Fire, Hand, and Gate: Dickens' Great Expectations

Harry Stone
FIRE, HAND, AND GATE:
DICKENS' GREAT EXPECTATIONS
GREAT EXPECTATIONS OPENS ON A RAW AFTERNOON IN A NEfMEchoked
churchyardP. ip stands before the graves of his father,
mother, and five brothers. For the first time in his young life
he is truly conscious of himself and the world about him, and
at this fateful moment a terrible convict with a great iron
upon his leg starts up from among the graves, seizes him, and
turns him upside down. Through his inverted legs, Pip glimpses
the church steeple; then the whole church revolvcs, and he sits
trembling on a high tombstone. A few moments later the convict
again tilts the giddy boy until, with a last tremendousd ip andl
roll, the churcho nce more jumpso ver its weathercocka nd little
Pip is returnedt o the tall gravestoneT. errifiedb y the convict
and his fierce threatening, but pitying him also, Pip makes a
solemn compact with him. After the compact is sealed, the boy
runs across the lonely marshes toward his home and the glowing
forge. The marshes,i ntersectedh ere and there with dykes and
mounds and gates, stretch away into the distance, where a
glimmering river steals silently toward the sea. From the sea a
savage wind rushes, and on the horizon, tiny against a sky barred
with long angry lines of red and black, stand a beacoina nd a
chain-hung gibbet.
The secret compact, the river, the leg iron, the gates, the
beacon, the chains, the mounds, the gibbet, the barred sky-all
play their essentialp arts in Great ExpectationsA. nd when the
663
outlawed Magwitch turns Pip's dawning consciousness topsyturvy,
the act epitomizes the inverted fairy tale Dickens is about
to tell.
That fairy tale gives order and concision to the autobiographical,
social, and moral complexities of Great Expectations and
helps endow the novel with the universalityo f myth. The myth,
an ironic myth of man's desire and reward, is compounded of
Dickens'm ost profounde xperiencesf;o r GreatE xpectationsw as
to be anotherf irst-personn ovel in the mannero f David Copperfield,
"with the hero to be a boy-child like David." Accordingly,
beforeg oing to work on Pip'sa dventuresD, ickensr ereadC opperfield
"ctob e quite sure"t hat he "had fallen into no unconscious
repetitions."T here were no repetitions,a lthough the autobiographical
parallels are there.
The parallels are both direct and emblematic. Pip, like
Dickens,c amef ronmlo wly origins,f elt himselfa n outcast,y earned
to rise, attained wealth, entered polite society, failed to find
happinessa, nd all the while hid what he consideredh is shaming
taint: the formativee pisodeo f his childhood.M agwitch,i n many
ways, is the personificationo f that taint, and Pip's self-deluding
desire to run from Magwitch when the convict has returned
from exile is similar to Dickens' own attempts to run from his
past. Pip's salvationtih rough Magwitch then becomes Dickens'
mature recognition-expressed more than once elsewhere-that
his greatg ift was partiallyc reate(adn d permanentlys hapedb y the
childhood experiences he sought to disown.
But the Pip-Magwitchb ifurcationis no simpled ivision;o ther
areas of Dickens' life went into his complex fable. Pip's sense
of secret guilt suggests Dickens' own psychological condition
while he was writingG reatE xpectationsD. ickensw as then deeply
involvedi n a secretl ove relationship-a relationshipw hich must
hiavep roduceda Pip-likes enseo f hiddenp articipationin evil. But
Dickens is also Magwitch:g uilt-riddenc, rudelye ducated,a lienated;
while Pip is a synthesis of Dickens' disappointing sons:
lackadaisicalm, aterialisticd, rifting, snobbish-made gentlemen
664 GREAT EXPECTATIONS
by Dickens' laboriously accumulated wealth (as Pip was by
Magwitch's), unaware of their father's origins or his early shame
(as Pip was unawareo f his benefactor'hs istory). While writing
GreatE xpectationsD, ickens was much concernedw ith his sons
and their "expectations."H e had sent Charley to Eton, three
sons to Wimbledon, and would soon send Henry Fielding to
Wimbledon and Cambridge; and he had made or was about
to make further( and largelyu nsuccessful)f inanciala nd gentlemanly
provisions for all his children. The contrast between his
own secretc hildhood,h is role as a "labouringh ind,"a nd his sons'
positions as Eton boys and Cambridge scholars; his anguish as
the rejected suitor of Maria Beadnell (rejected owing to his
inferiors ocialp ositiona nd humdrume xpectations)a, nd his sons'
easya cceptancbe y the intellectuaal nd sociale lite-these contrasts
are at the heart of Great Expectations.
