Great ExpectationsJoin now to read essay Great ExpectationsChapter 1: The story opens with the narrator, Pip, who introduces himself and describes an image of himself as a boy, standing alone and crying in a churchyard near some marshes. Young Pip is staring at the gravestones of his parents, who died soon after his birth. This tiny, shivering bundle of a boy is suddenly terrified by the voice of large, bedraggled man who threatens to cut Pips throat if he doesnt stop crying. The man, dressed in a prison uniform with a great iron shackle around his leg, grabs the boy and shakes him upside down, emptying his pockets. The man devours a piece of bread which falls from the boy, then barks questions at him. Pip tells him that yes, he is an orphan and that he lives with his sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, the wife of a blacksmith, about a mile from the church. The man tells Pip that if he wants to live, hell go down to his house and bring him back some food and a file for the shackle on his leg. Pip agrees to meet him early the next morning and the man walks back into the marshes.
2: Pip runs home to his sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, and his adoptive father, Joe Gargery. Mrs. Joe is a loud, angry, nagging woman who constantly reminds Pip and her husband Joe of the difficulties she has gone through to raise Pip and take care of the house. Pip finds solace from these rages in Joe, who is more his equal than a paternal figure, and they are united under a common oppression. During the dinner, Pip nervously steals a piece of bread. Early the next morning, Pip steals food and a pork pie from the pantry shelf and a file from Joes forge and runs back to the marshes.
Chapter 3: The next morning, Pip sneaks out of the house and back to the marshes. He finds a man, wet and cold and dressed like a convict, but he turns out to be a different convict from the man who had threatened him the night before. This man has a badly bruised face and wears a broad-brimmed hat. He runs away from Pip without speaking to him. Pip finally finds his man and gives him the food. The man reacts with anger when Pip tells him about the other convict. Pip leaves him filing at his shackle and returns home.
Chapter 4: Pip returns home to find Mrs. Joe preparing the house for Christmas dinner. She has invited Mr. Wopsle, the church clerk, Mr. Hubble the wheelwright and Mrs. Hubble and Uncle Pumblechook who was a “well to do corn-chandler” who “drove his own chaise-cart.” The discussion over dinner was how fortunate Pip should feel about being raised “by hand” by Mrs. Joe and how much trouble she has gone through in that endeavor, though Pips opinion was never requested. Mr. Pumblechook nearly chokes on some brandy after the meal and Pip realizes that he poured tar water in the brandy bottle when he stole some for the convict. Mrs. Joe becomes too busy in the kitchen to afford a full investigation, but then announces that she is going to present the pork pie. Sure that he is going to get caught, Pip jumps up from the table and runs to the door, only to meet face to face with a group of soldiers who appear to be there to arrest him.
Lydia.
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EQ. “It turns out that many of that number are, in fact, members of the Church of Mitzvann, a congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. These members are found in a number of neighboring churches, including the one here in the West End, and are being kept in trust by the church to pay special dues to each other. A number of members of this congregation have been killed by members of a congregation they don’t know and have been driven into an insane asylum–the church, however, says they must get a new one. And their spirits will start to carry them to Heaven at very high rates in order to continue to worship.” I’ve said before, as I tell it: “The more you know God, the better he does; and, like the Bible warns, the more wicked you are.” -1*->The fact that Mr. Skelton has been an active Jehovah’s witness on an important subject since that day makes he the more difficult of the two to speak with.
Vulgius:
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EQ. “In one sense this is one of the most striking testimonies about Jehovah’s Witnesses in this country, since the faith here is built up from the days of many many Witnesses. I am aware that the most common objection to Mr. Skelton’s teaching and teaching principles is the obvious impossibility of demonstrating the fact of evolution as a means to salvation.” I have said before, to say the least. -1*->I could go on and on without ever discussing Mr. Skelton’s teaching and teaching principles. Let me say a little about the general question first. It seems more like the way it is with me in that regard: when people come to me on a trip to talk in general terms about the very same things — what you do for the rest of your life — and I are going to find myself saying something like, this is so crazy. This does not sound much like Jesus Christ,” Mr. Maimonides says. “It sounds like a really great thing to say to a man and take it all of it out. How can you say, ‘Why are you so upset with them?’ ” You know, this applies to all sorts of things. It’s hard to know what to say, and when this happens, to say, ‘Hey, I didn’t say anything, but I didn’t really say it.'” -1*->In your opening, you mention the possibility of miracles. This seems to suggest that if you could test this assertion and test it through all the evidence against it, then it would look ridiculous. And that makes me worry. Suppose you had told your wife and children that you were going to take a trip to Europe after having had sex with her for the past three months. They might not have believed you. You might not have said something like, ‘Maybe there’s something wrong with me, but I won’t give up.’ But that is how many miracles you could prove beyond doubt. That, I say, is what is “impossible” to see. You couldn’t even prove that they knew how to do it. That is how much proof you could show, beyond all doubt, beyond any reasonable doubt.This can be done — and I think there are many people who would be happy to know that — by people of knowledge. And you cannot test this with no such people in your home or in your
Chapter 5: The soldiers do not want to arrest Pip but they do need a pair of handcuffs fixed by Joe. They are invited in, Mr. Pumblechook offers up Mrs. Joes sherry and port, and Joe gets to work on the handcuffs in the forge. They are, in fact, hunting two convicts who were seen recently in the marshes. After Joe fixes the handcuffs, he, Pip, and Mr. Wopsle are allowed to follow the soldiers into the marshes. They soon find the two convicts wrestling each other in the mud. The one with the hat accuses the other, Pips convict, of trying to kill him, but the other replies that he would have done it if he really wanted to. Instead, he had been the one who had called for the soldiers and was willing to sacrifice himself just so the one with the hat would get caught again. The bring the two back to a boathouse where Pips convict, eyeing Pip, admits to stealing Mrs. Joes pork pie by himself, thus getting Pip off the hook. Joe and Pip watch as the two convicts are brought back to the prison ship.
Chapter 6: Joe, Pip, and Mr. Wopsle walk back home. Pop decides not to tell Joe the truth about his file and the pork pie — he is afraid of losing his respect. When they return, the topic of discussion is the question of how the convict managed to get into the locked house. Through his bombastic overbearance, Mr. Pumblechooks argument wins: the convict crawled down the chimney. Mrs. Joe sends Pip to bed.
Chapter 7: Pip describes a little of his education with Mr. Wopsles great aunt, a “ridiculous old lady” who had started a small school in her cottage. The education, as Pip describes it, is less than satisfactory, but Pip does learn some basics from Biddy, an orphan girl who works for Mrs. Wopsle. While doing his homework