Great Expectations 2: Structure and Sense Brian Boyd

Jorge Luis Borges “The Analytical Language of John Wilkins” 1942 Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge: “In its remote pages it is written that animals are divided into: (a) those belonging to the emperor, (b) embalmed ones, (c) tame ones, (d) sucking pigs, (e) sirens, (f) fabulous ones, (g) stray dogs, (h) those included in this classification, (i) those that tremble as if they were mad, (j) innumerable ones, (k) those drawn with a very fine camelhair brush, (l) et cetera, (m) those that have just broken the flower vase, (n) those that from a long way off look like flies.”

GE: diversity modes: adventure, Bildungsroman, comedy, fairy tale, farce, Gothic, grotesque, horror, melodrama, realism, religious uplift, romance, satire, sentiment, suspense, symbolism Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop: “Everything in our lives, whether of good or evil, affects us most by contrast.” characters, classes, professions, settings, moods/states of mind

William Powell Frith, Derby Day ( )

Ford Madox Brown, “Work” ( )

unity?: style, voice, imagination style, voice, imagination (what can’t be put into film) – I remember Mr Hubble as a tough high-shouldered stooping old man, of a sawdusty fragrance, with his legs extraordinarily wide apart: so that in my short days I always saw some miles of open country between them when I met him coming up the lane. (23; I.iv) – Bentley Drummle, who was so sulky a fellow that he even took up a book as if its writer had done him an injury (185; II.vi) – Occasionally, the smoke came rolling down the chimney as though it could not bear to go out into such a night. (287; II.xx) – A deserting soldier in a Traveller's Rest, what lay hid up to the chin under a lot of taturs, learnt me to read (317; III.iii)

unity?: style, voice, imagination style, voice, imagination (what can’t be put into film) – I remember Mr Hubble as a tough high-shouldered stooping old man, of a sawdusty fragrance, with his legs extraordinarily wide apart: so that in my short days I always saw some miles of open country between them when I met him coming up the lane. (23; I.iv) – Bentley Drummle, who was so sulky a fellow that he even took up a book as if its writer had done him an injury (185; II.vi) – Occasionally, the smoke came rolling down the chimney as though it could not bear to go out into such a night. (287; II.xx) – A deserting soldier in a Traveller's Rest, what lay hid up to the chin under a lot of taturs, learnt me to read (317; III.iii)

unity?: style, voice, imagination style, voice, imagination (what can’t be put into film) – I remember Mr Hubble as a tough high-shouldered stooping old man, of a sawdusty fragrance, with his legs extraordinarily wide apart: so that in my short days I always saw some miles of open country between them when I met him coming up the lane. (23; I.iv) – Bentley Drummle, who was so sulky a fellow that he even took up a book as if its writer had done him an injury (185; II.vi) – Occasionally, the smoke came rolling down the chimney as though it could not bear to go out into such a night. (287; II.xx) – A deserting soldier in a Traveller's Rest, what lay hid up to the chin under a lot of taturs, learnt me to read (317; III.iii)

unity?: style, voice, imagination style, voice, imagination (what can’t be put into film) – I remember Mr Hubble as a tough high-shouldered stooping old man, of a sawdusty fragrance, with his legs extraordinarily wide apart: so that in my short days I always saw some miles of open country between them when I met him coming up the lane. (23; I.iv) – Bentley Drummle, who was so sulky a fellow that he even took up a book as if its writer had done him an injury (185; II.vi) – Occasionally, the smoke came rolling down the chimney as though it could not bear to go out into such a night. (287; II.xx) – A deserting soldier in a Traveller's Rest, what lay hid up to the chin under a lot of taturs, learnt me to read (317; III.iii)

unity?: structure and sense single narrative strand: – Estella awakens Pip’s ambitions, and Pip assumes his expectations come from Estella’s guardian – why? Miss H only rich person he knows Pumblechook and Mrs Joe expect much from Miss H connection Miss H does have special interest in Pip and Estella Miss H wants to frustrate sycophants Jaggers administers Miss H’s affairs and benefactor’s

symmetry and contrast: Magwitch and Miss Havisham first two irruptions into Pip’s life, chs 1-6 (= first monthly issue, if if had been monthly), chs 7-11 (= second monthly issue) Dickens’s way of thinking: inventing and contrasting

symmetry and contrast: Magwitch and Miss Havisham Magwitch: foster-son as gentleman – but nearly destroys Pip – positive impulse, from Magwitch’s gratitude – negative impulse: revenge against world of gentlemen like Compeyson: he will make a gentleman Miss Havisham: adopted daughter as lady – all but destroys Estella Magwitch seeks to raise Pip, Miss H seeks to lower men – yet Magwitch inadvertently lowers Pip especially by Pip’s inconstancy to worthy Joe (all heart and humility) vs his constancy to unworthy Estella (all heartlessness and arrogance)—whom Pip thinks destined for him because of the expectations, ultimately from Magwitch

