In Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, Biddy displays great loyalty, respect, and love for Joe Gargery. For instance, in Stage I as Pip anticipates his journey to London, he asks Biddy to assist Joe in his learning and manners. Biddy mocks Pip' pompous request,
"Oh, his manners! Won't his manner do, then?"
"My dear Biddy, they do very well her---"
"Oh! the do very well here?" interrupted Biddy...
Defending Joe, Biddy asks Pip if he has not cosidered that Joe is "proud," and explains,
"pride is not all of one kind--....He may be too proud to let anyone take him out a place that he is competent to fill, and fills well and with respect."
Pip, then, accuses Biddy of being envious and grudging, but she tells Pip,
"If you have the heart to think so...Say so over and over again, if you have the heart to think so.
She later writes a letter to Pip, informing him that Joe is coming to London to visit. Biddy includes a personal message which demonstrates her feelings for Joe:
I hope and do not doubt it will be agreeable to see him enen though a gentleman, for you had ever a good heart, and he is a worthy man.
After Mrs Joe is injured, Biddy comes to the side of Joe, showing support for him when Pip says that he will visit:
Are you quite sure, then, that you will come to see him often? [Pip has not visited much since going to London]
After Pip heals from his burns, he determines to return to the forge and propose to Biddy, but he learns that he has come on their very wedding day. Pip says,
"Dear Biddy...you have the best husband in the whole world...you couldn't love him better than you do."
"No, I couln't, indeed," said Biddy.
From Joe and Biddy, Pip learns about loyalty and love. He, then,applies these lessons in his relationships with Herbert and with Magwitch, whom he attempts to save from the hangman's noose, and later, whose pain he seeks to assuage as the old convict lies dying. For Herbert, Pip has a fondness grown from their friendship. After he learns that Herbert is in financial distress, Pip tells Miss Havisham that he has a secret partnership with Herbert, who is her relative. He has money for Herbert to continue, but it is not enough; so, he asks Miss Havisham to nine hundred pounds. Thus, Pip saves his friend from financial ruin as he can work in a small branch banking house. When Herbert visits Pip soon thereafter, he reciprocates this love as he offers to hold a position for Pip.
No comments:
Post a Comment