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Pip looks at the seeds at Pumblechook's...this is symbolic. How so? And what is significant about the corduroys?
Pip's view of Pumblechook's business and the business of the town are humorous. What makes them funny?
What mood does the description of Miss Havisham's house suggest? What details stand out to you, and what do those details suggest about Miss Havisham?
Remember the name "Satis House." Look up the meaning of the word "satis" (it's Latin, so you'll have to look harder than usual). Think about its meaning as the novel progresses.
What are some of the significant details in the description of Miss Havisham? Why do you find them significant?
What were your initial impressions of Estella? What made you feel this way?
This is the first time that Pip feels embarrassed about who he is, and more importantly, this is the first time he feels embarrassed of Joe. Have you ever been embarrassed by your family or your family's station in life? Are you still?
14 comments:
As Pip enters the Satis (Latin, meaning, "enough or plenty" as in satisfaction) House, he describes its appearance as "old brick, and dismal and had a great many bars to it." The description of her wearing the old wedding dress since her wedding and only wearing one shoe, because when she first learned of her fiances betrayal she had not put the other shoe on, shows how sentimental Miss Havisham is of her past. Even the manor's clocks are all stopped in reference to Miss Havisham's inability to move on from her heartbreak. I feel Estella's manipulative behavior is a cause of Miss Havisham's plan to find revenge towards men. Miss Havisham feels that all men should suffer the heartache she had endured the day Compeyson stood her up on their wedding day.
The first thing to really jump out at me was when Pip was pondering over the seeds. He mused on the idea of whether the plants inside wanted to break out of the seed's shell and grow -- just like the definition of "pip" that a few people had mentioned for the first chapter. Both Miss Havisham and her house are in a state of stagnation and suspension -- she seems to be living in the past. The wedding dress stood out to me as an important aspect of her condition, and then I learned of her having been left at the alter. Estella struck me as incredibly condescending and pompous; a true delight. I figured that she would turn her nose up at Pip for being working class, but I didn't expect her to scoff at him for crying-- or to take pride in being the cause of it.
I agree with Lauren, the thing that striked me the most was the seeds. I feel like it is symbolism for Pip's emotions towards his life and family. He feels, at this point, that he is the outcast of the family, the main event in the roast of his life. He wants to "break out of the seed's shell and grow." He is sick of being the kid of the family and wants to greow a mature and form his life. Miss Havisham's house is dilapidated and old fashion, this is a symbol of how Miss Havisham's past is killing her from the inside out. Estella is exactly what i expected her to be. everyone freaked out when pip got to "go play" with Miss Havisham, showing that she is a woman of high respects. Estalls being the one working with her, would have the personiality of a typical high class citezen. she patronizes and belittles Pip. she is arrogant and acts the way i would have expected. everyone has been ashamed or embaressed of their family one time or another; I have plenty of times. My family is the typical party family, drinking, smnoking and having the respectable people over to create popular emotions. I am the complete oppisite, i believe drinking is pointless, and that socializing with people isnt of high importance. I dont like to do what the typical teenager should do. My parents dislike that, but hey i am surviving lol.
The introduction to the Miss Havisham's house has to be my favorite part in the novel so far. It was dark and dreary, with absolutly no outside light allowed. The thing that I found great though, was the room that Miss Havisham was in. The details: satin, lace, silk, the shoe, the bright jewels, and all the dresses and trinkets. It was all so beautiful...at one time! The white is faded yellow, and the women (Miss Havisham) has shrunk to skin and bone. I found it very romantic but mixed with sadness and guilt. Clearly something has happened to Miss Havisham and I can't wait to find out.
Mr. Pumblechook is very proud that he has helped Pip make an attachment to a member of a higher social class than the working class he as well as Mr. and Mrs. Joe Gargery. Being a blacksmith (Joe) or a businessman who sells seeds (Uncle Pumblechook), these characters belong to the middle working class. Even though this class is considered "middle" they are still looked down on and many of the members feel embarrassed to be in this class. Mr. Pumblechook feels as if he is solely responsible for connecting Pip to Miss Havisham, a member of the upper class. This explains why Mr. Pumblechook wants to know about every aspect of Miss Havisham and her home each time that Pip goes there. The significance of the corduroys refers to the meaning of the verb "to corduroy." To corduroy refers to making a road across a swamp or the crossing of a road. Since Mr. Pumblechook believes that he is the ultimate connector between the middle working class and the upper class for Pip and takes pride in telling everyone he meets, this alternate meaning of corduroy explains the significance of the corduroys.
I thought it was rather humorous when Pip was describing all the towns people's jobs which mostly consisted of sitting around and watching other people sit around. I could tell that Pip was somewhat disgusted with the fact that some of the towns people were so lazy. It was very interesting that Miss Havisham was first described as wearing all white. The author let reader have one image in his or her mind of beauty and purity, but then the author shoots it down when he goes on later, to say that all the white is faded. The reader then gets a brand new image of the beauty that used to be, but has now shriveled away. I am not quite sure why the author did this yet. Maybe it was to mirror the disappointment that Miss Havisham has had in her life over and over again. This same disappointment in reader's first impression was mimicked, for me, in the characterization of Estella. My very initial thought was that she would become friends with Pip because she was his age, but that was also shot down quickly when I saw how badly she treated him.
