Analysing a passage

The question

The passage

The analysis

Before you begin writing, you should read the passage at least twice:

• in the first reading, you should try to gain a sense of what is happening in the passage and recall its context in the novel
• on the second reading, you should begin to underline or otherwise mark significant words and phrases and begin to jot down some of the headings under which you will organize your answer, always referring back to the question
• by this time you should be ready to plan your answer
• you may now wish to read the passage once more to make sure that you have not missed anything important.

1. The passage occurs towards the end of the novel's first volume. Pip is well established in his apprenticeship to Joe, but continues to pursue his ambitions to improve himself socially and become more educated. Mrs. Joe has been attacked and Biddy has moved into the forge cottage to keep house for Joe and Pip and tonurse Mrs. Joe. The first section of the story is moving towards its climax: very shortly after this scene, Pip will hear about his expectations, which seem to represent the realization of all the ambitions mentioned in this passage.

2. This scene tells us a good deal about the relationship between Pip and Biddy. Their situations are in one sense comparable, in that both have been deprived of their parents and have been brought up by a relative (there is also a parallel with Estella here – although Miss Havisham is not related to her, she is a substitute mother). Pip has grown up in better circumstances than Biddy, who has been virtually enslaved to Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt and he is right to observe that her move to the forge has been a kind of liberation, which has enabled her to ‘improve' herself.

3. Pip observes various changes in Biddy's appearance and notes her qualities: she is pleasant, wholesome and sweet-tempered, has thoughtful and pretty eyes, and is a model of industry and efficiency. The problem is that, because he compares every young woman with Estella, these estimable qualities are devalued in his eyes. Indeed, his astonishment at her capacity for learning and hard work is partly based on this comparison and partly on his sense of her ability to make the best of her good fortune in moving to the forge. In this respect, he is implicitly comparing her to himself, also ready to seize every chance of self-improvement. The difference is that, whereas Biddy gets on with her life quietly and modestly, Pip is much more determined about his desire to rise socially and educationally. He spends money on his books and devotes his leisure hours to study, though his efforts are rather random and undirected.

4. Pip initiates all their spoken exchanges and Biddy says very little when she does speak, her replies are very short and appear to be non-committal, usually encouraging Pip to explain himself rather, than initiating any new topics of her own. The reader, however, is likely to pick up unspoken undertones in their exchanges, which say a good deal about Pip's treatment of Biddy and the extent of her understanding and judgment of his behaviour. She often looks at him without speaking, or concentrates on her sewing, as if to avoid a direct answer to his remarks. Her feelings are conveyed by her facial expressions – smiles and tears – and by her bodily movements. These details, unnoticed or wrongly interpreted by Pip, encourage readers to make their own judgments on the situation. Biddy's behaviour may suggest that, at this stage in the story, she is in love with Pip.

5. The nearest Biddy comes to a sharp response is, when Pip has wondered at her ability to learn without appearing to study, she replies, ‘I suppose I must catch it—like a cough.' This makes it very clear that she is conscious of how Pip is patronizing her, both by his astonishment that good housekeeping and education should be found together, and also by his assumption that although he may achieve his social ambitions, Biddy will remain at the forge, in very much the same state. There are also elements of sexism and snobbery in Pip's attitude – he does not expect a woman, especially a working-class woman, to possess this capacity for learning. Later in the passage, Biddy gently rebukes him when she reminds him that she was his first teacher – and it is the memory of that time that makes her cry. Pip notices her tears but does not explore the reason why she is crying.

6. In this respect, the passage contains a number of narrative ironies. Pip spends money on his education, which he describes as a kind of ‘investment'. As yet he does not know that, far away in Australia, Magwitch is accumulating wealth for exactly the same purpose. Supported by Magwitch's money, Pip will soon leave the forge and Biddy will remain; but Pip will come to regret his departure and the expectations that enabled him to leave, while Biddy will discover happiness by remaining where she is. By the time Pip has come to appreciate the true value of Biddy's qualities and decided to return to the village and ask her to marry him, it is too late: she is now occupying the idyllic world of the forge, from which Pip is forever excluded.

7. As well as the dialogue, the passage contains several paragraphs recording Pip's private thoughts, and these are a mixture of his impressions at the time and his later reflections. The young and the old Pip are therefore simultaneously present in the passage, so that while we have the immediate reactions of the young man, the elder man is at hand to offer a kind of muted commentary on his behaviour. In phrases like ‘to improve myself in two ways at once by a sort of stratagem', ‘that made what I did mean, more surprising', ‘I was beginning to be rather vain of my knowledge', ‘though I have no doubt, now', and especially, ‘though I did not use that precise word in my meditations', we can hear the voice of a more mature and wiser narrator. In this respect, the elder Pip uses humour, but it is of a more regretful and less openly hilarious kind than in other episodes containing his younger self.

8. The passage is important in the novel as a whole because it represents a stage in Pip's development, when he is acquiring more self-confidence about his social ambitions, but is not sensitive enough to understand how the voicing of those ambitions could be hurtful to Biddy. By the end of the novel, Pip has come to understand how badly he has treated her, and it is in relation to his ingratitude, snobbishness and offhandedness towards Biddy and Joe that he feels most guilt. It is his desire to expiate that guilt that brings him back to the forge at the end of the book.

Comments on the analysis

1. This paragraph places the passage in its context in the novel. Without recounting ‘the story so far', it gives some idea of the events leading up to the scene. Also, given the subject of Pip and Biddy's conversation and Pip's thoughts, it states briefly what is about to happen in the story.

2. By commenting on the relationship between Biddy and Pip and the similarities in their early lives, this paragraph shows how the passage is important to the novel's themes of abandoned children, absent parents and the changing chances of life. Pip's chance comes in the form of money, Biddy's as aresult of a murderous attack on a neighbour.

3. This paragraph moves on to comment on the nature of their encounter and the way in which there is a distance between Pip's ability to note and appreciate Biddy's good qualities. It also notes the effect of Pip's obsession with Estella and his bumptiousness about his educational aspirations.

4. The discussion of Dickens' handling of dialogue in this paragraph points out how the author is able to imply more than he states and to involve the reader in the creation of meaning from the text.

5. This paragraph offers more detailed analysis of Biddy's behaviour and spoken responses and points outhow, even in a first-person narrative, Dickens is able to represent the feelings of characters other than Pip.

6. As the plot of the novel unfolds, the narrative ironies multiply and this paragraph shows how such ironies are operating even at this comparatively early stage in the story. The scene will continue toresonate in the narrative as Pip becomes increasingly conscious of his guilt in rejecting those who have loved him best.

7. This paragraph shows how the passage is characteristic of the narrative technique of Great Expectations, by pointing out the simultaneous presence of the voices of the young and elder Pip.

8. The final paragraph sums up the significance of the passage in the novel as a whole and how it is important in helping us to understand the moral journey that Pip undertakes.

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