Summary
Because he is not old enough to be apprenticed in the forge yet, and Pip's sister has decreed that he is not to be "pompeyed" (pampered), she sends him to do odd jobs and keeps whatever he earns. He also attends the evening school run by Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt. The school is a farce — the old woman sleeps through class. Biddy, an orphan like Pip and the woman's granddaughter, gives Pip extra help with his reading, writing, and numbers. Later, Pip shows Joe a letter he wrote, and Pip realizes Joe cannot read, although Joe tries to hide that fact. Pip is somewhat patronizing and asks Joe why he never went to school.
Joe explains that his father was an alcoholic who beat him and his mother, and rarely worked. Because Joe supported the family from a young age, there was no time for school. He finishes the story by telling Pip how lonely he was after his parents died and how happy he was to have Pip's sister join him at the forge. Pip is skeptical, but Joe is firm on this, and Pip is overwhelmed with gratitude to Joe for taking him in as a baby. He feels a new level of respect for the man. The two agree that Pip can teach Joe some of the things he has learned, but Mrs. Joe is not to know. She would feel threatened by Joe's improvements, because she likes to be in charge of things.
At this point Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook return from a shopping trip with good news — Pip is to be sent to Miss Havisham's to play with her daughter. Miss Havisham is a reclusive but wealthy woman and Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook hope there will be a financial gain from this arrangement. He will spend the night at Pumblechook's and see Miss Havisham in the morning. Breakfast with Pumblechook is an unpleasant experience: The merchant barely feeds Pip while he stuffs his own face and fires math questions at Pip.
Miss Havisham is a strange woman who is dressed in an old wedding gown and tells Pip how her heart was broken and how she has not seen the sun since before he was born. Her house is the same as it was on her wedding day and all the clocks show the time her wedding was canceled. He meets Estella, Miss Havisham's proud and haughty adopted daughter, who humiliates Pip by saying he is a common laboring boy with coarse hands and thick boots. Miss Havisham tells her to break his heart, and then taunts Pip with Estella's beauty. Pip is told to return in six days, and is then brought outside to be fed like a dog. Pip is hurt and vents his fury by kicking a wall and pulling at his hair. As he wanders through a brewery on the grounds, Pip imagines he sees Miss Havisham hanging from a beam and runs in terror. Estella shoves him out the gate and sends him on his way.
His sister wants to know everything that happened and when he does not answer, pounds him on the head and shoves his face into the wall. Pumblechook comes by and adds to the pressure. Pip does not feel they will understand even if he tells them what he saw, and he does not want to expose Miss Havisham to their criticisms. Finally, he makes up lies about black coaches, cake and wine on gold plates, and waving flags and swords. Later, Pip tells Joe the story was all lies and that he feels coarse and common. Joe tells Pip lies just do not work and to think about that during his night prayers. Instead, Pip thinks about Joe's commonness and on what a memorable day it has been for him.
Analysis
Humor, satire, crisp descriptions, and tension are strong elements in these chapters. Dickens satirizes the educational system with the doddering great-aunt sleeping through her class. He criticizes child labor and the way families use their children to support them, by showing Pip's sister putting him to work and keeping the money, and then sending him to Miss Havisham's in the hope of some financial gain. (Dickens' own mother preferred him to work rather than send him to school.) He satirizes the merchant class when Pip observes that Pumblechook conducts business by watching the sadler, who watches the coachmaker, who watches the baker, who watches the grocer, who watches the watchmaker, who is working. Pip concludes that the watchmaker is the only one actually engaged in his trade. Playful humor is exercised when Pip assumes that he is always supposed to walk the same way home because his Catechism said to walk the same way all the days of his life.
Miss Havisham and her house are examples of Dickens' masterful use of detail and description to create character and atmosphere. Tension is present even in static scenes such as Pip and Pumblechook having breakfast. Pumblechook's firing questions interspersed with Pip's trying to eat, think, or walk gives the scene a sharp, see-sawing rhythm. The questions are almost physical attacks more than they are words.
