GREAT EXPECTATIONS AND THE LANGUAGE OF BELONGING

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1 GREAT EXPECTATIONS AND THE LANGUAGE OF BELONGING Julie Wilson how the composer s choice of language modes, forms, features and structures shapes and is shaped by a sense of belonging Language constitutes any text: it is through words that ideas are conveyed and understood by the responder. One way, therefore, to understand how belonging operates in Great Expectations is to look closely at language to identify how Dickens has positioned the reader to understand belonging. In Great Expectations, Dickens explores belonging to people, to social class, to place, and to dreams amongst other ideas. One way of interpreting the text is to say that money (or expectations) is not sufficient to alter who you are. Ultimately it is our connections with people and place which shape who we are our selves. In the introduction to the Penguin Classics edition, Michael Ginsberg shows that it is when we don t belong that we realise where we do belong. He suggests Pip first encounters the notion of not belonging when he initially visits Satis House. The meeting with Estella and Miss Havisham is the birth of a new concept of the self: it dates the first perception of the self as deficient, as defined by lack and hence as subject to desire. Before his encounter with Satis House, Pip had no notion of what he was excluded from and therefore no notion of what belonging meant. He accepted his way of life. Encountering a different way of life sets up the imagination of what he is missing and who he is. Exclusion from belonging If we look closely at the passage in volume 1, chapter 8 we can trace this desire through the comparison which acknowledges the importance of birth: I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and then I should have been so too. (Vol 1 Ch 8 p 62). Pip s feelings of shame and inferiority are further conveyed with a simile: She put the mug down on the stones of the yard without looking at me, as insolently as if I were a dog in disgrace and then a cumulation of emotive words: I was so humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry, sorry followed by an emotional, confession and to the reader: I cannot hit upon the right name for the smart God knows what its name was. Frontspiece to Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Source: Wikimedia Commons Pip s later report of the incident to Joe, with whom he does feel a sense of belonging, emphasises his sense of exclusion during the meeting: There was a beautiful young lady who was dreadfully proud, and that she had said I was common, and I knew I was common, and I wished I was not common (Vol 1 Ch 9 p.70) The repetition of the word common emphasises Pip s understanding of the social hierarchy of the mid 19 th Century in England. Common people the working class had a sense of their inferiority 46 English Teachers Association of NSW metaphor Issue 2, 2014

2 to members of the gentry or the aristocracy. Pip s birth placed him in the inferior position as did his subsequent upbringing. It is the strength of Pip s sense of degradation that leads to his dream to improve through the acquisition of wealth and/ or property; it is against this backdrop that we realise the importance of his great expectations. Having seen Estella, and felt bitterly humiliated, Pip now sees Joe through different eyes: how common Estella would consider Joe, a mere blacksmith: and how thick his boots, and how coarse his hands. (p 72) The word common becomes part of a word chain with negative connotations demeaning Joe: common, mere, thick, coarse. Estella made an indelible impression on Pip from the first, so that even at that young age he could declare: I kissed her cheek as she turned to me. I think I would have gone through a great deal to kiss her cheek. But, I felt that the kiss was given to the coarse boy as a piece of money might have been, and it was worth nothing. (Vol 1 Chapter 11 p 93) The simile conveys his sense of inadequacy, inferiority and yearning, all a reaction to Estella the proud queen, which followed Pip all through his quest to be a gentleman. This was a very real sense of not belonging in her world. Dickens assumes an inclusive narrative stance, where the character of Pip speaks directly to his reader: That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment (p 72) The imperative verbs imagine, pause and think, combined with the second person pronoun you are direct appeals to the reader, evoking empathy with the character Pip and his predicament, so that there is a developing sense of belonging to the common humanity and philosophy of the text. On Pip s return to Satis House he felt, again, inferiority and dejectedness, expressed through the landscape as if nature itself knew he did not belong there. There had been some light snow and the wind caught it up in little eddies and threw it at the window, as if it pelted me for coming there. (Vol 1 Ch11 p 81). Pip always felt very uncomfortable in the dark and rotting rooms of Satis House which he compares to his relationship with Estella: I had an alarming fancy that Estella and I might presently begin to decay (p 89) Speech as a form of exclusion Speech becomes another form of exclusion. Joe feels so inferior to Miss Havisham that he cannot address her and