Name: ______KEY______________________ Mods: ____________ Date: ____________ Honors English I
Great Expectations Study Guide 2B
Ch. 31
1. What is the cost of Mr. Waldengarver’s stockings? ___35 shillings________________
2. Who coaches Pip in his polite responses to Mr. Waldengarver’s inquiries about his performance?
__Herbert__
Ch. 32
1. What is Newgate?
A famous prison
2. Simile: “It struck me that Wemmick walked among the prisoners much as a gardener might walk among his
plants.” Dickens extends this simile in the paragraph by calling one of the prisoners as a __shoot__________.
3. Simile: Pip reflects on how strange it is that the “taint of prison and crime” should be so prevalent in his life.
He compares it to a __stain___________ that fades but does not go away, and reappears on a garment.
Ch. 33
Quotes:
Quote
Speaker
“They beset Miss Havisham with reports Estella
and insinuations to your disadvantage.”
Significance
She tells Pip about how the Pocket relatives
gossip about him, hoping to destroy his
reputation with Miss Havisham.
Speaking of Jaggers.
“He is more in the secrets of every
Estella
place.”
1. Simile: Estella’s face, when Pip kisses it, is like a ___statue’s_________________________.
2. What are Miss Havisham’s plans for Estella?
To attend school in Richmond, become a lady in society, write home and visit home often.
Ch. 34
1. Structure: The first paragraph of the chapter has excellent structure. The topic sentence is fully supported
in the paragraph. Outline the points which support this topic sentence:
T.S.: “As I had grown accustomed to my expectations, I had insensibly begun to notice their effect on
myself and those around me.”
Proofs:
1. Pip is uncomfortable because of how he has treated Joe.
2. Pip is uncomfortable about how he has treated Biddy.
3. Pip wakes often at night, “weary of spirit”.
4. Pip realizes he would be happier if he had never seen Miss Havisham.
2. Later in the chapter, Pip discloses his influence on others. Briefly comment on Pip’s influence on these
characters:
Herbert – Pip influences him to spend too much.
Pocket relatives other than Herbert and Matthew – Pip brings out their tendency to gossip.
3. Pip says on pg. 296/275, “…when I was at Hammersmith I haunted Richmond.” Why?
Pip hopes to see Estella at Richmond.
4. Metaphor: Pip says of his own and Herbert’s lifestyle at this time, “There was a gay fiction among us that
we were constantly enjoying ourselves, and a skeleton truth that we never did.” Note the comparison of truth
and a skeleton, which is covered by materials which mask it, although they cannot hide all evidence of it.
5. Characterization: Note the subtle effect of the phrase “with an air ever new” in this statement about
Herbert: “Every morning, with an air ever new, Herbert went into the city to look about him.”
Note also, the progression of his mood throughout the day.
6. When they were worried about their expenses, what does the Avenger do that causes Pip to seize him “by his
blue collar and shake him off his feet”?
The Avenger asks if anyone would like a roll.
Ch. 35
1. Diction (Word choice): What unusual and somewhat comical word (pg. 302/280) does Dickens use to
illustrate the appearance of Joe in his mourning cloak? __entangled_______________________
2. How does Joe seem to feel about Trabb’s influence on Mrs. Joe’s funeral ceremony? (pg. 303/281)
Joe would prefer to have a simple ceremony with a few true friends.
3. Note the characterization of Mr. Pumblechook and Mr. and Mrs. Hubble in the funeral procession. What
words describe:
Pumblechook – worldly
Mr. and Mrs. Hubble – conceited, vainglorious
4. Setting: Which setting details seem to contradict the plot as Mrs. Joe is laid to rest in the churchyard?
“quietly”, larks singing, pretty shadows and trees
5. What do you think is Biddy’s emotion as she repeats Pip’s question, “How am I going to live?”
indignation
6. Mrs. Joe’s 3 last words are: ___Joe__________ ___pardon_________ ___Pip________
7. What has Biddy done to cause Pip to say in despair, “This really is a very bad side of human nature”?
She asks if he will really visit Joe often.
8. What literary device is used in the last paragraph of the chapter?
Foreshadowing and personification
Ch. 36
Quote
“Walworth is one place, and this office
is another.”
“I think them injudicious, but I am not
paid for giving any opinion on their
merits.”
1. Does Pip or Herbert turn 21 first?
Herbert
Speaker
Wemmick
Significance
His opinion differs, depending on where he is.