This chapter really caught my interest while reading. I felt the description of the Satis House, especially the room where Miss Havisham was found, to be very eerie. Pip referred to wax when describing it, which hit my reaction to the place spot-on. The room where Miss Havisham was reminded me of a wax museum. Miss Havisham sat so still, not causing a disturbance, hoping to become a part of the surroundings, or wishing to return to happier times. The room was illustrated as if elements of the outside world, such as time or light, would erode the wax structures, or memories, that sat in the house.
Pip's amusing observation of the people of the town offsets the notion that all of them are working mindlessly. This amuses Pip because of how robotic and how it begins with Pumblechook to begin the chain of laboring entities. The subtle mood of Miss Havisham's house projects its emotion as that one of sorrow. The brewery which seemed to halt in its place, to the whithered gardens, which the weeds choke out any life that harbors it. The place as bluntly possible, is dreary. It seems as though the whole Mansion has froze time itself, and is from a different time period. Miss Havisham substantiates my theory of time halting progress. As she dons an old wedding dress, sitting by a table set from long ago. The thing that made me notice about Miss Havisham, is that, she is unable to move on. The wedding dress, she still wears, now whithered, and moldy from time's grip.
The description of Miss Havisham’s home suggests that she is not able to let go of her past. Despite the fact that all of the white decorations from her wedding are yellowing, she isn’t willing to let any of them go. She even explains to Pip that she wants to lie across her wedding table once she is dead. It is obvious that Miss Havisham’s wedding did not play out the way that she had intended it too. However, she keeps all of the decorations in hopes that things will change for the better. Every time Pip visits Miss Havisham, she is sitting in same position that she was in when he left. In addition, all of the clocks in her house are stopped at the same time, twenty minutes to nine. All of these factors show just how difficult it is for Miss Havisham to put the past behind her. The Latin meaning of the word “satis” is giving pleasure, satisfying, saturate, satisfy. This nickname for Miss Havisham’s house could possibly have something to do with her not being able to let go of her past. She wishes that she could have been satisfied through marriage, which I am not really sure as to what happened with her wedding. Therefore, she clenches onto all of her wedding décor in attempt to feel the pleasure that she believes her marriage could have offered her.
I agree, i really like the descriptions, imagery, and how Pip gives his view of the world about him. The journey to Miss Havisham's house really opened his eyes and gave the reader a look into Pip's more mature side. It also shows Pip's idea of what he values the most by showing his disgusted attitude with the many questions Mr. Pumblechook asks him. Pip finds he is of a lower, uneducated class of people with not much direction as he gathers from what Estella says about him. This confuses him because he knows he has direction and he is a character easily inspired by how the world turns about him,he kind of fits easily into it's mold. Estella pushes Pip to look at his life differently and it seems the book reaches a turning point here as Pip goes from ignorance about the different levels of people to putting himself in the competition to become successful by that days standards.
To me, this is the most interesting chapter so far in the novel. Dicken brings the discussion of the theme "social classes" into the novel through Miss Havisham. I find it humorous that although this woman is clearly out of her mind, Pip seems to feel that this woman is above him. Miss Havisham is unfriendly and holding tightly onto anything in her past. She is wearing a faded wedding dress in a house where the time on the clocks are frozen. Yet, Pip becomes embarrassed by Joe. Joe may be uneducated but he seems to be the only stable character in the novel. He proves to be the only honest and caring person in Pip's life. Joe teaches Pip moral values. However, it is as if Pip is trying so hard to change himself positively but is modeling after the wrong people.
I felt that the seeds were symbolic because Pip seemed like a little seed, just as the seed is stuck inside the outer shell, Pip is stuck inside Mrs. Joe's controlling barrier. Pip wants to break out and makes his own choices, not be restrained by Mrs. Joe. Miss Havisham was very intriguing to me, I liked the description Dickens gave her. She seems very angry with the way her life has panned out but is still in hopes for things to get better. The fact that she still insists on wearing her wedding clothes after her wedding did not happen makes me believe she still wishes things could change and that the wedding will be rescheduled after all these years. She cannot seem to get over that unfortunate event and move forward to her life. Her home was once a brewery, but no longer is being used. The white wedding clothing faded to yellow but is not replaced or repaired. I feel sorry for Miss Havisham because it's every girl's dream to get married, and she obviously can't seem to get over the fact that that dream did not come true for her.
Estella at first strikes me as only an extremely proper lady, that is until Pip reveals that she is barely any older than him. At this point, I realised that I had been introduced to an antagonist in the novel by her condescending attitude; she even refers to him as "boy". As the chapter progresses(and later on in the book), she continues to cut him down and treats him almost as if he wasn't as worthy to be there as the dirt under her shoes. Miss Havisham encourages this behavior and praises the cold beauty, even telling her that she can "break his heart". I feel as if Miss Havisham instills this attitude in Estella because she had once been the broken hearted one, as seen in her eccentric, dreary attire, showing a broken promise of long ago.
This is going to sound a bit girly, so bear with me; but i was intrigued with the addition of the character of Estella because it gave the possibility for love interest for the conflicted character of Pip. I agree with Myranda in the fact that I too thought that Estella was older than her actual age when she was first described, but when i figured out her age the idea of a somewhat creepy person to contend with Pips' afflicted conscience intrigued me. I also agree with Myranda in the fact that throughout the book, Estella seems to grow more and more into the role of antagonist with her highly arrogant comments and attitude. Although she seems to be, to put it frankly, a dick, i am excited to see the role she'll play in the novel.
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