Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Chapter 27: Joe's Mission
Why is Pip so averse to Joe's visit?
Pip, who has only just come into wealth, now focuses on interior decorating, and he acquires and dresses a servant before having a use for him.
Wopsle is now an actor in London. Can you guess what play he's in?
How bad must Barnard's Inn be if Joe wouldn't keep a pig there? What does this say about Pip's improvements to the place?
What symbolism can you discern in the comedic tumbling of Joe's hat?
Very touching final scene in this chapter. Joe reminds me of Forest Gump...he may not be the smartest man, but he knows what love is and he knows right from wrong. Life is just a box of chocolates...
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This chapter was sad in my opinion. Joe and Pip have now realized how different their lives have become and how much harder it will be to keep their friendship alive. Pip was embarrassed about Joe's commonness and was afraid Drummle would look down on him even more. Also, Pip's new lifestyle also aded to the ackwardness of the meeting. He knew that Joe would not fit into these sort of surroundings and therefore treated him differently. Pip was annoyed with Joe until he told Pip of Estella returning to Mrs. Havisham's home. I think this chapter shows us how much Pip has changed and how his friendship with Joe has altered as well.
Pip is ashamed of Joe, a sweet and humble man. The more Pip wastes his money on lavish things, like a useless servant, the more he grows apart from Joe. While reading this chapter a question came into my mind; does Joe seem to have any mental disorders? At first I thought he was just uneducated and felt out of place, but the obvious tipping hat, and not speaking directly to someone seemed a bit over exagerated for a simple village folk. Even Mrs. Joe, in her right mind, would of had some social graces. The relationship they had when Pip was younger was because Pip felt they were equal, and in intelligence they were. However, Joe seemed unable to retain any new information. Perhaps Joe's mentallity of the world is stuck in childhood. Does anyone else think this is possible, or am I just connecting invisible dots?
Pip has overcome his old life and has moved on to the higher privileges of society. Although at times he misses Joe and Biddy, Pip is relieved to not be living the common life any more. Because of this, when Joe visits Pip becomes embarrassed of Joe's normal lifestyle and obsessed with people's opinions of him. Pip understands that Joe would not fit well in his new world. He also knows the more he accepts Joe and makes his visit accommodating, then the bigger chance that he could be stuck in his old lifestyle and not rise through societal ranks. For these reasons Pip is easily annoyed with Joe, and tries to do nothing to prolong his visit. He doesn't start treating him with any respect until Joe brings up news about Miss Havisham and Estella. Because these two are in the same social class as Pip tries to appear, he deems it an appropriate conversation topic.
When Pip spends his money to dress the servants, it shows that in the rich society that appearance is everything. Pip realized this and thus Joe is the social pariah. Pip didn't want Joe to visit because that wouldn't be high class and also give Pip reminders that he wasn't always so high in society. An acquaintance like Joe would only prove detrimental to Pip's rising status.
Pip is averse to Joe's visit because he doesn't want Joe to see the people he is "friends" with, especially Drummle, and he just doesn't seem to like being around him since in his mind Joe is common. It seems that if Joe wouldn't keep a pig at Barnard's Inn, Pip's improvements must not be improvements at all, if not making the place look worse than before. Joe's hat continually tumbling off of the mantle could possibly symbolize Pip's life, and how it gets picked up and put on a high place, but falls in the end-his parents pass and he's left with his horrible sister, but then he gets an inheritance and his life suddenly gets better. So maybe there will be a fall in the future for Pip bringing him back to a low point? I’m totally guessing here, but as of right now that’s what I can connect the hat with. Joe is pretty awesome, and I am really getting annoyed with Pip and his snobbish ways of thinking. He just construes these ideas of society into his head and then gets stuck acting horrible to the people who care about him the most. Ugh.
That video was undoubtedly depressing :P
Pip doesn’t want Joe to visit because Joe is now a lower class than Pip. He says he would pay money to not have Joe visit. This is a drastic change since before Pip ever went to Satis House. Joe was once Pip’s best friend. It is sad that Pip no longer wants to be seen with him. Joe is by no means a wealthy man; so to say that he wouldn’t keep a pig there is saying something. Joe now refers to Pip as “Sir.” He notices that Pip has grown and become a new person. Pip realizes at the end of the chapter how badly he has treated Joe but it is too late. Joe rightfully leaves Pip to his fortune.
I liked Joe's visit. It's too bad Pip doesn't long to see him very badly, just because of Joe's class. Joe was the only man who seemed to care about Pip since he was a little boy. Although he [Joe] has his shortcomings, he is still a man with the same capacity to care and talk as everyone else. The scene with Joe's hat seemed slightly tragic, because the symbolism hints to Joe's incapacity to be genteel and polished like the boys, but shows all the same that Joe tries his best. This also connects with his appearance in his "Sunday suit," where he doesn't belong dressed up to impress, but rather at the forge working for others. Unfortunately Pip shrinks from this side of Joe rather than appreciates it.
Pip doesn't want Joe to visit, because he feels that Joe would embarrass him in front of his "higher level" friends; especially Drummle. He even went as far as saying that he would pay money to keep Joe from visiting. I can't believe that Pip can be so ashamed of his family when he was once just like them. I think Joe was the only reason Pip started decorating Barnard's Inn. Pip wanted to show Joe how much better his life was without him.
Pip really seems to have to have no desire to have his old companion Joe visit him in his new life. Pip seems to be embarressed of the common, uneducated, but loving Joe who had raised him and took him in as his own. Joe serves as a ghost from Pip's "common" past which serves to haunt Pip in his new life among the wealthy. Speaking of HAUNTING! (very subtle subject connection haha) the play that Wopsle is in just happens to be Hamlet, the Shakespearean tragedy in which the Prince Hamlet is haunted by the ghost's in his past, resulting in one of the most depressing endings in literature. Foreshadowing? anyone with some brand of connecting the dots would probably see subtle foreshadowing, but we as the readers just have to wait and see.
The quote, “So throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise,” really says a lot about Pip’s intentions as he does things. I realize that the dressing of the servants before they serve and the hesitation of Joe not coming are extremely shallow and mean. But I do not think that Pip changed all that much, yet at least. Pip has always thought highly of a person’s image, and has wanted to make sure to fit into the high class society from day one. He did not care whether Herbert or his father saw Joe, for those are the people he’s most comfortable being himself with. A lot of the time judgments about a person cannot be made by the actions committed but by the intentions behind those actions. I am not, in any way, saying that Pip’s thoughts, actions, or intentions are justifiable, but that they have not changed much since he left Joe, Mrs. Joe, and Biddy. I thought the letter from Biddy was just extremely saddening, for his family feels below him. And I think that tells you something about the whole culture of the time period and setting, rather than just Pip. Everyone…EVERYONE expects and enforces such dramatic changes in treatment and respect with change of social class, for materials define a person and his/her worth in that culture. I was a bit confused about what it means or says that Joe wouldn’t have a pig live in the Inn which Herbert and Pip are living in. Maybe it means that the changes made by Pip were those of high class priority and that the lower class has different priorities or views on the worth of items. I was quite confused about the importance of the hat as well, but what I came up with was that Joe felt there was once specific way of acting and speaking (only one place to specific place to hang a hat), but the more he tried to force those mannerisms, the more it didn’t work (the more he tried putting up that hat, the more it kept on falling). He couldn’t just focus on being himself.
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