Prompt 12, section A:
In Great Expectations, the dwelling places reflect the characters of their inhabitants
because they display a great likeness to their residents. For example, Jaggers’ office is a very
dismal place. As Pip states in chapter twenty, “the room was but small, and the clients seemed
to have had a habit of backing up against the wall; the wall, especially opposite to Mr. Jaggers’
chair, being greasy with shoulders” (chapter 20, paragraph 16). With this description of Mr.
Jaggers’ workplace, a reader can speculate that Mr. Jaggers is a very forceful and dynamic when
he is doing his work. Pip, while looking around Jaggers’ office, found two busts on the shelves,
and later found out that those were the heads of the two men who got hanged because of
Jaggers, and who also got him the most publicity. With this information, a person can make a
conjecture that Jaggers is proud of his work, and he likes to display that, in any way, shape, or
form.
Secondly is the Pocket household. Pip describes, “I saw that Mr. and Mrs. Pocket’s
children were not growing up or being brought up, but were tumbling up” (chapter 22,
paragraph 96). Pip portrays the Pocket home as being very wily and neither structured or
controlled. Everything and everyone is controlled by the servants, and they do it quite well,
considering they are not the parents of the household. With Pip’s description of the Pocket
house, the reader gets the impression that none of the children there have a proper mother or
father, and that nothing is either planned or ordered. The children “tumble up” through
childhood without a true parental figure. The Pocket house, overall, is a very spontaneous,
disorganized mess.
Furthermore, there is Ms. Havisham’s house. Pip, when he enters Ms. Havisham’s room,
says, “I entered, therefore, and found myself in a pretty large room, well lighted with wax
candles. No glimpse of daylight was to be seen in it” (chapter 8, paragraph 30). Ms. Havisham is
a very secretive person, and she and her adopted “daughter” Estella are the only inhabitants,
keeping their thoughts and doings from the world and its inhabitants. Pip also describes the
house as dark, gloomy, and extremely neglected. Ever since her fiancée left her, Ms. Havisham
has left her house to ruin, not bothering to take care of the essentials, such as clearing off the
table in which she would have had her wedding dinner on. Ms. Havisham is leading a life of
seclusion in her dilapidated old house.
Prompt 12, section B:

“Throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people
whom we most despise.”
Throughout Great Expectations, Pip wants to become a gentleman for the sole reason of spiting Estella, to
make her realize that she ignored a great person such as Pip. Although Pip continually states that he is in love with
Estella and she is the best thing in this world, he never has and never will truly love her. He just loves her beauty,
and the chase that she brings on when she ignores him. Furthermore, Pip shows his meannesses and weaknesses
with Bentley Drummle: Pip, after seeing Drummle watching Estella all night at the party, got very angry and told
Estella many mean things about Drummle’s character that he thought was appropriate in making her understand
that Bentley Drummle is not a person to be associated with. By doing this, Pip shows an immense display of
jealousy. This quote is displayed many times throughout Great Expectations, and it is a big part of real life as well.
For instance, there are many people who, in order to humiliate someone, will do or say something very cruel and
mean to embarrass that person. Overall, this quote is applicable to everyone, fictional or not.

“No varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will
express itself.”
In Great Expectations, this quote is plainly displayed through how Pip tried to make Joe into a gentleman
by asking Biddy if she will teach him some proper manners and how to read and write, so he will not be as
embarrassing if he comes to see Pip in London. Yet, when Joe goes to London to visit Pip for the first time, he looks
very uncomfortable in his formal attire. The “grain” in this quote is Joe’s blacksmith nature: the way he talks, how
comfortable he is in London, the way he communicates with new people and people of higher class than he is, and
the way he speaks with Pip after he has become a gentleman. The “varnish” is Pip, trying to cover up Joe’s
improper manners, the way he speaks, and the way he dresses. But when Joe shows up in his more formal clothes
with his top hat on, he looks more out of place than ever.
Another person who Pip tries to change is the convict, after he shows up to London to stay with Pip. Pip
states, “the more I dressed him and better I dressed him, the more he looked like the slouching fugitive on the
marshes” (Dickens 357). The more Pip tried to hide the convict’s true looks and character, the more awkward and
embarrassing he looked.

“The plain honest working life to which I was born had nothing in it to be ashamed of, but offered me
sufficient means of self-respect and happiness”.
In Great Expectations, Pip states that the “plain honest working life…had nothing to be ashamed of.” Pip
knows that by working as a blacksmith would be a stable and respectable job to work at for the rest of his life. He
knows this, yet he still wants to become a gentleman, to become something more. By being a blacksmith, Pip
would only be content. He would not be as happy as if he was a man to be proud of living in London. To Pip, being
a blacksmith would be a sort of surrender to society, a sort of giving up. Being a blacksmith would be what was
expected of him. But Pip does not want that. He wants to be noticed, and not for his amazing craftsmanship.
Prompt 12, section E:
Coincidence plays a large role in Great Expectations. It is just a coincidence that the “pale
young gentleman” who Pip fought in Ms. Havisham’s yard turned out to be his roommate at
Barnard’s Inn when Pip travels to London. It is just a coincidence that, when returning from Ms.
Havisham’s house, Pip shares a carriage with two convicts who are having a conversation about
him. It is just a coincidence that Mr. Wopsle can identify the ominous man standing behind Pip
at the theatre after just seeing him once, fifteen years ago, at dusk, getting only a glance at the
man. Lastly, Pip and Estella meet after ten years in the exact same place as they did when they
first met.
I feel as though some of these incidences are natural, such as when Pip and Estella meet yet
again in Ms. Havisham’s yard, ten years later. Both Estella and Pip were close with Ms.
Havisham, and it would be natural for a person to go back to the house of someone who they
cared about. The idea that the two meet again at the same place could occur naturally, but it
was also a little off that it was at Ms. Havisham’s house, seeing as they both moved away, then
moved back to London.
Yet, most of the “coincidences” are much too unnatural to be considered as possible. The
fact that the pale young gentleman, the same one who challenged and lost a fight with Pip, is
his roommate in London is too far-fetched to be normal.
Secondly, the convicts in the carriage talking about Pip when he happens to be sitting
directly in front of them is too outlandish to happen. To sit straight in front of someone who
was met fifteen years ago in a churchyard as an escaped convict is very unlikely. This
occurrence might have been more likely if that person was not talking about Pip, and how
grateful he was to that little boy from fifteen years earlier.
Furthermore, Mr. Wopsle recognizing Compeyson during one of his plays after seeing him
once, at dusk, fifteen years ago is just unreal. The two convicts did not play an important part in
Wopsle’s life, so remembering his face would be a complete waste of memory, as it would be
for any other insignificant person in someone’s life. By far, that coincidence was the most
artificial and abnormal of any in Great Expectations.
Overall, Great Expectations was nicely written, but some of the coincidences are far too
weird to be true or possible.