On one hand, a Christian

Morality Tale Stage 1: Fall from innocence

Stage 2: Enters world of sin

Stage 3: Redemption

Notice Biblical allusions throughout the

novel

On the other, a satire

1.Legal System

2.Class Snobbery –

-upper class snobbery was based on background

-Middle class snobbery was based on money

3.Education - Mr. Wopsle’s great aunt is a travesty of a school teacher

- Joe’s illiteracy

- Pip’s lack of comprehension

4.Treatment of Children

-Mrs Gargery with “Tickler” and her “apron of pins”

-Wopsle and Pumblechook’s treatment of Pip at the Christmas dinner

• 5. Values of the middle class where money dictates one’s values

• - Pumblechook

Stock Characters &

Caricatures Gender Stereotypes in

Great Expectations

Caricature

• A portrait that exaggerates or distorts the

essence of a person or thing to create an

easily identifiable visual likeness

or

• In literature, a description of a person

using exaggeration of some characteristics

and oversimplification of others.

Stock Characters

Definition: a stereotyped character easily recognized by readers or audiences from recurrent appearances in literary or folk tradition

Examples:

The orphan: Harry Potter, Cinderella, Annie, Pip

The seductive female: Sirens, Kirke, Kalypso

The lovable rogue (friendly, but unfamiliar with customs): Borat, Buddy the Elf

Benefits of Stock Characters

For the reader:

– Provide easy recognition and retention through interrupted readings

For the writer:

-Lessens the burden of establishing character and attention can be given to various embellishments

-Exaggerates the stereotypes in society to point out social follies

The old ball

and chain

The nag The old lady

Wears the pants

Stereotype: The nagging wife

Mrs. Joe Gargery The Nagging Wife

Why is she so bitter?

What do you think will motivate her

actions in this novel?

Pip’s Perception

• Raised him “by hand”- pun (play on words)

– Literally means to spoon or bottle feed as opposed to breast feed

– What does Pip interpret this expression to mean?

• Not a good-looking woman- black hair and eyes, red skin

• Tickler and the Ram-page (8-9)

• Pip has a “general impression that she must have made Joe Gargery marry her by hand” (8).

• Cutting the bread (10)

• Tar Water (12)

Famous Lines • If it warn’t for me you’d have been to the churchyard long

ago, and stayed there” (9).

• “I may truly say I’ve never had this apron of mine off, since born you were. It’s bad enough to be a blacksmith’s wife (and him a Gargery) without being your mother” (9).

• “You’ll drive me to the churchyard betwixt you, one of these days, and oh, a pr-r-recious pair you’d be without me” (10).

• “Now, perhaps you’ll mention what’s the matter…you staring great stuck pig” (12).

• “But [Mrs. Joe] was never polite, unless there was company” (14).

• “People are put in the Hulks because they murder, and because they rob, and forge, and do all sorts of bad; and they always begin by asking questions” (15).

Stereotype: Henpecked Husband

He used to be a dude. Now he is subdued. He's a henpecked husband! She rules the roost.

• "A henpecked husband is a domestic animal trained to wash up and dry up, but never to act up."

• “The man who is afraid to think for himself usually chooses the wrong woman to think for him.”

• "Marriage brings out the animal in some men, usually the chicken."

Curs'd be the man, the poorest wretch in life,

The crouching vassal to a tyrant wife!

Who has no will but by her high permission,

Who has not sixpence but in her possession,

Who must to her his dear friend's secrets tell,

Who dreads a curtain lecture worse than hell.

Were such the wife had fallen to my part,

I'd break her spirit or I'd break her heart;

I'd charm her with the magic of a switch,

I'd kiss her maids, and kick the perverse [witch].

Henpecked Husband by Robert Burns

(1759-1796)

Joe Gargery The hen-pecked husband

The Guardian

Pip’s Perception

• Fair man- flaxen curls, smooth face, blue

eyes

• Mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy

going, foolish, dear fellow

• Allusion= Hercules in strength and

weakness

• Fellow sufferer

Famous lines • “Mrs. Joe has been out a dozen times, looking for

you Pip. And she’s out now, making it a baker’s dozen” (8).

• “Joe was a fair man, with curls of flaxen hair on each side of his smooth face, and with eyes of such a very undecided blue that they seemed to have somehow got mixed with their own whites. He was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish, dear fellow -- a sort of Hercules in strength, and also in weakness" (8).

• “I always treated [Joe] as a larger species of child, and as no more than my equal” (9).

Chapter 2 NEW CHARACTERS & PLACES:

• Mrs. Joe: Pip’s abusive sister who has raised him since his parents’ death. Proud to have raised Pip “by hand,” and she menaces him with a stick she ironically calls “Tickler.”

• Joe Gargery: Mrs. Joe’s husband; a large blacksmith who tries to shield Pip from the wrath of his sister. He is an honest, good man who stays with his abusive wife because of his love for Pip.

• Pip’s boyhood home: In Kent, Mrs. Joe maintains a little cottage that is extremely clean and includes an uncomfortable parlor Pip never enters. It serves as a contrast to Miss Havisham’s opulent home that Pip will encounter in Chapter 8. Joe’s forge is just outside the home.

• Theme: Right vs. Wrong- Are right and wrong mutually exclusive or can they occur at the same time?

Chapter 3

• NEW CHARACTERS & PLACES:

• Second convict: Pip believes him to be the man he met the previous day. Later he thinks he is the “partner” that the original convict had mentioned.

• Pip’s irrational paranoia is highlighted in this chapter- p. 16-17

• Have you ever felt this way when you did something wrong?

Stock characters

• The Convict: Prisoners

– “I had often watched a

large dog of ours eating his

food; and I now noticed a

decided similarity between

the dog’s way of eating,

and the man’s [eating]”

(19).

– What does this line imply

about what prison does to

men?

Chapter 4 PLOT DEVELOPMENT: On Christmas Day Pip and Joe go to church

dressed in formal, totally unsuitable clothes at Mrs. Joe’s insistence. Later, a variety of silly but interesting people attend Christmas dinner. During dinner, Pip worries that the stolen food will be discovered. Mr. Wopsle gives a dramatic blessing. Pumblechook gets sick drinking brandy Pip had supplemented with tar-water while he was stealing it for the convict. Pip’s fears are realized when, just as Mrs. Joe discovers her missing pie, soldiers arrive at the door with a pair of handcuffs.

NEW CHARACTERS & PLACES:

• Mr. Wopsle: a pompous, dramatic clerk of the church who likes to brag that if it were “thrown open” to commoners, he would welcome the competition.

• Uncle Pumblechook: Joe’s self-important uncle who acts in concert with Mrs. Joe.

• Mr./Mrs. Hubble: minor characters; Mr. Hubble is a wheelwright who does not like children.

• Pay attention to characters who have expectations; in other words, these are characters who are not happy with their current lives.

Other Stock Characters

Pumblechook: the pompous bullying hypocrite – Dickens frequently

incorporated this type of person (which he hated) into his writing.

– He is a caricature that resembles his ridiculous name.

– Doesn’t really have any feelings. He is there to irritate Pip, add to comic scenes, and display certain exaggerated character traits.