Pip tells a whopper about his experience at Miss Havisham's to Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook.....and he's not very good at it. Why does he lie? More importantly, what does it say about Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook that they believe him?
Pip confesses his lie to Joe, and says that the lies had come out of being made to feel "common". What does it mean to Pip to be common? What does this tell us about Pip?
In chapter 10 at the Three Jolly Bargemen, Pip meets a stranger. What do you make of this stranger? Who is he? Why is he there? What literary technique is at work here?
The reason Pip lied was because he wanted his family to think higher of him than usual. If Pip had told them the truth, they would have been unimpressed. Normally, he most likely wouldnt have minded to tell the truth, but Miss Estella got him to think differently. Miss Estella made Pip self conscious about his role in society. As a result, Pip fabricated a crazy decadent story in order to make his family think that he is more important than he actually is.
ReplyDeleteThe reason Mrs. Joe Gargery and Mr. Pumblechook believe Pips story is because they want to. Despite being unfair and mean to Pip, it is still very important to them that Pip succeed in life. When they got the news that a very rich person wanted to meet Pip, they were very excited. They thought that Miss Havisham was going to give Pip money in exchange for work. With that in mind, almost anything Pip could have said would have convinced them because they desperately want to believe him, and because they have no context with dealing with the upper class.
And considering the incredibly strange goings on at Miss Havisham's Pip's family may not have believed the truth.
DeleteEstella calls Pip a “common labouring-boy.”(58) What this means to Pip is that he is ordinary, he is nothing special and is in a lower class unlike Estella who is in the upper class. Pip tells Joe that he is “ignorant and backward”(69). Before his visit to Estella's, Pip hadn't been introduced to anyone his age in a different class. He didn't know that he was ordinary and common because no one had really pointed it out to him before. Pip is ashamed of this and “[wishes] [he] was not common”(69). This shows that Pip is starting to mature and is becoming more aware of the things that are happening in the world and his surroundings. Pip says that it “was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me”(70). I think that that day was the start of Pip's hunger for a different lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteGood prediction
DeletePip decided to lie to Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook because he new that they've heard so many great things about Miss. Havisham and how rich she is. If Pip told the truth, he knew that they would think he was lying about the whole experience, so he decided to lie to them than face the possible punishment for telling the truth. Deep down in Pip's heart, he new that they wouldn't believe anything unless its what they wanted to hear/believe, so telling the truth would have been useless. This tells me that Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook are gullible and that they'd believe anything they want to hear. It is also very ignorant of them to not be able to catch this easy lie, and since Mrs. Joe "brought Pip up by hand", she should know him well enough to be able to tell if he's lying or not. I expected better from adults, they shouldn't have been tricked that easily.
ReplyDelete