All this and more went into the book. Pip is formed by the
two regions which molded Dickens-Chatham and London. The
whole of GreatE xpectationtsa kesp lace in the precinctso f these
alternatingl oadstonesI. n GreatE xpectationsth e blackingw arehouseb
ecomest he blacksmith'sfo rge, and Pip upon his apprenticeship
to Joe feels the same sense of imprisonment that
Dickens felt when his family went to prison and he was contractedt
o the warehouseT. hat senseo f imprisonmenits intimately
associated with shame and unworthiness, even with sinfulness
and criminality.D ickens' hidden blacking-warehousien itiation
into prison and dark experiencesi s psychologicallya nalogous,
tlhereforet,o Pip's hidden tainting by crime and criminals.B ut
for Pip as for Dickens the past will not remain hidden; it
constantly reaches into the present and trammels his everyday
life. When gentleman Pip, on one occasion, goes down to his
childhood home, he travels huddled together with two leg-ironed
convictsb eing transferredto the fearsomeC hathamc onvicth ulk
of Dickens'o wn childhood.O ne of theses hackledp risonersw, ho
has had early dealings with Pip and Magwitch, all through that
actual and psychological journey back to childhood, breathes
heavily upon the unrecognized young man, and causes him to
HARRY STONE 665
shrink from this breath of the past and to feel as though he had
been "touched in the marrow with some pungent and searching
acid." When Pip gets off the coach his thoughts again wander
back to childhood, to "the wicked Noah's Ark lying out on the
black water"-a recurrent phrase which embodies his (and
Dickens') childhood image of the convict hulk-and then
he is overcome by yet another sensation that Dickens often
experienced:
I could not have said what I was afraid of, for my fear was altogether
undefineda ndv ague,b utt herew asg reatf earu ponm e .... I am confidentt
hati t tookn o distinctnesosf shape,a nd thati t was the revival
for a few minuteso f the terroro f childhood.
Bit by bit, in profound and trivial ways, Dickens adds other
pieces to the autobiographicaml osaic. When Pip, in the noontime
of his expectations, returns to the "quiet old town" of his
childhooda nd recordsh ow peoplew ould purposelyg o a little way
down the street before him that "they might turn, as if they had
forgottens omething,"a nd pass him face to face, he is recording
what the famousD ickenso ften experiencedw hen he returnedt o
his childhood town. And when Pip, after his climactic scene with
Estella,d ecidesi n his frustratedl ove that he "couldd o nothing
half so good for myself as tire myself out," and thereupon
spends most of the night walking from Rochester to London,
he is performing the same numbing thirty-mile feat Dickens
imposedu pon himself in his own crisiso f frustratedlo ve.
Pip's love reflects the strange, complex loves of Dickens'
life. Pip in his open-eyed, self-wounding, impossible love for
Estella is like Dickens in his masochistic teenage love for
Maria Beadnell or his forbidden middleaged love for eighteenyear-
old Ellen Ternan. And in a curiously revealing, quasifictional,
q uasi-autobiographicmala nner,E stellai s both good and
bad sistera nd good and bad sexual object-a bifurcationw hich
is developede ven more elaboratelyth an usual in GreatE xpectations
by the use of two additional sister figures. Mrs. Gargery,
who rears Pip, but is also his sister, is a persecuting mother666
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
sisterf igure (a combinationi,n many ways, of Dickens'm other
and his sister Fanny) upon whom Dickens calls down the retribution
of massivea ssaultp, aralysisa, nd death.S isterlyB iddy,o n the
other hand, is Pip's asexual confidante: she listens while he confessesh
is passionf or the unattainableE stella,a nd she playsa surrogate-
sisterr ole reminiscento f Mary and Georgina Hogarth
(Dickens' sisters-in-laww hom he broughti nto his home to live
with him). Significantlyw, hen Biddy,a t the end of the book, is
about to be turned by Pip-so he thinks-from loving asexual
sistera ndh ousekeepeirn to sexualw ife, she dashesh is expectations
by revealing she is already married to Pip's stepfather.
