Mist on the Marshes

Mists, mists, mists. There is a lot of mist in this novel, namely on the marshes of Pip’s hometown. Mists are good for 1) getting things wet and 2) making it very difficult to see things. The mists are around when Pip meets the convict in the cemetery, they show up when Pip leaves town, they are present the night that Orlick tries to kill Pip, and they rise when Pip and Estella reunite again at the (rewritten) end of the novel. After Mrs. Joe’s funeral, Pip promises Biddy that he will return, but she doesn’t believe him. This cuts Pip deep, and he looks to the mists for help and direction, "once more, the mists were rising as I walked away. If they disclosed to me, as I suspect they did, that I should never come back, and that Biddy was quite right, all I can say is—they were quite right, too" (2.35.61). In this moment, Pip uses the mist as he would an eight ball or a fortune teller; they reveal truths rather than obscure them. So the mists are pretty dang multi-dimensional. They can obstruct, and they can reveal. No matter what, they are everywhere in the novel.