Great Expectations Group

Question:

jonas4everxo
jonas4everxo
Student
High School - 9th Grade

Can someone please help by explaining this quote from "Great Expectations" to me?

“I see so much in my poor mother, of a woman drudging and slaving and breaking her honest hart and never getting no peace in her mortal days, that I am dead afeerd of going wrong in the way of not doing what’s right by a woman, and I’d fur rather of the two go wrong t’other way, and be a little ill-conwenienced myself.”

-Said by Joe 

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Posted by jonas4everxo on Wednesday November 12, 2008 at 2:20 PM and tagged with characters, great expectations, joe, mrs joe, pip, quote.

Answers:


  1. dymatsuoka

    eNotes Editor

    Joe is saying that, after having seen how hard his mother always had to work and how much she suffered, "getting no peace" during her life, he is terrified that he himself might do wrong and cause a woman grief by his own life.  He says that rather than be the inadvertent cause of any woman's hardships, he would much rather err in the other direction, even if it causes hardship ("a little ill-conwenience") to himself. 

    His own mother's difficult life has left a lasting impression upon Joe.  Because of this, he is extra careful to do everything he can to make the women in his life happy, and to make their burden light.  He says that if he sometimes goes overboard in this respect, letting his sister, for example, boss him around, that is all right with him.  He would much rather be inconvenienced himself than to be the cause of any suffering or dissatisfaction on the part of the women with whom he comes in contact.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/expectations
    http://www.enotes.com/expectations/characters

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    Posted by dymatsuoka on Wednesday November 12, 2008 at 2:28 PM