Renowned for his marvelous characterizations, Charles
Dickens often develops themes and motifs through dialogue; in addition, he reveals much
of the personalities through the speech of the various characters in Great
Expectations. Here are some selected
passages:
1. Miss
Havisham, the strange woman in a tattered wedding addresses Pip as he
looks around the grim room, "I am tired...I sometimes have sick fancies, and I ahve a
sick fancy that I want to see some play. There, there!...Are you sullen and
obstinate?"
2. Pip "No ma'am.
I am very sorry for you and very sorry I can't play just now. If you compalain of me, I
shall get into trouble with my sister, so I would do it if I could; but it's so new
here, and so fine--and melancholy--" I stopped, fearing I might say too
much....
3. Joe After Pip
fabricates what has transpired at Miss Havisham's during his first visit, Joe tells
him,"Dont' you tell me no more of 'em[ lies], Pip. That ain't the way to get out of
being common, old chap. And as to being common, I don't make it out at all clear. You
are oncommon in some things...Likewise you're a oncommon
scholar."
4. Pumblechook "I
wish you the joy of money." The materialistic Pumblechook has learned of Pip's "great
expectations." Now, to Pumblechook Pip has been
elevated.
5. Jaggers, who
deals always with the criminal element has a low estimation of men. As Jaggers descends
the stairs of Satis house and first encounters Pip he says, "Boy of the neighborhood?
Hey?...Well! Behave yourself. I have a pretty large experience of boys, and you're a
bad set of fellows. Now mind!"
6.
Estella indicates how she is controlled and directed by
Miss Havisham in the effort to wreak revenge upon the male gender, "We are not free to
follow our own devices, you and I." Estella arrives in London and tells Pip she is
going to live in Richmond where she will be educated as a
lady.
7. Wemmick, with his
mouth like "a post office" gives and take information in the most practical manner. One
day, he advises Pip who wishes to "put some money down" in order to help Herbert, "Mr.
Pip,...pitch your oney into the Thames and you know the end of it. Serve a friend with
it, and you may know the end of it too--but it's a less pleasand and profitable
end."
8. As Herbert Pocket and
Pip talk in their new lodging, he tells Pip in a most cordial way, "...I dare say we
shall be often together, and I should like to banish any needless restraint between us.
Will you do me the favour to begin at once to call me by my Christian name,
Herbert?”
9. Flopson, the
frustrated maid of the Pockets continuously must rescue the children from harm as the
distracted Sarah Pocket reads from a book of titles. She tells Mrs. Pocket in Ch. 22,
"Why, if it ain't your footstool!” cried Flopson. “And if you keep it under your skirts
like that, who's to help tumbling? Here! Take the baby, Mum, and give me your
book.”
10. Magwitch explains
his past to Pip the next day after his sudden appearance on his stairs, "...But to give
it you short and handy, I'll put it at once into a mouthful of English. In jail and out
of jail, in jail and out of jail, in jail and out of jail. There, you've got it.
That's my life pretty much, down to such times as I got shipped off, arter Pip stood my
friend." (The last line is certainly telling: Pip's kindness to him has been monumental
in Magwitch's life.)
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