Trabb's Boy is an irresponsible, irreverent young boy who works for the tailor named Trabb who has furnished the now well-to-do Pip with some of his new clothes. When Pip returns to his hometown in Chapter 30 most of the local people are amazed at the way he has been transformed in appearance and manners. Pip is pleased with himself, but Trabb's Boy remembers him when he was nothing but an orphan living on the charity of his sister and her husband Joe. Trabb's Boy, in a famous scene from the novel, pretends to be astonished and terrified by Pip's grand manner and gaudy clothing. The hateful boy goes clear around the block several times in order to be able to ecounter Pip over and over again and to put on the same act, making everyone laugh at the humiliated Pip, who can do nothing but pretend not to notice his tormentor. Pip's encounter with Trabb's Boy only serves to remind him of what a snob and fop he has become. Late in the novel Trabb's Boy appears again when he helps rescue Pip from Orlick, who is holding him captive and intends to kill him.

Who is Trabb's boy in Great Expectations?

In Great Expectations, Trabb's boy serves as a foil for Pip, showing how thoroughly he departs from his origins when he goes to London to become a gentleman. Trabb's boy is the antithesis of respectability and respectfulness. When first introduced, he is described as " the most audacious boy in all that countryside," and Pip later calls him a "reckless and desperate wretch" and an "unlimited miscreant."

Pip is afraid of Trabb's boy, but it is ridicule, not violence which he fears, for the boy is an acute satirist with a strong sense of the ridiculous who pounces mercilessly on the newfound airs and graces of the former blacksmith's boy who used to be his social equal. Pip's feelings are wounded when Trabb's boy pursues him, crowing "Don't know yah, don't know yah, 'pon my soul don't know yah!" His only recourse is that of his new social class: he writes an angry letter to Mr. Trabb complaining of his boy's conduct.

Pip is finally forced to admit that there is no real harm in Trabb's boy. He is not malicious but merely a simple soul who makes his dull provincial life as colorful as possible by seeking "variety and excitement at anybody's expense."