only speaks to Pip. Joe, so clearly a man who belongs at his forge, is completely out of place at Satis House. Pip describes him metaphorically as an extraordinary bird: standing as he did, speechless, with his tuft of feathers ruffled, and his mouth open, as if he wanted a worm. (Vol 1 Ch 13 p 100) Dickens also differentiates Joe, and clearly shows he does not belong at Satis House, by descriptions of his demeanour, fiddling with his hat, and his peculiar, uneducated dialect: Which I meantersay, Pip.as I hup and married your sister (p 100). Later when Biddy sends Joe to London to see Pip, to deliver Miss Havisham s message, the same awkwardness persists. Joe has a very clear sense of where he belongs: It ain t that I am proud but that I want to be right, as you shall never see me no more in these clothes. I m wrong in these clothes. I m wrong out of the forge, the kitchen, or off th meshes. You Great Expectations Joe now sat down to his great work, an illustration by John McLenan (1861). Source: Wikimedia Commons English Teachers Association of NSW metaphor Issue 2,

3 won t find half so much fault in me if you think of me in my forge dress, with my hammer in my hand, or even my pipe. (Vol II Ch 8 p 224) Repetition of I m wrong emphasises Joe s awkwardness, speaking in his same dialect; out of context he has no strength as Joe the blacksmith, he has a sense of his own worth. Characters Pip s maturation and eventual acceptance of where he feels most comfortable occurs with his going out into an unfamiliar world populated with unfamiliar people. These characters described in visual detail through the eyes of an imaginative child, and we instantly know whether the boy is sympathetic to them or antagonistic. One memorable figurative description is of Sarah Pocket, whom Pip dislikes all through the novel: Miss Sarah Pocket, whom I now saw to be a little dry brown corrugated old woman, with a small face that might have been made of walnut shells, and a large mouth like a cat s without the whiskers. (Vol 1 Ch 11 p 87) His quirky descriptions are valuable as a record of Pip s perceptions. Dickens s greatest strength comes in his character descriptions which are effective ways of locating belonging. Mr Wemmick is a fascinating example of belonging and not belonging. Dickens describes his mouth: His mouth was such a post-office of a mouth that he had a mechanical appearance of smiling merely a mechanical appearance and he was not smiling at all. (p 172) This metaphor (or synechdoche) continues throughout the book, as a kind of endearment. Wemmick was at his desk, lunching and crunching on dry hard biscuits; pieces of which he threw from time to time into the slit of his mouth, as if he were posting them. (p 199) The postage metaphor continues to amuse When Mr Wemmick put all the biscuits in the post (p 199) The dehumanising of Wemmick and his reduction to a mere slit in an object, humourous though it is, denotes Wemmick s complete abrogation of his own humanity in the cold, alien environment of Jaggers office. His affability and warmth return when he returns to his own home, his castle where he feels he belongs. The description of Wemmick focuses on one habit but for some characters Dickens favours reflection as a way of conveying the relationship with Pip. His initial meeting with Herbert Pocket is an unusual encounter, but after the fight, Pip reflects: His spirit inspired me with great respect he seemed so brave and innocent, that although I had not proposed the contest I felt but gloomy satisfaction in my victory. (Vol 1 Ch 11 p.92) The incongruity of gloomy satisfaction with victory conveys Pip s surprised response. Readers perceive from Pip s comments on Herbert that relationships between different people are fluid and become stronger as familiarity grows. When they become firm friends later on, Pip s initial respect proves justified. Pip admits how comfortable he is to be honest with Biddy: I reposed complete confidence in no-one but Biddy; but, I told poor Biddy everything. Why it came natural to me to do so, and why Biddy had a deep concern in everything I told her, I did not know then, though I think I know now. (Vol 1 Ch 12 p 96) These types of reflections in retrospect are common in the narrative stance. The first person is always Pip, but sometimes it is young Pip and at other times the older and wiser Pip, confiding in the reader with the benefit of hindsight. This draws the reader into the narrative as a trusted confidante establishing a sense of belonging to the text in the reader. Relationship with HOME In considering the notion of belonging, many would assume it fundamental that a person feel a sense of belonging in their own home. But because of the repetition of Pip s being brought up by hand by his sister, by default when their parents died, a sister who is not named but merely referred to as Mrs. Joe, Pip did feel perhaps robbed of a real family upbringing: home had never been a very pleasant place to me, because of my sister s temper. (Vol1 Ch 14 p 106) However, Pip felt loved and comfortable in Joe s company. But Joe had sanctified it [home], and I had believed in it. I had believed in the best parlour as a most elegant saloon; I had believed in the front door.i had believed in the kitchen as 48 English Teachers Association of NSW metaphor Issue 2, 2014