Jaggers
He does not approve of all of the conditions
of Pip’s financial situation.
2. Upon his coming of age, Pip receives from Mr. Jaggers a bank note for how much money?___500 pounds_
3. When will Mr. Jaggers cease to be part of Pip’s financial management?
When the benefactor reveals himself/herself
4. Why does Mr. Wemmick list 6 bridges?
Because he says Pip can throw money off any one of them, and have a better idea what will happen to it than if
he lends it to a friend.
5. What loophole does Pip perceive as he speaks to Wemmick about lending money to a friend?
He says that this is his opinion in the office. Pip supposed Wemmick’s opinion will be different at Walworth.
Ch. 37
1. How does Aged know when Mr. Wemmick has arrived home?
A little wooden flap with his name on it opens near the chimney.
2. Whom does Wemmick look up to assist Pip as he helps Herbert?
Skiffins (Miss Skiffins’ brother)
3. What does Wemmick mean by the “Newgate cobwebs” that must be brushed away? (320/297)
He needs to get a fresh perspective. Pip’s charitable action toward Herbert is refreshing in this way.
4. How do we know that Miss Skiffins is a frequent visitor to Walworth?
She also has a wooden name flap on the chimney.
5. In the 2 paragraphs beginning, “As Wemmick and Miss Skiffins sat side by side,” and, “By-and-by,” what
does Pip mean by saying that Wemmick is straying from “the path of virtue”?
Pip refers to Wemmick’s putting his arm around Miss Skiffins as straying from “the path of virtue.”
6. Re-read the last 3 paragraphs of the chapter. The narrator is so frank about his errors concerning the
treatment of Biddy and Joe, and his blind obsession with Estella, that it is refreshing to see such honest and
unselfish sentiment when he is able to help his friend.
Ch. 38
Quote
“Will you never take warning?”
“You stock and stone! You cold, cold
heart!”
“My gratitude and duties cannot do
impossibilities.”
“Who taught me to be proud? Who
praised me when I learned my lesson?”
“Moths and all sorts of ugly creatures
hover about a lighted candle. Can the
candle help it?”
Speaker
Estella
Miss Havisham
Estella
Estella
Estella
Ch. 39
Quote
Speaker
“Isn’t there bright eyes somewheres, wot Magwitch
you love the thoughts on?”
“It’s death to come back.”
Magwitch
Significance
She warns Pip that she cannot love him.
She is disappointed that Estella shows her no
love.
She explains coolly that she cannot love Miss
Havisham, as Miss Havisham has not taught
her to love.
More of the above
She metaphorically calls the men who love
her “moths and all sorts of ugly creatures.”
Significance
He asks if Pip has some romantic interest in a
lady.
He explains that he can never go back to his
prison colony in Australia. Nor can he reveal
his identity in England.
1. Setting: List some details that prepare the reader for the disappointment to come:
Rainy, stormy weather, mist
2. Note this paragraph:
“I read with my watch upon the table, purposing to close my book at eleven o’clock. As I shut it, Saint Paul’s,
and all the many church-clocks in the City—some leading, some accompanying, some following—struck that
hour. The sound was curiously flawed by the wind; and I was listening, and thinking how the wind assailed and
tore it, when I heard a footstep on the stair.”
As if to herald the important event about to take place, all the clocks in the city chime and resound outside
Pip’s chambers.
Also, this chapter begins and ends with clocks chiming. More of Dickens’ deliberate structure to make a point.
Magwitch showing up at this point in Pip’s life is a monumental event. The clocks chime before and after his
arrival, as if to note the importance of it.
3. Clues revealing the convict’s relationship to Pip:
Burning the one-pound notes – Magwitch has plenty more money; he can afford to burn money.
The figure “five” – Magwitch knows how much money Pip is given in a year. This is not common knowledge.
The letter “J” – Magwitch knows that the man in charge of Pip’s account is Jaggers.
4. What are the “wretched gold and silver chains” to which Pip refers? (pg. 348/323)
Any wealth he has gotten from the convict. Notice the connotation of “chains”; the money binds him to the
convict.
5. What is “the sharpest and deepest pain of all”?
That Pip had treated Joe so badly, all for a convict.
6. Pip refers to the sleeping convict as “my dreadful __burden_______________.”
7. Irony: Note the clocks resounding once again, as the chapter ends. Although it is 5 a.m., Pip speaks of thick
black darkness.