Great Expectations: Secrets
Bailey Baith
Great Expectations
Adv. English 11
March 9, 2013
Secrets
A secret always has reasoning behind how long it is kept hidden and when it is revealed. There’s always a perfect time and place for one to share one’s secret. Uniquely books have secrets embedded within to keep the reader on edge. If used wisely by the author, a secrets purpose can affect a novel’s story line, character development, and theme. Every secret throughout Dickens’ novel Great Expectations is effectively kept hidden and divulged at a certain moment, to allow the reader to contemplate the influence of social status and relationships on happiness.
“Keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat!” (Dickens, 2) At the beginning of Great Expectations, the main character Pip is a young, orphaned boy living with his sister and her husband Joe. When he runs into a convict looking for food and a file, the poor boy is sent into a troublesome journey beyond his innocence trying to decide which was worse, stealing from his family or the convict’s threat if he denied his request. Through Pip’s thoughts back at home, it’s apparent which of the two Pip could never keep a secret from. At the dinner table Pip describes Joe’s intentions as “tender simplicity.” (Dickens 36) The word choice is usually that of a mother or a female not a male.
Miss Havisham is first depicted as an elderly widowed lady who lives in Satis House. She is known for being very wealthy. The first time Pip goes to visit her he describes the house to be very dark and broken and describes her attire to be that of a women getting married. Her character is very demeaning in the way she talks to Pip, looks at him and the things she brings up about her social class. This doesn’t go unnoticed by Pip. He says, “She was looking at me with a look of supreme aversion.” (Dickens, 47) Pip suspects the hostility coming from Miss Havisham has to do with how uneducated he is. Despite his loyalty to Joe and the plan of
Great Expectations
Adv. English 11
March 9, 2013
Secrets
A secret always has reasoning behind how long it is kept hidden and when it is revealed. There’s always a perfect time and place for one to share one’s secret. Uniquely books have secrets embedded within to keep the reader on edge. If used wisely by the author, a secrets purpose can affect a novel’s story line, character development, and theme. Every secret throughout Dickens’ novel Great Expectations is effectively kept hidden and divulged at a certain moment, to allow the reader to contemplate the influence of social status and relationships on happiness.
“Keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat!” (Dickens, 2) At the beginning of Great Expectations, the main character Pip is a young, orphaned boy living with his sister and her husband Joe. When he runs into a convict looking for food and a file, the poor boy is sent into a troublesome journey beyond his innocence trying to decide which was worse, stealing from his family or the convict’s threat if he denied his request. Through Pip’s thoughts back at home, it’s apparent which of the two Pip could never keep a secret from. At the dinner table Pip describes Joe’s intentions as “tender simplicity.” (Dickens 36) The word choice is usually that of a mother or a female not a male.
Miss Havisham is first depicted as an elderly widowed lady who lives in Satis House. She is known for being very wealthy. The first time Pip goes to visit her he describes the house to be very dark and broken and describes her attire to be that of a women getting married. Her character is very demeaning in the way she talks to Pip, looks at him and the things she brings up about her social class. This doesn’t go unnoticed by Pip. He says, “She was looking at me with a look of supreme aversion.” (Dickens, 47) Pip suspects the hostility coming from Miss Havisham has to do with how uneducated he is. Despite his loyalty to Joe and the plan of