Great Expectations Group

Question:

zas
zas
Student
High School - 9th Grade

What is Pip trying to say about Biddy when he describes her in chapter 7 of "Great Expectations"?

"She was most noticeable, I thought, in respect of her extemities;for her hair always wanted brushing , her hands always wanted washing, and her shoes always wanted mending and pulling up a heel."

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Posted by zas on Wednesday November 19, 2008 at 9:10 AM and tagged with biddy, chapter 7, characters, description, great expectations, pip.

Answers:

  1. mwestwood
    mwestwood Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    In the following chapters, Pip becomes aware of his being "common" when he is sent to Miss Havisham's house and meets Estella. He then remarks that his "coarse hands and common boots" had never troubled him before, but "they troubled me now."  After his visit to Miss Havisham's Pip notices whenever someone is "common."  This observation of Biddy in Chapter 7 seems to foreshadow the reaction of Pip in the subsequent chapters to "commonness."  For, later when Pip becomes "conscious of a change in Biddy: "...her hair grew bright and neat, her hands were always clean," she "could not be like Estella." Even though Pip notes that she is thoughful and clever, his admiration for her is mitigated by her not measuring up to his perception of Estella whom he believes to be of the higher class to which he aspires, feeling it is superior.

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

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    Posted by mwestwood on Wednesday November 19, 2008 at 9:45 AM