symmetry and contrast: Joe and Estella Joe: all heart and humility – Pip’s love wavers Estella: all heartlessness and arrogance – Pip’s love never wavers, despite his knowing Estella’s flaws and dangers

symmetry and contrast: Magwitch and Miss Havisham Magwitch: threat, danger, embroiling him in theft Miss Havisham: only opportunity, after first fright apparently from utterly disconnected worlds but prove to be connected: – Compeyson as Miss H’s beau, M’s boss in crime – M as Estella’s father (and mother, murderess Molly) Dickens: “The world is so much smaller than we think it; we are all connected by fate without knowing it; people supposed to be far apart are constantly elbowing each other.” Estella not creature from higher and purer world so not just structural parallels Magwitch/Miss Havisham but also causal links

symmetry and contrast: Magwitch and Miss Havisham both Magwitch and Miss H die in accidents Pip has share in – burning, near drowning – pointed structural parallel: why?

symmetry and contrast: Magwitch and Miss Havisham both Magwitch and Miss H soften in last phase of novel – Miss H’s regrets – Magwitch’s mildness and acceptance Pip goes through their ordeals by fire and water – they too set in their ways, despite some capacity for change – Pip purged through the delirium he suffers? without apparent benefactor, or actual source of “great expectations,” but with Joe, his real and constant benefactor: his love, protection, integrity, selflessness

structure: three parts vol 1 ends with Pip’s being given expectations – and starts with his earning the gratitude that will win the expectations Nabokov: “great novels are above all great fairy-tales” – Magwitch’s gratitude – his staying on marshes – his winning fortune so quickly in Australia – awakening of Pip’s ambitions as positive (cf Dickens) – and cf theme of betterment: Wopsle, Biddy, Herbert, Orlick, Wemmick, Joe and negative: – snobbish motives – snobbish outcomes

structure: three parts vol 1 ends with Pip’s being given expectations – and starts with his earning the gratitude that will win the expectations Nabokov: “great novels are above all great fairy-tales” – Magwitch’s gratitude – his staying on marshes – his winning fortune so quickly in Australia – awakening of Pip’s ambitions as positive (cf Dickens) – and cf theme of betterment: Wopsle, Biddy, Herbert, Orlick, Wemmick, Joe and negative: – snobbish motives – snobbish outcomes

structure: three parts vol 1 ends with Pip’s being given expectations – and starts with his earning the gratitude that will win the expectations Nabokov: “great novels are above all great fairy-tales” – Magwitch’s gratitude – his staying on marshes – his winning fortune so quickly in Australia – awakening of Pip’s ambitions as positive (cf Dickens) – and cf theme of betterment: Wopsle, Biddy, Herbert, Orlick, Wemmick, Joe and negative: – snobbish motives – snobbish outcomes

structure: three parts vol 1 ends with Pip’s being given expectations – and starts with his earning the gratitude that will win the expectations Nabokov: “great novels are above all great fairy-tales” – Magwitch’s gratitude – his staying on marshes – his winning fortune so quickly in Australia – awakening of Pip’s ambitions as positive (cf Dickens) – and cf theme of betterment: Wopsle, Biddy, Herbert, Orlick, Wemmick, Joe and negative: – snobbish motives – snobbish outcomes

structure: three parts vol 1 ends with Pip’s being given expectations – and starts with his earning the gratitude that will win the expectations Nabokov: “great novels are above all great fairy-tales” – Magwitch’s gratitude – his staying on marshes – his winning fortune so quickly in Australia – awakening of Pip’s ambitions as positive (cf Dickens) – and cf theme of betterment: Wopsle, Biddy, Herbert, Orlick, Wemmick, Joe and negative: – snobbish motives – snobbish outcomes

structure: three parts vol 1 ends with Pip’s being given expectations – and starts with his earning the gratitude that will win the expectations Nabokov: “great novels are above all great fairy-tales” – Magwitch’s gratitude – his staying on marshes – his winning fortune so quickly in Australia – awakening of Pip’s ambitions as positive (cf Dickens) – and cf theme of betterment: Wopsle, Biddy, Herbert, Orlick, Wemmick, Joe and negative: – snobbish motives – snobbish outcomes

structure: three parts vol 1 ends with Pip’s being given expectations – and starts with his earning the gratitude that will win the expectations Nabokov: “great novels are above all great fairy-tales” – Magwitch’s gratitude – his staying on marshes – his winning fortune so quickly in Australia – awakening of Pip’s ambitions as positive (cf Dickens himself) – and cf theme of betterment: Wopsle, Biddy, Herbert, Orlick, Wemmick, Joe and negative: – snobbish motives – snobbish outcomes