These biographical parallels have their own intrinsic significance.
T hey are a remembrancoe f things past; they are also
parto f Dickens's elf-exploratioann d self-knowledgeB. ut they are
surcharged with additional meanings, meanings which accrue
from Dickens'i ntricatem odes of presentationa nd organization.
By presentingh is experiencesin mythicp atternsh, e makest hem
universal; by ordering them in fairy-tale configurations, he
escapes the trammels of simple realism; by distorting them in
wish-fulfillingw ays, he achievess elf-catharsisT. his pluralityo f
effects is simultaneousa nd mutually reinforcing.
Dickens is an authorw ho frequently,p erhapsc ompulsively,
freightedh is work with cathartica utobiographyI.n his earlier
writings-in the brilliantly satiric American scenes of Martin
Chuzzlea'it, for example-tlhese autobiographical materials were
usuallyf orcedu pon the structured, isturbinga nd weakeningi t.
However,w ith the Christmasb ooks-five experimentafla iry-tale
novelettes which engaged the greater part of Dickens' creative
energies between I843 and i846-he was able to develop, along
with many other technical advances, methods for wedding
autobiographyu nobtrusivelyto the more universall evels of the
story;a ftert he Christmasb ooks,a utobiographuy suallyi ncreases
the psychologicarl ichnesso f his work and strengthensh is art.
One method Dickens uses to achieve this new synthesis is a
method he worked out in his Christmas books-one can see it
with especial clarity in the Haunted Man-the method of the
HARRY STONE 667
psychologicala nd autobiographicadl ouble. As early as Martin
Chuzzlewit (in the schizoid state of Jonas Chuzzlewit at the timc
of the murder) Dickens had experimentedw ith the fragmented
objectificationof a disturbedo r warringc onsciousnessB. ut it was
in his Christmasfa iryt alest hat he first elaboratedth is technique,
and it was with Redlaw in the Haunted Man (who is an even
more detailed surrogate of Dickens than the young Scrooge)
that he connected it most effectively with his own history. For
Dickens, then, the Doppelginger technique, although he invariablyi
nterfusedi t with realistica nd autobiographicaml aterials,
is part of a fairy-tale Gestalt. Dickens took this Gestalt
very seriously. He regarded his Christmas books and their
machinery as elaborations of the fairy-tale genre, and, since
he felt this genre cold move a reader with unparalled
effectivenessh, e constructedh is Christmast ales so as to make
them carryt he sociala nd politicalm essagesc losestt o his heart.H e
felt, as he put it, that he was taking fairy tales and "giving
them a higher form."
Dickens was using the term fairy tales in an idiosyncratic
way; he was giving a convenient label to his special blend
of fairv story, fantasy, myth, magic, and folklore. That blend
is all-importantf,o r he usually makes it subserveo ne of several
purposes, and these purposes, plus the materials themselves,
give his writings their characteristifca iry-taleq uality. He likes
to createa n atmospherein which the supernaturasle ems plausible;
or, conversely, he likes to take supernatural events and
creaturesa nd give them a factual underpinning.O r, yet again,
by a species of double vision, he imposes an aura of fantasy on
everyday places and persons: a real London house gradually
metamorphoseisn to an enchantedc astle, a veritablec hildhood
nursemaid slowly emerges as a frightful witch. If Dickens has
done his job well, such transformationbsu ild that extra-rational
resonance which causes the reader to suspend his disbelief.
Dickens can now safely use non-realisticd evices and magical
manipulations-spellsp, rophetics igns, reversalso f fortune,b lood
relationships-to emphasize his thesis and enforce the demands
668 GREAT EXPECTATIONS
of poetic justice. Such manipulations owe something to other
traditions,t o the Gothic novel, the ghost story, the melodrama,
the pantomime,t he "AncientM ariner"g enre, the Bunyanesque
allegory, and the moral tract. But for Dickens such elements
were primarily a reflex of his fairy-tale vision and purpose--
significantly, he not only spoke of his Christmas books as
fairy tales, he subtitled The Cricket on the Hearth, "A Fairy
Tale of Home"-so that the term fairy tale may properlyb e used
(and it will be so used in this essay) to designate this crucial
confluence in his writings.
