Charles Dickens – Extract from Great Expectations

Charles Dickens – Extract from Great Expectations

        Every important dinner has its own great expectations. This extract from the fourth Chapter of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, plunges the reader into the life of common people, more precisely, it depicts a Christmas dinner. Before this passage, the boy Pip, who's also the narrator, stole his sister's pork pie to give it to a convict who threatened him. In this chapter, the reader knows that the truth is going to come up and fall upon Pip. There is a dramatic irony. Nonetheless, this extract emphasizes the idea that Pip's burden is nothing in comparison to what he is currently enduring. In this way, this extract shows how Dickens, through a child's perspective, illustrates the ridiculousness of this adults' dinner. Thus, at first sight, this text seems to present the importance of the dinner. But on second thought, it can be seen as an illustration of the narrator's inner and outer suffering through comic relief. Finally, this extract can be interpreted as a depiction of the adults' hypocrisy.

I- An important dinner

-The title of the book could be the title of this first part because this dinner is full of great expectations, Mrs Joe prepared everything for the occasion.

-The extract begins with “among this good company”. First of all, important guests are expected: are mentioned: Mr Wopsle, Mr and Mrs Hubble and Mr Pumblechook.

        *the guests convey a moral dimension to the dinner, the narrator uses the expression “moral goads” line X.

        *the repetition of the word “grateful” by the different characters from line 18 to line 23 emphasizes the moral focus of the discussion → in this way, the discussion becomes about ethic because the characters question the “moral mystery” l.23

-The child is silenced, this silence can be symbolic of the tension created by Mrs Joe: she doesn't want him to embarrass her → this silence of the young impart a solemn aspect to the dinner.

        * This solemnity is accentuated by Mr Wopsle's grace who's tone is compared to Hamlet's dead father's or Richard the Third's, who both represented very grave and important kingly figures.

        *The use of the word “aspiration” l.16 puts an emphasis on the great solemnity of the moment, it's a hope or ambition of achieving something.

-The accumulation of religious sermons by characters puts forward the monopolization of the discussion by ones, and by analogy, the silence of others.

        *the silence can also be a choice: the boy doesn't want to speak, even Mr Joe's “station and influence” were feeble l.27. Thus, the house isn't home for its inhabitants any-more, the guests and Mrs Joe outshine the other inhabitants of the house.

-Finally, the dinner's importance can be illustrated by the abundance of dishes:

        *The boy was “regaled” l.6: he was lavishly supplied with food. The narrator mentions Fowl and pork.

        *The unusual quantity of food is visible l.31 “there being plenty of gravy today”. The fact that the narrator specifies “today” implies that it's different on other days. Moreover, the example of “Half a pint” illustrates – in a trivial manner – the excessive amount of sauce.

        *In fact, the quantity is important here because the boy is served 4 times: “Joe gave me some more gravy”. → This repetition structures the extract and creates a parallelism of construction, and more precisely, a chiasma:

                → The gravy is given while the boy's ability to speak is taken from him. This chiasma highlights at the same time the plentifulness of food and the deep silence imposed to the boy because of occasion.

Nonetheless, the boy's silence doesn't only reflect the social pressure, it also represents his unwillingness to talk and his will to be left alone: he is criticized and persecuted by the elders.

II- the narrator's inner and outer suffering through comic relief

        If the boy may appear as a martyr, he uses comic relief to show his inner and outer suffering.

-The boy gives a sarcastic and ironic tone to his narration.

        *from the very beginning of the text, the narrator mentions “this good company”. This sentence is impregnated with irony, which he develops from line 2 to line 10.

        The narrator creates a situation comic by painting a picture of the grotesque situation: (quote).

        The description of the dishes is surrounded by dark and negative epithets “obscure corners of pork” l.7, “scaly tips of the drumsticks of the fowls” l.6. These are the worst and ugliest parts of these animals: “when living, had the least reason to be vain” l.8

        *These lines are structured by adverbs and mostly conjunctions that increase the ironic tone of this passage. (quote)

        Even if the situation like it's presented at first sight looks horrible, from Pip's point of view, nothing of it is as unbearable as way the adults are verbally pricking him

        → the conjunctions “nor” emphasize the point that Pip's torment doesn't come from everything that is described from line 1 to line 8: the real cause of his torment is described from the coordinating conjunction “But” l.9. “They wouldn’t leave [him] alone”

-From this very moment, the extract can be seen from a different perspective: each element described comically from line 1 until the end of the extract causes pain to the boy at different scales. The highest being the adults' barbs.

        *indeed, the boy's suffering is visible through his use of comic relief and understatements.

        From line 3 to line 10, the narrator Pip succeeds in creating a vivid image of his uneasiness by the use of repetitions and gradations, and by comparing the steady discomfort to growing uneasiness.

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