Advanced Higher English
Literary Study (2)
25. Dickens
EITHER
Discuss the importance of the Sleary circus folk in the presentation of the central issues of Hard Times.
OR
Discuss the importance of Joe Gargery and the life of the forge in the presentation of the central issues of Great Expectations.
“Dickens is one of those authors who are well worth stealing.”
George Orwell’s view of the Victorian literary giant was astute. Dickens’ innate ability to create complex, hyperbolic, and yet intensely real characters; to portray important messages through engaging plots; and to construct tangible settings is (and should be) envied by all writers. One of Dickens’ finest works, Great Expectations, explores with great depth and insight the life of Pip, a “blacksmith’s boy” who, upon receiving a vast amount of money from an unknown benefactor, becomes a “young fellow of great expectations”. His friend and brother-in-law, Joe Gargery, serves as an example of a true gentleman in the novel, and Pip eventually comes to the realisation that gentility is not made out of money or status, but comes from kindness and goodness of the heart.
When Pip is a boy, he and Joe ironically come together amidst the harsh conditions forced up0on them by Mrs Joe, Pip’s sister. Pip says how “[he] often served as a connubial missile” because Mrs Joe was a very strict mother figure. Pip and Joe both experience adversity and Pip, who is an orphan and has no friends but Joe, can only find solace in the company of hie brother-in-law:
“I loved Joe – perhaps for no other reason in those early days than because the dear fellow let me love him.”
Pip is unable to find my parental love in Mrs Joe and is attracted to the kind blacksmith. He describes Joe thus:
“He was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish dear fellow […] A sort of Hercules in strength, but also in weakness.”
However, Pip’s life changes direction when he meets Miss Havisham and Estella, the reclusive bride and her adopted daughter. Miss Havisham, who was jilted on her wedding day, has brought up Estella “to wreak vengeance on all the male sex”. Pip is summoned to Miss Havisham’s old house as prey for Estella so Miss Havisham can put her monster to the test. On Pip’s first visit to Satis House Miss Havisham asks Estella to play cards with Pip:
“’Let me see you play cards with this boy.’
‘This boy! Why he is a common labouring boy.’
‘Well, you can break his heart.’
‘What do you play boy?’ asked Estella of myself, with the greatest disdain.
‘Nothing but beggar your neighbour, miss.’
‘Beggar him’ said Miss Havisham.”
Miss Havisham has corrupted Estella by raising her into this weapon against men, and intends to use her to corrupt Pip. Unfortunately, Pip, who is so loved by Joe back at the forge, and so contempted by the glacial Estella at Satis House, he longs to prove himself worthy of Estella by becoming a gentleman.
As a boy, Pip had longed for the day that he would become apprenticed to Joe. They often remark on “What Larks!” they would have. However, Pip’s taste of a social milieu hitherto unachievable at Satis House changes him. He feels “ashamed of home” and explains to Biddy, his friend and teacher:
“I am disgusted with my calling and my life.”
Pip suddenly becomes ashamed of his social status and largely, it seems, blames Joe:
“I wished that Joe had been more genteely brought up, and then I should have been too.”
At times he seems to give himself a false superiority over Joe:
“I wanted to make Joe less ignorant and common, that he might be worthier of my society and less open to Estella’s reproach.”
Pip is quite embarrassed of Joe, but it is only because his experiences at Miss Havisham’s continually strengthen his desire to be a gentleman.
Indeed, by chance, Pip comes into money. An unknown benefactor entrusts a lawyer, Mr Jaggers, to take Pip to London and have him educated so that he might become a “gentleman”. Pip’s rise in social distinction leads him to a sybaritic lifestyle and he becomes increasingly snobbish the more time he spends in London. He completely rejects Joe, and Biddy, and his home town, and instead devotes his life to pursuing Estella.
When Joe writes to Pip explaining that he will be visiting London, Pip shocks the reader with his distasteful statement:
“If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money.”
Pip, who has not even himself earned the money he lives on, builds up a false idea that he deserves his position above Joe on the social ladder, when really, he does not. Joe, who stays a true gentleman from the start of Great Expectations to the very end, has the kindness not to blame Pip for his rudeness towards him. He says to Pip before he leaves London:
“’Pip, dear old chap, life is made of ever so many partings welded together, and one man’s a blacksmith, and one’s a whitesmith, and one’s a goldsmith, and one’s a coppersmith. Divisions among such must come, and must be met as they come’”.
Joe, the blacksmith, never blames Pip, seemingly the “goldsmith”, for his snobbery. He knows that it is natural in life for relationships to be driven apart by “divisions” between social classes. Another aspect noticed here is that Joe’s love is almost unconditional towards Pip. Despite Pip’s actions, Joe remains a faithful friend to him.
In fact, Joe’s love towards just about everyone in the novel seems unconditional. Early on in Pip’s life, Joe explains to him why he does not hate Mrs Joe for her nasty treatment of both of them:
“’My father, Pip, were given to drink, and when he were overtook with drink, he used to hammer away at my mother most unmerciful. It was a’most the only hammering he did, ‘xcepting at myself. And he hammered at me with a wigour only to be equalled to the wigour with which he didn’t hammer at his anvil. You’re a listening and understanding, Pip? Well, your sister’s a master-mind … And I ain’t no master-mind … And, last of all - and I want to say this very serious to you, Pip old chap - I see so much of my poor mother, of a woman drudging and slaving, and breaking her honest heart, and never getting no peace in her mortal days. And I’m dead afeer’d of going wrong by not doing what’s right by a woman, and I’d fur rather of the two go wrong t’other way and be a little ill-convenienced myself.’”