In his early works (especially in his finales) this confluence
had alwaysa ppearedn ot as fairy-talefe licitiesb ut as contradictory
fairy-tale wrenchings which weakened the story. During his
middle period, in his Christmas books most notably, these elements,
though obvious, had at least become aestheticallyi ntegrated;
but in some of the later novels the same materials are
handled so subtly, are combined with the more realistic aspects
of the story so skillfully, that they become a major, though often
unnoticed, part of the central thrust and design of the work. In
GreatE xpectationDs ickensh andlest he dispersalo f identity,t he
doublinga nd triplingo f the ego, with consummater efinement.
As with Redlaw in the Haunted Man, whose divided mind
creates a phantom image of himself, Pip the innocent and later
the "gentleman"is juxtaposedw ith his darks hadow,M agwitchthe
criminal and outcast. But Pip is no mere antipodally fragmented
Redlaw; Pip is contrasted with many other realistic
characterws ho reflecto r extendo r illuminateh is personalityH. e
is contrastedw ith Estella,w ho hiasb een distortedb y the same
agenciesw hich twisth im; with Biddy,w ho resistst hosed istorting
forces; with Joe, who also remainsu ncorruptedw; ith Herbert,
a superiorv ersiono f himself-and thus the male counterparot f
Biddy and the contemporary counterpart of Joe; with Miss
Havisham, whose sin, and punishment, are linked to his; with
Drummle, who is a degenerate version of himself-the negative
image of Herbert; and with Orlick, who is Pip's most terrifying
extension, an extension of nascent, inexplicable malignancy.
HARRY STONE 669
Dickens frequently complicates these moral and psychological
resonances. Thus Joe is also contrasted with Orlick, Estella
with Biddy, Magwitch with Miss Havisham, Herbert with
Drummle,E stellaw ith Clara.M agwitchi s also contrastedw ith
Compeyson, Compeyson with Miss Havisham, Miss Havisham
with MatthewP ocket,a nd on and on. Jaggersi s juxtaposedn ot
only to Wemmick but to a hidden segment of himself; Wemmick
is contrasted so schizophrenicallyt hat he leads two totally
opposed lives; and Pip, whose divided mind is partly exemplified
by his extensions (Magwitch, Orlick, and Herbert), also reveals
his ambivalence in his own person: in his guilty vacillation
between desire and duty.
Through this intricatec ounterpointD ickens gives structure
and meaning to his novel. His use of Dolge Orlick is a case in
point, and one which demonstratesh ow fundamentalt his technique
had become to his art. Orlick is a character whose
heightened fairy-tale attributes accentuate rather than diminish
his realism and his significance. Orlick is both an objectified
fragment of Pip's self, a projection of Pip's darker desires and
aggressionsa, nd a manifestationo f primale vil, and this ambiguity
gives him his special effectiveness.O rlick, in his role as the
archetypalp ersonificationo f evil, slouches in and out of the
book "like Cain or the Wandering Jew." Although only twentyfive,
he refers to himself as "Old Orlick"-and of course he is
old, timeless-old as evil, as the devil, as Old Nick. Orlick's
infernalism is no metaphor; Dickens, combining Christian, classical,
and fairy-tale motifs, gradually builds him into a Satanlike
image of evil. Orlick spends his Sundays not in church, but
lying on sluice gates (his home is with a sluice keeper), and later
he becomes the gatekeeper of tomblike Satis House. His association
with the gates is appropriatef,o r he is a keeper of the
infernal gates. His occupation is no less symbolic. He is a blacksmith,
hammering at his Vulcan's forge, beating his sparks in
Pip's direction, his eyes fixed morosely on the ground. Orlick's
role is simultaneouslyc ounterpoisedt o Joe's and to Pip's. Joe
is the harmoniousb lacksmitht, he friendo f man, the Promethean
670 GREAT EXPECTATIONS
keeper of the glowing forge; Pip, the dissatisfied apprentice
blacksmith, lies somewhere between Joe and Orlick-he is
waywardv ulnerablem an poisedb etweeng ood and evil.