Dickens continues to use the tool of repetition to remind his readers of a character's personality. Some examples to watch for are Joe repeatedly wiping his hand across his nose when he is in trouble with Mrs. Joe; Joe calling Mrs. Joe a "fine figure of a woman"; Pumblechook repeating his command to "be grateful to them which brought you up by hand"; Miss Havisham's finger movements and her corpse-like, waxwork, and skeleton appearance; and Pip's recurring reference to coarse hands, thick boots, and Jacks and knaves.
Guilt, gratitude, fantasy, and secrecy are themes in these chapters. Pip feels guilty when Joe describes what an ugly baby he (Pip) was, and then feels deeply grateful that Joe took him in anyway. Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook impart their good news about Miss Havisham by first reminding Pip how grateful he needs to be, and Pumblechook constantly admonishes Pip to be forever grateful to them that brought him up by hand. Secrecy is seen with Joe not wanting Mrs. Joe to know about his lessons, and Pip's willingness to lie just to keep his sister and Pumblechook from knowing the details about Miss Havisham. He feels guilty doing this, but he wants to protect Miss Havisham from the judgements his sister and Pumblechook may pass. Satis House is a fantasy world with Miss Havisham as the witch and Estella as the beautiful princess. Pip is a dreamer living in an abusive situation, so he responds strongly to a fantasy escape. He wants to keep it all to himself and does not want its glow tarnished by reality and the light of day, something his sister would bring to it. The enchantment with Satis House and its pull on Pip will intensify as the story progresses.
The themes of ambition and snobbery start to appear. When Joe compliments him for being a scholar, Pip notes that he should like to be, evidence that even at this young age he has a drive to achieve something more in life than those around him. Pip sees all the seeds in the little drawers at Pumblechook's store and wonders if they want to be free of their jails to grow. This symbolizes the themes of freedom and growth. No doubt, Pip's sister and her condescending attitude toward Joe and his work also fuel this drive. She has made it clear she does not like her station in life. Pip, in turn, shows some condescension toward Joe and his lack of education. He also describes Biddy in somewhat uncomplimentary terms, but she has knowledge and so they become friends.
Joe is a loyal man, calls his wife a fine figure of a woman and a mastermind, and when Pip tries to pick a fight with him on these counts, Joe stops it with a fixed look and a firm word. He is also very astute and aware. Mrs. Joe likes "governing" the house and he recognizes her skills in this regard. Knowing she will be threatened if he starts to become educated, he insists on keeping his lessons with Pip a secret. Joe has the ability and compassion to recognize a person's faults and still see their good points. In spite of his father's drinking and abuse, Joe speaks of the man's good heart. Also, because of what his mother suffered with his father, Joe willingly endures Mrs. Joe's abuse so she never has to suffer the pain his mother did. Joe does regret that his choice means Pip gets hit with the Tickler from time to time. He is sorry about that and notes it as a shortcoming of his. This point will surface again in Chapter 57, when Joe speaks to Pip of his failure to protect him as much as he should have. Yet in spite of his shortcomings and lack of education, Joe is an ethical, genuine, fair man with innate goodness and a natural knowledge of life. He senses it is a problem to mix children of different social classes for play, and his morality is straight and clear. When Pip admits he feels coarse and common and that he lied in describing his visit to Miss Havisham's, Joe tells Pip that you have to be common before you can be uncommon, that no good comes of lies, and if you cannot get to be uncommon by being honest, you will never get there by being dishonest.
