The narrator (the older Pip) is very unemotional about the whole ordeal. He seems to understate the actions of the group and is somewhat detached. This implies that he is trying to hide the misery he had in his earlier years. Dickens also uses humour to try and deny the pain he suffered.
“I often served her as a connubial missile” – Mrs. Joe enters the room and throws Pip across the room at Joe. It also understates the pain in a sense.
Halfway through Chapter 2 Dickens uses some more understatement.
- “Mrs Joe pounced on Joe … and knocked his head for a little while against the wall behind him, while I sat … looking guiltily on.” This sentence understates the violence. It uses phrases like ‘for a little while’ and ‘knocked’ (a slight, innocuous hit), but also shows the puzzled reader that this is an “every-day” thing for their family.
A fine lining holds the Gargerys together. Each has a somewhat contrasting personality and only love could hold them together. Mrs. Joe failed to show love and didn’t see Pip once he had become a real gentleman. Joe did.
- MISS. HAVISHAM AND ESTELLA
Mrs. Havisham and Estella are a mysterious pair of characters. During the beginning of the novel they are portrayed as evil. They raise Pip’s expectations to an unrealistic level. Knowing that he should fail and have more misery.
Miss. Havisham can perhaps be described as cold, ruthless, manipulative and masochistic.
She wants take revenge on all men for the wrongs that was done to her by one man. She sits in the clothes she should had worn for her wedding and is surrounded by decaying things a darkened solemn room. She uses Estella cruelly as a porn to exact her revenge. She fails to forget the past and seems to constantly remind herself of the pain she apparently endured.
Early on in the play she delights in the way Estella torments Pip and likes to keep her relatives guessing as to whom she will leave her money once she dies.
She continues with her plan to use Estella as an instrument of revenge on the entire male sex until later in the novel she comes to realise she has created a monster. She accuses Estella of being hard and ungrateful but Estella says she cannot give love as she wasn’t given any herself. She tries to undo some of harm she has done by helping Pip with his plan for Herbert and she leaves her cousin Matthew a legacy of Pip’s recommendation. She dies distraught with guilt for what she has done for Pip and Estella.
Estella can be best described as beautiful but heartless.
In the first stage of the novel, she is a beautiful young girl. She has been brought up as a young lady, but uses her education to talk down to Pip and make him feel inferior. Estella is cruel to Pip yet loyal to Miss Havisham. She is bitter and twisted due to the strange upbringing she has received by Miss. Havisham. Estella does not fully realise that she is being used by the old woman and that she is, herself, little more than an agent for Miss Havisham revenge.
Estella has been educated as an accomplished and sophisticated young lady. She warns Pip time and time again that she has no heart and can never love anyone. She tells Pip that he is only one to be so warned and that she fools of the other men. She seems to become tired of this way of life and is almost self-destructive in her determination to marry such a brutal and ill-mannered man as Bently Drummle. Even Mrs. Havisham tries to persuade her. At the end of the Novell, she is a widow and has little property left. Her hard experiences seemed to have softened her, and she implies that she regrets having rejected Pip’s love for her.
She is contrite and humble as she confesses that she realises what she threw away when she rejected Pip’s love. She feels that the best she can hope for is that they can be friends. She is too humble to expect more.
As a whole the two are merely colleagues at the beginning to novel. The young Estella is manipulated and mesmerised, yet she is too young to realise, and continues with her life as is was before.
However the end of the novel the older Estella shows her real feelings about Miss. Havisham in an emotional scene. The one who Miss. Havisham has brought up to destroy men’s hearts has now destroyed the remains of hers. Miss. Havisham unsuccessfully uses Estella as her proxy and then becomes guilty. This leads to her painful (as if revenge was enacted on her) demise.
The location of this grouping in inside ‘Satis House’. ‘Satis’ meaning ‘enough’ in Latin. This is ironic as Miss. Havisham clearly doesn’t have enough, she isn’t satisfied. There is something missing in Miss. Havisham’s life, marriage. It was shameful for a woman to not be married the Victorian era. This explains Miss. Havisham’s unwillingness to venture out of the house.