4 a chaste though not magnificent apartment; I had believed in the forge as the glowing road to manhood and independence. Within a single year, all this was changed. Now it was all coarse and common, and I would not have had Miss Havisham and Estella see it on any account. (p 107) The repetition of I believed establishes the unquestioning loyalty of the naïve little boy who knew he was secure in his world with Joe. The contrast of sanctified, elegant saloon and glowing with coarse and common, demonstrate that Pip s values have changed and so his sense of belonging has altered. There have been occasions in my later life (I suppose as in most lives) when I have felt for a time as if a thick curtain had fallen on all its interest and romance, to shut me out from anything save dull endurance any more. Never has that curtain dropped so heavy and blank, as when my way of life lay stretched out straight before me through the newly-entered road of apprenticeship to Joe. (p107) Previous to his visits to Satis House, Pip may have embraced the life and felt a sense of belonging. But here the curtain metaphor expresses the notion of being cut off from the world he wishes to enjoy. Pip turns into restlessly aspiring discontented me and feels more than ever dissatisfied with my home and with my trade and with everything (p 116). This culminates in his outburst: Understand once and for all that I never shall or can be comfortable or anything but miserable there, Biddy! unless I can lead a very different sort of life from the life I lead now. (Vol 1 Ch 17 p 128) Dissatisfaction with belonging: Yearning for Estella Pip s yearning for a different life dominates his thoughts. When out at the old Battery on the marshes, watching ships sail by, his perplexity is conveyed by the repetition of the word strange : I somehow thought of Miss Havisham and Estella and the strange house and the strange life appeared to have something to do with everything that was picturesque. (Vol 1 Ch 15 p 111) Ironically, until the very last words of the book, Pip is never comfortable, nor anything but miserable, in Estella s presence. And still I stood looking at the house, thinking how happy I should be if I lived there with her, and knowing that I was never happy with her, but always miserable. (p 271) This balanced antithesis conveys Pip s dilemma: to dream of Estella, but to know the reality. However this yearning and longing is enhanced by the heightened description of Richmond conveying Pip s heightened emotions: Here s the green farthingale, Here is the diamond-hilted sword, Here are the shoes with red heels and the blue solitaire, - sounded gravely in the moonlight, and two cherrycoloured maids came fluttering out to receive Estella. (Vol II Ch 14 p 33) Pip struggles with his desires and tried to reconcile himself to the possibility of wholesome contentment in a plain honest working life (p 132) but memories of the Havisham days would fall upon me like a destructive missile, and scatter my wits again. (P 132) Great Expectations On the Marshes, by the Lime-kiln, illustration by Marcus Stone (1862). Source: Wikimedia Commons English Teachers Association of NSW metaphor Issue 2,

5 By the end of the book, however, Pip returns to Joe and Biddy with a very emotional uplifting described thus: It was only the pleasanter to return to Biddy and to Joe, whose great forbearance shone more brightly than before, if that could be, contrasted with this brazen pretender. I went towards them slowly, for my limbs were weak. But with a sense of increasing relief as I drew nearer them, and a sense of leaving arrogance and untruthfulness further and further behind. The June weather was delicious. The sky was blue, the larks were soaring high over the green corn, I thought all that countryside more beautiful and peaceful by far than I had ever known it to be They awakened a tender emotion in me (Vol III Ch 58 p 477) In these lines we see not only an acceptance of who he is and where he belongs but a positive affirmation. Plot structure and dramatic irony It is worth considering and commenting on the plot structure, which Dickens uses to bring so many threads together by the end of the book. These may seem too much of a coincidence for the modern reader, but there was a style, a symmetry, to this kind of plot development in the 19 th century which readers enjoyed. The action drama of Miss Havisham s attempted suicide and rescue, of the daring attempt to save Magwitch, of Pip s and Herbert s travels to Egypt were all very appealing to 19 th century audiences. The chronological narrative structure is in three volumes, as was typical of the mid 19 th century publications. Volume I ends as Pip leaves the world of his childhood behind: I had been so little and innocent there, and all beyond was so unknown and great (Vol 1 Ch 19 p 159). This balanced sentence neatly establishes the factual contrast between Pip s life at Joe s side and his future in London. Pip s life and the way he perceives himself and where he belongs changes dramatically with the news from Mr Jaggers: He will come into a handsome property. Further, that it is the desire of the present possessor of that property, that he be immediately removed from his present sphere of life and from this place, and be brought up as a gentleman- in a word, as a young fellow of great