Pip generally views Joe as a child, though his level of respect rises after Joe's story about his parents. However, Pip also feels anger toward Joe. Pip reacts in an argumentative way to the compliments Joe pays his sister. Joe puts a quick stop to this, but Pip has an accurate sense of self here. He feels some righteous anger at the man who allows Mrs. Joe to abuse him. Pip knows that Mrs. Joe's bringing him up by hand does not give her the right to bring him up "by jerks." As with all children as they grow, Pip is also starting to realize that the all-knowing, all-powerful adults are not perfect. His anger intensifies later when Estella humiliates him over things Pip feels Joe should have known if only Joe had been more genteelly brought up. To a certain extent, Pip's later abandonment of Joe is understandable as a form of rebellion against a man that Pip feels let him down. With no way to express his passion or rage, Pip suppresses his feelings or takes them out on himself. He tries to hide his tears after Estella hurts him, resorting, instead, to kicking the brewery wall and pulling his hair out. The rising level of anger at Joe, Mrs. Joe, and Estella cannot be directed at the source, so it goes inside. This results in depression, and Pip often seems to approach life as a passive victim.
Pip's rising anger shows when he almost belligerently refuses to give his sister and Pumblechook any details about Miss Havisham. Partly, he feels he won't be understood, something he thinks is universal to children his age. He also feels attacked and cornered. Lastly, he feels protective of Miss Havisham, refusing to expose her to someone like his sister. So he lies or refuses to answer — his way of getting back at the two adults.
The personal interactions in these chapters between Pip, Miss Havisham, and Estella define the characters' personalities and motivations, and foreshadow a lot of the action in the novel. Miss Havisham is a hard-hearted woman who proudly wears her emotional wounds like a badge of honor. Time has no meaning for her as she has stopped all the clocks in her house at the exact time that her wedding was canceled. She does not want to know what day of the week it is and she has not seen the sun in many years. Her objective throughout the novel is to exact revenge on all men, and the first time Pip notes this is when Miss Havisham tells Estella to break his heart. He is surprised and thinks he has misunderstood her; however, as the novel progresses, he becomes very aware of what her agenda is. He does not or cannot stop trying for Estella's attention, though. In spite of the many times he will be hurt by them both, Pip is drawn to Miss Havisham's, and it is already evident, such as when he tells Miss Havisham that he wants to go home right now but does want to come back. He is hooked, admiring the unpossessable princess while she spurns him.
Glossary
Catechism a series of questions and answers children in the Church learn. When they are confirmed by the Bishop they must be able to answer these. In one part of the Catechism, the child promises to "keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of my life." Pip interprets this to mean he must walk home the same way every day of his life.
Collins' Ode on the Passions Mr. Wopsle is supposed to give periodic scholastic tests to the students in his great-aunt's school to see if they are learning. Instead, he makes them listen to his performances of great orations and poems. This one is the poem, "Ode on the Passions," by William Collins (1721–1759). Collins' odes were often on nature subjects or emotions and here Mr. Wopsle plays the part of "Revenge."
fell among those thieves this is a biblical reference, referring to the unfortunate man in the parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:30-35, who fell among thieves, was beaten by them, and left for dead. Pip feels that numbers and arithmetic are about as vicious to him as the thieves were to the man in the parable.
comes the Mo-gul over us a Mogul is one of the Mongolian conquerors of India and Persia. Joe uses this term to describe Mrs. Joe's heavy-handed, despotic power over them as if she were some far-eastern prince.
Ablutions a washing of the body.
Farinaceous containing, consisting of, or made from flour or meal. Because Pumblechook is a corn and seed merchant, his home and place of business no doubt have a fair bit of corn meal or flour dust scattered about.
Gormandizing a British spelling of the word "gourmandising," which here means eating or devouring like a glutton.
Adamantine unyielding, firm, adamant about something. Pip adamantly refuses to answer his sister's questions when he returns from his first visit to Miss Havisham's.
plaited the right leg of my trousers as a nervous twitch, Pip sits there pleating (folding) and unpleating the cloth of his pants leg.
Metaphysics speculative philosophy. The branch of philosophy that tries to explain the nature of being and reality, and the origin and structure of the universe. When Pip and Joe discuss Pip's feeling coarse and common at Miss Havisham's, Pip is speaking in abstract philosophical terms that are over Joe's head. Joe triumphs, however, by bringing the matter into simple realistic truths that even Pip concedes give him hope.
Meditations prayers.
