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Great Expectations Innocence Quotes Page 2
Citations follow this format: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
- Pip
- >
My sister's bringing up had made me sensitive. In the little world in which children have their existence whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice. It may be only small injustice that the child can be exposed to; but the child is small, and its world is small, and its rocking-horse stands as many hands high, according to scale, as a big-boned Irish hunter. (1.8.95)
Pip’s world is contained, small, and familiar, but, at the same time, it is terrorized by his angry sister.
- Pip
- >
With which he took them out, and gave them, not to Miss Havisham, but to me. I am afraid I was ashamed of the dear good fellow – I know I was ashamed of him – when I saw that Estella stood at the back of Miss Havisham's chair, and that her eyes laughed mischievously. (1.13.18)
When Joe encounters Miss Havisham’s world, we literally see the convergence of two social classes. Whereas Pip can move fluidly between the two, in this moment we see just how rigidly the working class and affluent class are defined. Pip allows his reverence for high society to shadow his love of the father-figure in his life.
- Pip
- >
Finally, I remember that when I got into my little bedroom I was truly wretched, and had a strong conviction on me that I should never like Joe's trade. I had liked it once, but once was not now. (1.13.69)
Pip begins to hate the world in which he lives and the destiny to which he was born. The knowledge of Miss Havisham’s world and wealth widens Pip’s concept of the world, but it also narrows his acceptance of his home.
