Pip has nothing to be ashamed of. If anything Pip should be proud of Joe because he is kind to everyone and has been there for him when Mrs.Joe is being especially mean. I think Pip is especially ashamed because of his crush on Estella. I think once he gets over her he will go back to wanting to be apprenticed to Joe.
ReplyDeletePips time at Miss Havisham got him to look at his home in a new way. It was because of Pips glance at the upper class, with all of the splendour it came with, that he became jaded with his normal commoners life.
ReplyDeleteI sympathize with Pip on this issue. For me, some of the only situations were I become truly angry is where I am not in control, where I cannot change my fate, where I can see that I have to do something that I will hate on the horizon, and yet, I cannot avert it. In Pips case, this anger is multiplied exponentially. He can see his entire life unfolding before him, yet he cannot do anything to change it. What Pip is experiencing could almost be described as existential anguish. He can already, at his young age, see almost everything his life will amount to, and he is doomed to that existence, mainly because of the british class system. Pips anger and dissatisfaction is completely justified.
An indenture is a legal statement, or contract, usually to bind someone as an apprentice or labourer!
ReplyDelete3) I feel that the life style that Pip got to see while visiting Miss. Havisham and Estella changed his views on his life. He was shown this other side of the world that he never got to experience and that lead to the mind set of what he had then was not good enough. I feel that I can see where Pip is coming from but at the same time, I can see how he handles the situation isn't very well thought out. On one hand we have Pip who should not be in any way ashamed of anything in his life. However, from Pip's point of view what he can see is that he has less than these people and because of that, he cannot reach his level of confidence needed. Looking at the situation from his point changes the way that we take in the information. Pip sadly became ashamed and that was that was all because of all these other people and he shouldn't have cared what they had and should have focused on what he and how he could better himself. Sadly from his side all he could see was that what he had was not good enough and that he needed what all the other people had. This is kind of understandable because all we do in this world is work for something someone else has. This gives some people motivation to continue to work towards what they want. However, there is the occasional time when certain people get so consumed by what they want they forget what they already have. They sacrifice what is most important to them for something that will not matter in the long run.
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