Great Expectations Group

Question:

lkjfdsa
lkjfdsa
Student
High School - 9th Grade

What is Dicken's purpose to devote a chapter of "Great Expectations" on a Wopsle production of the Shakespeare play Hamlet?

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Posted by lkjfdsa on Saturday November 29, 2008 at 1:18 PM and tagged with chapter 35, great expectations, hamlet, mr wopsle, pip.

Answers:


  1. ms-mcgregor Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Today, most simply enjoy Chapter 35 as great satire, but at the time of the publication of "Great Expectations", Dickens was also commenting on the politics of his day. The Wopsle production is terrifically funny of one is familiar with "Hamlet". However, many critics also believe that Dickens was also referring to a speech that Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli had made a year before in the House of Commons. A report at the time criticized Disraeli:

    "As an orator too, his first appearance in the House of Commons was a failure. It was spoken of as ‘more screaming than an Adelphi farce’. Though composed in a grand and ambitious strain, every sentence was hailed with ‘loud laughter’. ‘Hamlet’ played as a comedy were nothing to it."

    Disraeli eventually became a great orator and one of the most respected men of his day. Like Disraeli, Wopsle also eventually becomes a ‘a plenipotentiary of great power’ who has ‘a gracious dignity’ and is addressed as ‘Your Honour'".

    Sources:
    http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-925399-4.pdf
    http://www.enotes.com/expectations

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    Posted by ms-mcgregor on Saturday November 29, 2008 at 7:03 PM