Orlick the devil is constantly lashing out, and his attacks
meet with carefully graded degrees of success. Good inviolable
Joe (Pip's forgiving and protectingg odfather-figureh) e cannot
touch.I n an emblematics ceneo f confrontationO, rlickf ights Joe,
is subdued and then pardoned by him. But the devil claims his
own. Pip's shrewish sister, whom Orlick himself christens
"MotherG argery,"a nd who, in keeping with her witch'sn ame
and witch's actions, provokes a fight between Orlick and Joe, is
felled savagely by Orlick. Later, paralytic and diminished, she
dumbly propitiatesO rlick, as a cowed Caliban-mortaml ight
acknowledge and then propitiate a vengeful devil-god. Then
she dies.
Pip barely escapes a similar death, and he does not escape
being seared symbolically by Orlick's hell-fire. The antipathy
between Orlick and Pip is instinctive, but it is combined with
an element of fascination. The combination occurs often in
Dickens.I t is the attractivea ntipathyb etweenf rail humanitya nd
implacablee vil, but here it has been individualizeda nd deepened,
madem orep sychologicallcyo mplexa nd believablea, nd also more
universal. Dickens realizes he is portraying an actual and an
archetypacl ontest,a nidh e fuses the simple detailso f his realistic
narrativew ith theirc osmicc orrelatives".T hism orosej ourneyman
[Orlick i lhad no liking for me," says Pip. And then Pip reveals
Orlick's lineage and foreshadows his own double trial by fire.
"When I was very small and timid, "says Pip, "he gave me to
understandth at the Devil lived in a blackc ornero f the forge,a nad
that hiek new the fiend very well: also that it was necessaryt o
make up the fire, once in seven years, with a live boy, and that I
might consider myself fuel." As so often in Dickens, evilslightly
softened in retrospect by defensive humor, but evil
nevertheless-hasi ts birth in a relationshipb etweena n adult and
a child, and is conveyedt hrougha horrificf airy-talet hreat.
But Pip and Orlick are more than blacksmith helpers to
blacksmithJ oe,a nd they are more than symbols,r espectivelyo, f
HARRY STONE 671
frailty and malignancy; they are part of the novel's psychological
presentationt,h ey are alter-egoc ounterpartsW. hen Joe gives Pip
a half-holidayO, rlick demandso ne too. Orlick'sm annero f insisting
upon his demand is heavy with meaning:
"Why,w hat'lly ou do with a half-holidayif, you get it?" saidJ oe.
"What'll I do with it? What'll he do with it? I'll do as much with
it as him," said Orlick.
"As to Pip, he's going up-town," said Joe.
"Well then, as to Old Orlick, he's a-going up-town. . . . Two
can go up-town. Tain't only one wot can go up-town."
Orlick, after fighting Joe and being subdued by him, receives
his half-holidayb, ut that night he revengesh imself upon Pip's
sister-she had forced Joe into fighting him-by sneaking up
behind her and beating her to the kitchen floor with Magwitch's
discarded leg iron. Pip is not present at this outrage, but he shares
in the crime, and not simply symbolically. His disputed halfholiday
was the first link in the chain of events which led to
Orlick's attack; and he himself had supplied the stolen file
which Magwitch used to file off his leg iron. Thus in a real
senseP ip contributetso his sister'sm urder.B ut even settinga side
these involvements, Pip's lifelong hostility toward his sister is
enough to make him feel a guilty responsibilityfo r her downfall.
His guilt, therefore,i s tenable and simultaneouso n every
level of the story.T hat this is so accordsw ith Pip's-and Dickens'
abnormasl enseo f guilt, and with Dickens't ypicallya mbivalent
treatment,h ere and elsewhere,o f the brother-sisterre lationship.