structure: three parts vol 1 ends with Pip’s being given expectations – and starts with his earning the gratitude that will win the expectations Nabokov: “great novels are above all great fairy-tales” – Magwitch’s gratitude – his staying on marshes – his winning fortune so quickly in Australia – awakening of Pip’s ambitions as positive (cf Dickens) – and cf theme of betterment: Wopsle, Biddy, Herbert, Orlick, Wemmick, Joe and negative: – snobbish motives – snobbish outcomes

structure: three parts vol 1 ends with Pip’s being given expectations – and starts with his earning the gratitude that will win the expectations Nabokov: “great novels are above all great fairy-tales” – Magwitch’s gratitude – his staying on marshes – his winning fortune so quickly in Australia – awakening of Pip’s ambitions as positive (cf Dickens) – and cf theme of betterment: Wopsle, Biddy, Herbert, Orlick, Wemmick, Joe and negative: – snobbish motives – snobbish outcomes

It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home. There may be black ingratitude in the thing, and the punishment may be retributive and well deserved; but, that it is a miserable thing, I can testify. (I.xiv, p. 97) I was to leave our village at five in the morning, carrying my little hand-portmanteau, and I had told Joe that I wished to walk away all alone. I am afraid - sore afraid - that this purpose originated in my sense of the contrast there would be between me and Joe, if we went to the coach together. I had pretended with myself that there was nothing of this taint in the arrangement; but when I went up to my little room on this last night, I felt compelled to admit that it might be so, and had an impulse upon me to go down again and entreat Joe to walk with me in the morning. I did not. (I.xix, p. 144)

structure: three parts vol 2: ends with Pip’s discovering source of expectations – after largely wasting opportunities – a “be careful of what you wish for” warning vol 3: ends with Pip redeemed, with reduced expectations – gratitude to Magwitch, and matching Magwitch’s own gratitude to him, vs Pip’s earlier failure to Joe

structure: three parts vol 2: ends with Pip’s discovering source of expectations – after largely wasting opportunities – a “be careful of what you wish for” warning vol 3: ends with Pip redeemed, with reduced expectations – gratitude to Magwitch, and matching Magwitch’s own gratitude to him, vs Pip’s earlier failure to Joe

structure: three parts vol 2: ends with Pip’s discovering source of expectations – after largely wasting opportunities – a “be careful of what you wish for” warning vol 3: ends with Pip redeemed, with reduced expectations – gratitude to Magwitch, and matching Magwitch’s own gratitude to him, vs Pip’s earlier failure to Joe

structure: three parts vol 2: ends with Pip’s discovering source of expectations – after largely wasting opportunities – a “be careful of what you wish for” warning vol 3: ends with Pip redeemed, with reduced expectations – gratitude to Magwitch, and matching Magwitch’s own gratitude to him, vs Pip’s earlier failure to Joe

structure: three parts vol 2: ends with Pip’s discovering source of expectations – after largely wasting opportunities – a “be careful of what you wish for” warning vol 3: ends with Pip redeemed, with reduced expectations – gratitude to Magwitch, and matching Magwitch’s own gratitude to him, vs Pip’s earlier failure to Joe

Joe vs Magwitch: structural contrast both “fathers”: foster-father and “second father” genuine and would-be benefactor Magwitch at first terrifying, and repellent on re-appearance Joe endearing, but then an embarrassment, and avoided Pip overcomes revulsion against Magwitch, comes to protect and care for him learns how he should have acted and should act toward Joe but fever: Joe again caring for a needy Pip, and Pip again returns gratitude – but Joe has no confidence in Pip returnign to health, tenses up, disappears

Joe vs Herbert: structural contrast Pip’s easy relationship with Herbert in vols 2-3 vs uneasy relationship with Joe Herbert gentleman, assured, not snob: – vs awkward Joe and snobbish Estella (who turns Pip into snob) Herbert helps refine Pip without making him feel inferior – vs Pip trying to teach or improve Joe or bristling at his “commonness”

Herbert’s expectations Pip’s role as secret benefactor – parallel to Magwitch as secret benefactor – the one case of Pip’s expectations doing “some good to somebody” (273; II.xviii) – basis of Pip’s own ultimate modest success – vs fantasy of undeserved success – not fantasy notion of betterment, but earned improvement

overall structures parallels and contrasts between actual and supposed sources of Pip’s expectations ironies of expectations: – that they make Pip morally worse, guilty, though not criminal and the criminal source of the expectations innocent in his gratitude to Pip our elusive misdeeds maybe deserve more reproach than official crimes? – and in losing his expectations Pip fulfils our expectations of him