Great Expectation Test(Answers) Essay Example

knocked from one spot to another 6. What objects does the convict want brought to him? The convict wants a file and food brought to him. He wants a file because he has a great iron on his leg. 7.

What personal circumstance of Pip's is convenient for the convict? It is convenient to the convict that Pip lives with Joe, the blacksmith, for Pip can bring him a file with which to break free of the leg irons that hold him. Also, since Pip does not live far from where the prison ship is, the convict did not have to walk far to find the boy whom he has bring him food in addition to the file. Note: This is the first coincidence of a plot that comes to depend on coincidences. Vocabulary: “wittles" = vittles (food); “battery" = gun enplacement, in this case probably dating from the Napoleonic Wars, which ended at Waterloo in 1815.

Chapter II 1. How does Dickens arouse our sympathies for certain characters? In Chapter 2, Dickens arouses the reader's sympathies for Pip and Joe Gargery at the expense of Mrs. Joe. Mrs. Joe is rough and domineering, while the two males are passive and gentle, "fellow-sufferers" under Mrs. Joe's tyrannical hand. Mrs. Joe is described as "not a good-looking woman... (who) must have made Joe Gargery marry her by hand". She wears "a coarse apron" all the time, blaming the fact that she has to wear it on Pip and Joe, because of all the work they cause her.

The apron has a "square impregnable bib in front", symbolic of the suppression of her womanhood and all womanly qualities. Pip, as

established in the previous chapter, is small and insignificant, and Joe is described as "a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish, dear fellow - a sort of Hercules in strength, and also in weakness". Before the tempestuous nature of Mrs. Joe, the two try to get by as best they can together (Chapter 2). 2. Why does Pip live with village blacksmith Joe Gargery? Pip lives with the village blacksmith Joe Gargery because his sister, Mrs. Joe, is married to Mr.

Joe. 3. What is the nature of the relationship between these two characters? 4. What object that Pip takes the convict makes him feel guilty and nearly gets him discovered? He steals several things from home that day--food, a pork pie, brandy, and Joe's file. It is the pork pie, the brandy, and the file that almost get him caught. When he stole the brandy, he replaced it with tar water, which makes one of their guests incredibly sick. So not only did he steal the liquor, he also inadverdently made someone sick from the action. This startles the entire family; next, Pip's sister goes to get the pork pie.

Gratefully, they are distracted by the soldiers. The soldiers have discovered the filed handcuffs; Magwitch had used Joe's file to saw them open. The soldiers realize the file must have come from Joe's forge. This is awful because then Joe looks guilty, and Pip feels horrible. He has to decide whether or not to confess his crimes. Fortunately, Magwitch covers for him, and he gets off the hook Vocabulary: “bolting" = swallowing without properly chewing (probably an indication of Pip's apprehensiveness at the dinner table); “hulks" = former

naval vessels now being used as temporary prisons.

Chapter III 1. What is surprising about the attitude of the two convicts towards one another? Both the convicts - Magwitch and Compeyson - are sworn enemies and given half a chance they would immediately kill one another. In Ch. 3 both of them have escaped from the prison ships and are in hiding on the marshes waiting for a suitable opportunity to make good their escape. Naturally,they are both tense and nervous and scared of the slightest noise. Their imaginary fears makes  them to over react even at the slightest noise or disturbance.

This is what is surprising about their attitude and adds to the suspense, because the readers want to know more about the relationship of these two convicts. 2. What object in this chapter leads to a real mystery later on. Later on, in chapter 10, Pip goes to the local tavern where a stranger is sitting; lo and behold, he has the file. He is using the file to stir his drink, and he stares at Pip, making him very uncomfortable. Pip realizes that this must be the second criminal, Magwitch's fellow escapee. The  man later gives Pip money, most likely in thanks for helping him to escape.

So, Joe's file, used to help two criminals escape, turns up 7 chapters later in the hands of a mysterious man who gives Pip money. It is an interesting development. I hope that helped; good luck! Vocabulary: “rimy" = frosty. Chapter IV Note Mr. Wopsle's self-righteous biblical allusion: “Swine were the companions of the prodigal" (see Luke XV:11-32). 1. Explain the expression “like monumental Crusaders as to their

legs. " Mr. Joe would cross his fingers to signify to Pip that Mrs. Joe was in an irate state of mind.

The crossing of the legs is symbolic of the slain Christians in the Crusades, statues of whom had legs crossed both for balance and as symbolic of the legs of Jesus  that were so positioned at the Crucifixtion. 2. What special occasion is being celebrated and how? Christmas is being celebrated and it is being celebrated by a dinner. 3. And yet why does Pip feel apprehensive and miserable? Pip stole and gave to Magwitch the pork pie. So throughout the Christmas lunch Pip feels guilty that he has stolen from his own sister's house and given the food to a convict and worse he his scared of the terrible consequence once he is exposed.