Joe’s big heart has space for everyone, no matter how they treat him.
Pip’s direction in life is warped dramatically again when he discovers the true identity of his benefactor. He has been hitherto under the illusion that Miss Havisham, his “fairy godmother”, is the mysterious person but it turns out to be Abel Magwitch, an ex-convict who Pip stole some food for very early on in the progress of the novel. Pip’s first realisation is that Miss Havisham and Estella have been deceiving him all this time:
“Miss Havisham’s intentions for me all a dream (…) I only suffered at Satis House as a convenience, a sting for the greedy relations, a model with a mechanical heart…”
This comes as a shock to Pip, and he regrets his harsh treatment of Joe and Biddy, who (he now understands) are his only true friends.
Pip is then suddently attacked by Orlick, a rough man who has hated Pip since he was a boy. Pip is fortunately saved, but becomes bed-ridden with a fever. While ill, Joe nurses him back to health from his bedside. Pip seems to finally value Joe as highly as he always should have, and his false superiority disappears:
“Oh dear good faithful tender Joe, I feel the loving tremble of your hand upon my arm as if it were the rustle of an angel’s wing.”
Joe even pays Pip’s debts with his savings (ironically the poorer man aids financially the richer). Pip’s gratefulness for Joe becomes so strong that he is almost angered by it:
“Oh Joe, you break my heart! Look angry at me, Joe. Strike me, Joe. Tell me of my ingratitude. Do not be so good to me!”
This tumultuous period of Pip’s life leads him to respect Joe more, and hold more value in their relationship. It almost seems as if Pip’s life starts off on the right path, where he loves and looks up to Joe, but Pip’s corruption by “the stupendous power of money” and by Miss Havisham and Estella lead him to deviate from his path. Ultimately, however, Pip finds himself back on the right track, his love for Joe never having been stronger.
Charles Dickens creates and interesting character with Joe Gargery. Although uneducated and very simple, Joe is one of the most compassionate and understanding characters in Pip’s epic. He is ubiquitous as an example to Pip of a true gentleman, and Pip eventually realises this. Dickens was attacking what he thought to be a common misconception in Victorian society, that a “gentleman” is made out of money and social status. However, what Dickens proves through Joe is that kindness and a loving heart are far more valuable in life than money and its destructive qualities.
Question
This question requires the candidate to relate Joe Gargery andthe life of the forge to the central issues (themes) of Great Expectations. There are therefore two aspects to be dealt with.
The Script
The candidate develops an understanding of the task: to portray important messages … to construct tangible settings … Joe Gargery is an example of a true gentleman in the novel … gentility comes from kindness and goodness of the heart … in the introduction.
The argument of the answer is established as an examination of the relationship between Pip and Joe: (they) ironically come together; the apt quotation of (Pip) often served as a connubial missile is incorporated into the judgement at the bottom of page 1: Pip … can only find solace in the company of his brother-in-law.
Quotation is a feature of this script but on pp2 and 3 it is used to move the account of the narrative forward rather than to allow for analysis of the centrality of Joe and the forge. There are glimmers of skilful deployment of evidenceat this point. The candidate is keen to discuss Satis House and its inhabitants, thereby moving away from a wholly relevant approach to the prescribed task - although Pip’s response to the life of the forge is obviously influenced by his perceptions of Estella and her judgement of him: Unfortunately, Pip who is so loved by Joe back at the forge … longs to prove himself worthy of Estella by becoming a gentleman. (P3) The line of argument on this page is focused and well-supported by evidence.
P4 - continued analysis of Joe with well-chosen quotation and effective commentary.
P5- the central issues of the novel are being understood and Dickens’s use of the character of Joe is implicitly analysed on this page.
P6 - the long quotation about Joe’s early life is an astonishing feat in an examination. However, the candidate lets this quotation speak for itself, rather than deploying it in the development of the argument. It could, for example have been used to introduce the life of the forge.
Pp7 and 8 - mainly narrative driven with limited analysis supported by a commentary of the significance of events.
P9 - the candidate is drawing the argument to a conclusion about the central issue of the stupendous power of money and Pip’s ultimate realisation of his love for Joe never having been stronger.
The response has focused on the character of Joe Gargery and only implied a treatment of the life of the forge in the majority of the answer.
Understanding - Category 2
- the implications of the prescribed task are not quite so thoroughly explored.
- Insight is not quite so well sustained to reveal key elements, central concerns and significant details of the texts …
Analysis - Category 3
- Glimmers of fullness or skill of critical / analytical comment.
- Some literary techniques are handled with glimmers of skill and precision.
Evaluation - Category 3
- Glimmers of perceptiveness and incisive judgements.
- Deployment of evidence from text shows glimmers of skill and precision.
Expression - Category 2
- Structure, style and language, including the use of appropriate critical / analytical terminology are skilfully deployed to develop a pertinent and focused argument.
Category 2 - This response has a mixed profile of attainment and as such should be placed at the lowest mark in the higher category. Therefore it is placed just into Category 2.
Mark: 23