Chapter 4

 

Christmas Dinner

 



Humor is one of Dickens' trademarks. What are some of the humorous aspects of this chapter? And now for the hard part: Why are these things funny?

The people you meet in this chapter should be remembered (the dinner guests), as they will play a role in Pip's life. As this is a large book, I would suggest keeping a list of characters and their traits -- this helps track growth (or lack of) in characters as you go along.

A lot of tension is built up throughout the chapter as Pip awaits his fate. What do you know about the writing of this novel that would explain why we're left hanging at the end of every chapter? 

You may have noticed by now that the common folk often pronounced words differently.  "V's" and "W's" are often interchanged.  So "wittles" is really "vittles"  and "wiscious" is "viscious".  This is an example of colloquial language. 

A bonus point for the first person to define "contumaciously!!!!!

On the second page of chapter 4, Pip describes Mrs. Joe.  "Mrs. Joe was a very clean housekeeper, but she had an exquisite art of making her cleanliness more uncomfortale and unacceptable than dirt itself.  Cleanliness is next to Godliness, and some people do the same by their religion".  What does this reference to religion mean?