Furthermore, throughout the lunch, Mrs. Joe and her friends harass and bully Pip and give him slight amount to eat. Vocabulary: “penitentials" = possibly a reference to prison uniform; also, clothing worn as a sign of repentance or sorrow for sin; “banns" = announcement of impending marriage made in church; “thrown open" = Wopsle is ineligible for the post of clergyman in the Church of England because he is not a university graduate — the profession has not been made accessible to members of the lower classes. Chapter V 1. How was the suspense of the previous chapter explained? Note the effect of the serialized format on the novel's structure; this sustaining of suspense from the end of one instalment through the beginning of the next involved careful plotting to coincide with the closing and opening of “curtains. ") The suspense in chapter 4 is

explained through the actions of Pip being apprehensive. At the end of the Christmas dinner in Ch. 4 when Mrs. Joe announces dramatically that she is going to serve the pie, Pip is terrified and rushes out of the house hoping to escape his sister's wrath.

Just as he is about to step outdoors he is stopped by a soldier holding a pair of handcuffs. 2. How did the first convict show his appreciation for Pip's loyalty at this point? The first convict shows his appreciation for Pip's loyalty by making sure the boy is not suspected of helping him in his escape. He then declares before all present that he "took some wittles, up at the willage over yonder... from the blacksmith's". He then goes on to turn to Joe and apologizes, telling him, "I'm sorry to say, I've eat your pie" . What apparently is the cause of the hostility between the two convicts? The cause of the hostility between the two convicts is that Magwitch feels that the second convict betrayed him in the trial which put them both in prison. 4. Explain: “like a wicked Noah's ark" at the very end of the chapter. It is "like a wicked Noah's ark" because it loads pairs of men like "beasts," but not to transport them. Instead, they are chained and confined to the prison-ship and made to remain on this "wicked ark.   They do not get to return to the world as the animals of Noah's ship do. Chapter VI 1. Who is Pumblechook, and how does he get Pip into Satis House? Chapter VII "I was to be apprenticed to Joe"--a

seven-year apprenticeship was the usual way of entering a trade. 1. How does Dickens satirize public education in this chapter? In this chapter, Dickens satirizes the institution of education as not concerned with the care of the children therein, but, instead is occupied simply with the profit that comes from housing these children.

If any care is given to the children, it is by the other children themselves, not by the adults who are supposedly in charge of the children's care. 2. Note that Pip describes his alphabet as “a bramble bush" and his fingers as “thieves"; how do these references contribute to the book's imagery? These references contribute to the book’s imagery by tying the images of Pip’s efforts to get an education with his previous experiences in the marshes with the convicts. 3. Explain: “steam was yet in its infancy" (most British cities were connected by railways in 1860).

Pip says "Joe's education, like Steam, was yet in its infancy". The story takes place in the nineteenth century, during the early years of the industrial revolution when the steam engine had just been discovered. Like the steam engine, which is just in its first stages of development, Joe's educational level is quite rudimentary. 4. What is implied about England's government when Dickens has Joe tell Pip that Mrs. Joe, being given to government, does not want him to be able to read and write? In this passage, Mrs.

Joe is being compared to the government of England. By doing this, Dickens is saying that the English government does not want its lower classes to be educated. Dickens is saying that the government fears that an educated lower

class will be more likely to rise up and rebel against the government Chapter VIII 1. Note the connection between the vegetation and the prison imagery in the descriptions of both Pumblechook's shop and Miss Havisham's house; how is Pip's very name involved in this imagery?

Pip’s name is involved in this imagery because Pip in previous chapters was helping an escaped convict and taking him food. 2. Note the description of Satis (Latin, meaning "enough' or plenty" as in satisfaction) House: “old brick, and dismal and had a great many bars to it. " What other type of building does the derelict mansion seem to resemble? 3. Miss Havisham behaves like an aristocrat; by ________, however, her father made his fortune, which passed to her. 4. What does Miss Havisham's appearance remind Pip of?

How is this analogy apt? 5. What about Pip does Estella criticize? 6. What does his reaction to her criticism tell us about Pip? 7. The key image for English society of the nineteenth century is the “rank garden with an old wall". God started our world , Dickens seems to say, as a paradise (The Garden of _________), but sinful and careless men have made a "rank garden" of it. Once again, the “old wall" suggests a prison. Early nineteenthth-century Britain had so many prisoners that there weren't prisons enough to hold them.

Hence there are improvised prisons, the “_________" at the end of the “Meshes"; later, the convicts will be “transported" by prison ships to _________. Return means death. Chapter IX 1. Why does Pip “embroider" his account of his visit to Satis House? 2. Why do Pumblechook and Mrs. Joe

believe this far-fetched account? 3. Note the admonition to the reader at the very end of the chapter; how does this passage further connect the story's vegetation and the prison imagery? Chapter X 1. How do we know the bank notes come from the convict? 2. What does this incident with the bank notes indicate about Joe?