expectations. (Vol 1 Ch 18 p 138) The irony is that Pip mistakenly believes that Miss Havisham is his benefactor and that that Estella is part of the prize. He does not want just money and status he wants to be acceptable to Estella. He wants to be worthy of her and believes that Miss Havisham judged this to be possible, once he has been educated in the ways of a gentleman; he will be a suitable spouse for Estella. Because Miss Havisham approves, Pip believes he will eventually belong in their world. This kind of thinking causes Pip great agony because he believes that he must relinquish his ties with the forge, his sister, Joe and Biddy, in order to be accepted in Estella s world. She never did come to the forge and look in the window and laugh at him; he just imagined this as the most humiliating experience he could have. This plot device, a twist in the tale, is what brings Pip s great expectations undone. Once he realizes that he has been living on convict money, he refuses to take any more and he resigns himself to going back to where he belongs. He formulates a plan to ask Biddy to marry him, judging that Estella would forever be out of his reach. Narrative stance retrospection/ Bildungsroman There is the suggestion all the way through the book that Pip really knew better than the way he behaved. He berates himself for abandoning Joe and Biddy, and for being ashamed of his home. He feels liberated when told of his great expectations, as if he will at last have the chance to be the person he aspires to be and yet, he records, that on the night he gains access into the life he yearned for, he was feeling it very sorrowful and strange that this first night of my bright fortunes should be the loneliest I had ever known (Vol 1 Ch 19 p 146). His thoughts are of Joe, whom he perceives as giving his blessing in the kindest and gentlest way. This continues the symbolism of Joe being an angelic figure in his purity of heart ( angel s wings ) for in the next chapter Pip goes to church with Joe. In his mind Pip has already left his home; he sees himself as already elevated above the common folk and imagines that he will come back and arrogantly bestow something from his fortune on them, with a 50 English Teachers Association of NSW metaphor Issue 2, 2014

6 gallon of condescension (Vol 1 Ch 19 p 147) the words of the older, wiser and humbled Pip. Dramatic irony Ironically, Dickens reminds the reader here of Pip s episode with the convict, adding: My comfort was, that it had happened a long time ago, and that he had doubtless been transported a long way off, and that he was dead to me, and might be veritably dead into the bargain. (p 147) Pip s abhorrence of the convict is enduring, and his upbringing has made him believe in honesty and the law. It is only when he matures that he can appreciate Magwitch as a human being and have some compassion, even affection, for him. Activity Look at these quotations and explain how you can use them to understand belonging 1. Herbert was my intimate companion and friend. (p 203) 2. We used to walk between the two places at all hours. I have an affection for the road yet formed in the impressibility of untried youth and hope. (p 203) 3. Never seen it.never heard of it. Never seen the Aged. Never heard of him. No; the office is one thing, and private life is another. (Vol II Ch 6 p 208) 4. he seemed to have been engaged in a case of a darker complexion than usual, for, we found him with his head butted into his closet, not only washing his hands, but laving his face and gargling his throat. And even when he had done all that, and had gone all round the jack-towel, he took out his pen knife and scraped the case out of his nails before he put his coat on. (p 211) 5. It is impossible to express with what acuteness I felt the convict s breathing, not only on the back of my head, but all the way along my spine. 6. We Britons had at that time particularly settled that it was treasonable to doubt our having and our being the best of everything (p 163) 7. So I came into Smithfield; and the shameful place, being all asmear with filth and fat and blood and foam, seemed to stick to me. (p 165) 8. The sensation was like being touched in the marrow with some pungent and searching acid (Vol II Ch 9 p 228) Free ETA resources Go to our publications page and download these free resources which you can use in their entirety or just parts englishteacher.com.au/resources/freeteachingresources.aspx Documentary study: OASIS This Documentary study raises community awareness on the important social issue of homelessness. Download the documentary and resource for free. Commissioned by the Caledonia Foundation. Suitable for Years 9 10 Years 7 10 Faculty Professional Development Package: Identity and Cultural Diversity Chart this cross curriculum element using the ideas and activities in this resource. There are single activities, lesson sequences and extended units using a wide range of genres available online (life writing, poetry, novel, film, internet etc) from teachers across the state. Years 7 11 The Language of Connection Global Education package: The Language of Connection is designed to broaden students habits of speech and of mind through the identification and practice of the language of connection. Years 7 10 English Teachers Association of NSW metaphor Issue 2,