Charles Dickens creates authentic and engaging characters better than any other author, past or present. The tiniest details about his characters make them come alive. I wonder how Dickens found the time to observe enough people to come up with all of the different characters -- did he carry around a notebook in which to record hundreds of observations, before using them in his stories?When I read Great Expectations in 9th or 10th grade, Miss Havisham made a particular imprint. I imagined her in a dark, dusty, cluttered room, and I wondered whether in Pip’s shoes I’d have been frightened or fascinated.
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While reading the book this summer, however, it’s Joe Gargery that is most memorable. Pip is raised by his older sister and her husband Joe. The sister is cruel and abusive, but Joe is a deeply kind, gentle soul. One of the tiny details that I mentioned above is the endearing way that Joe repeatedly uses certain words, such as “wittles” for food.
A tragedy of Pip’s life is that he abandons Joe, and Dickens does a great job of describing Pip’s doubts and guilt on that front. As I am currently listening to the amazing “Meaning of Life” lectures on The Great Courses, I am finding plenty of opportunities to consider Pip’s decisions in the context of the varying ideas about how humans find meaning in our lives: in relationships, in learning and reason, in the divine. At this point in the book, Pip seems to have made the defensible decision that his meaning will come from self-improvement, but at the expense of abandoning Joe (along with Biddy, a close friend who presents an alternative path to the snobbish Estella).
Here's an excerpt (from Chapter 27) in which Pip learns that Joe is coming to London for a visit, and Dickens incorporates an insightful comment about human nature:
I’m curious to know whether we read an abridged version of Great Expectations in high school. I remember very few of the characters, and the plot seems too dense to have handled at that age. Maybe I’m not giving high school readers enough credit, but my hunch is that we read a version that focused on the interactions with Miss Havisham and left out some of the other details.
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Here's an excerpt (from Chapter 27) in which Pip learns that Joe is coming to London for a visit, and Dickens incorporates an insightful comment about human nature:
Not with pleasure, though I was bound to him by so many ties; no; with considerable disturbance, some mortification, and a keen sense of incongruity. If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money
… I had little objection to his being seen by Herbert or his father, for both of whom I had respect, but I had the sharpest sensitiveness as to his being seen by Drummle, who I held in contempt. So throughout life our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise.Another fascinating character is Mr. Jaggers, the lawyer who oversees the trust for Pip and who walks through his life with self-confidence that does seem characteristic among effective lawyers. Jaggers does not suffer fools, and he does not seem to have a sense of humor, but he’s not without merit: his deep understanding of (and commitment to) the law seems to imply the law is where he finds his own meaning. Oddly, though, Dickens describes the way in which he thoroughly washes himself at the end of each workday, as though scrubbing off the reality of the things he’s done and the people with whom he’s interacted. The washing ritual is particularly poignant at this moment in time, when we’ve all become much more conscious of washing because of the pandemic.
I’m curious to know whether we read an abridged version of Great Expectations in high school. I remember very few of the characters, and the plot seems too dense to have handled at that age. Maybe I’m not giving high school readers enough credit, but my hunch is that we read a version that focused on the interactions with Miss Havisham and left out some of the other details.