If Satis House was to equate to Miss. Havisham, then it can be described as a prison. It stunts Estella’s growth. Estella is trapped inside of Miss. Havisham. She becomes Miss. Havisham.
Later Satis House is demolished, so is Miss. Havisham and suffering Estella and Pip endured.
Pip and Magwitch are the most mysterious and strange ‘quasi’ family in the novel. They are connected but without either knowing for the most part. It’s coincidental that the father of the woman loved by Pip is his benefactor, however a benefactor without knowing his own daughter.
The two first meet in the Marshes. Magwitch, a convict demands a file and some ‘wittles’ (food) at the cost of the boy’s life. Here, Dicken’s brings the scene to life with his use of aggressive and threatening language. Pip brings Magwitch what he has asked and hope’s never to be associated with such a man again.
In Chapter 39 his fears are answered.
A guest visits Pip, a snobbish almost gentleman Pip.
Pip is shocked and horrified as Magwitch gradually discloses he is his benefactor, that Jagger’s is his agent. Magwitch has risked being hanged just to return to England (After serving time in Australia) to see his creation his gentleman. Pip finds him repulsive but shelters him and gives him Herbert’s bed. In discovering Magwitch is his benefactor, Pip is faced with his own vanity and gullibility. His life has been guided by fantasy. Dicken’s uses some cold language during this chapter to show Pip’s annoyance and grief that Magwitch unintentionally has caused.
“When I awoke without having parted in my sleep with the perception of my wretchedness, the clocks of the Eastward churches were striking five, the candles were wasted out, the fire was dead, and the wind and rain intensified the thick black darkness.” – Pip.
Magwitch, on the contrary is happy about his (mirroring Mrs. Havisham and Estella) creation.
“… , look’ee here, dear boy”, he said dropping his voice and laying a long finger on my breast in an impressive manner.”
By Chapter 42 the relationship of the two has increased somewhat. Pip manages to get Magwitch to tell him and Herbert his life story, and about Compeyson. Although Magwitch reluctantly tells the two friends the story, telling Pip so much, indicates he may have begun to truly trust Pip.
By this chapter, Pip is maturing; he is only now becoming a real gentleman. Magwitch may have spotted this, and this could be the only reason why Magwitch told Pip so much.
However, it is only by Chapter 46 that they become more open towards each other. In this chapter, Herbert and Pip decide to use a boat to get Magwitch out of the country. The use of language is friendlier between Pip and Magwitch.
“Dear Boy” he answered, clasped my hands, “I don’t know when we may meet again, and I don’t like “Good-Bye”, say Good-Night!
“Good Night!”
The use of exclamation marks is more frequent and the actual dialogue is friendlier.
Chapter 54 is the ‘almost escaped’ chapter. Magwitch gets captured and the reader now sees there is genuine care for Magwitch from Pip, as he promises never to leave his side. During the journey, Magwitch is strangely passive. This may imply that he is going to miss Pip, and he trusts Pip.
Pip’s failure to export Magwitch out of country makes him pity Magwitch. During Chapter 56, we notice their relationship at it’s strongest. Magwitch is sentenced to death for his crimes, but dies naturally before. Pip is at his bedside. Pip’s and Magwitch’s language is solemn, as if with a lump in their throat. They have become good friends. Pip’s final words “You’re daughter is beautiful and I love her” is a sweet end to an otherwise bitter life, and more fulfilling than having created a gentleman.
The language and emotions shared between them is one as if they’re father and son, which links with Magwitch said back in Chapter 39…
“Look’ee here, Pip. I’m your second father. You’re my son – more to me nor any son.” – Magwitch, pg.313 – Bottom.
The devotion between Pip and Magwitch shows there is a genuine love between them.
“O Lord, be merciful to him, a sinner!”
Magwitch’s created gentleman has now really become a gentleman.
The grouping of Pip and Magwitch is the only one that actually works as a whole. The grouping/quasi family features qualities that keep the grouping together and functional. The members of group rely and can trust each other, they pity each other and they love each other. As a whole none of the other quasi families feature these qualities and so, can be called dysfunctional.