In the remaindero f the book Orlickf ulfills his dual role. He
hovers about Pip and Biddy, shadowing the former and paying
demonic court to the latter-a caricature reversal of Pip's neglect
of Biddy.H is actionsb ecomei ncreasinglym eaningful.H ere, for
instance,i s tthew ay he materializesin front of Pip and Biddy as
they stroll across the marshes:
When we came near the churchyard, we had to cross an embankment,
and get over a stile near a sluice gate. There started up, from
the gate, or from the rushes, or from the ooze (which was quite in his
stagnant way), Old Orlick.
"Halloa!" he growled, "where are you two going?"
672 GREAT EXPECTATIONS
"Wheres houldw e be going,b uth ome?"
"Wellt, hen,"s aidh e, "I'mj iggeredif I don'ts eey ouh ome!"
Old Orlick's wraithlike emergence from the primeval slime
and his associationw ith the symbolicg ate (as well as his equally
significanto ppositiont o "churchyard"a)r e mergedh ere with his
alter-egos hadowing.M uch later,w hen Orlickb ecomest he gatekeeper
of Satis House, Dickens' imagery and irony take on increasingly
sombero vertonesT. heseo vertonesr eacha climaxi n a crucial
gate scene,a scenei nterspersedw ith imageso f gates,l ocks, keys,
cages,p risons,c onvicts,a nd guns, recurrentim agesw hose meanings
have been expanding and ramifying as the book progresses.
And then comesa notherp rojectiono f Orlick'sd evil role and Pip's
imminent double burning. When Pip asks whether he should go
up to Miss Havisham, Orlick responds with the premonitory
words, "Burn me!" Pip then says, "I am expected, I believe?"
Orlick'sr eplyi s exacta nd full of fearfulm eaning." Burnm e twice
over!"h e says.A s Orlicks uggestsP, ip'sp urificationb y firew ill be
double. First he will be burned trying to save Miss Havisham
from the flames, then he will be burned by the infernal Orlick
himself.
The second burning-the fulfillment and resolution of
Orlick'sr ole-occurs in the remarkablsec enei n which Pip undergoes
the harrowing which prepares him for redemption and
regenerationP. ip has been lured by Orlick to his lair upon the
marshes. His journey to this lair-simultaneously a journey to
the underworld and an encounter with the devil-is introduced
by foreboding symbolism. The marshes, the sky, the moon, the
stars,t he clouds,t he distantl ights,t he hulks,t he old Batteryt, he
wind-all recall the opening scenes of the novel, but now each
detail is made to prefigureP ip's fateful returnt o his sources,h is
climacticc onfrontationw ith evil and himself.
As Pip crossest he marshesh, e closesa serieso f gates behind
him, and finallyh e approachetsh e regiono f hell itself. He passes
a lime kiln, "burningw ith a sluggishs tiflings mell"( it is the hiellfire
furnace in which Orlick plans to burn his body), then
HARRY STONE 673
descends below the level of the marshes into a small stone quarry
(Orlick's new and appropriates ubterraneanp lace of work),
and finally comes to the old sluice house-his place of rendezvous.
The house is surroundedb y lime-coated" mud and ooze" (the
symbolic elements out of which Orlick emerged). The "choking
vapouro f the kiln" envelopst he gatekeeper'sh ouse and engulfs
Pip in the very reek of hell. When Pip crosses the infernal
threshold,h e is pinionedb y an unknown assailantP. ip's burned
arm-which symbolizesh is participationin Miss Havisham'ss in,
a sin and wound less than hers, not fatal as hers, but growing out
of the sames ourcesa nd searedb y the samef lame-Pip's arm now
fittingly causes him "exquisite pain." Satan Orlick, his victim
secured, fastens Pip to an emblematic ladder-"the means of
ascent to the loft above"-and begins to torment him. "Now ...
I've got you," says Orlick. "Unbind me," cries Pip in allegorical
phrase. "Let me go! . . . Why have you set upon me, in the dark ?"
"O you enemy, you enemy!" replies Orlick.
Pip is in hell, the captive of the devil; but, at this supreme
moment of Orlick's Satanism, Dickens makes Orlick's alter-ego
quality explicit. He does this adroitly, and he does it through a
modified version of the Haunted Man's alter-ego colloquies:
"Wolf!" [says Orlick] "Old Orlick's a-going to tell you something.
It was you as did for your shrew sister." . .
"It was you, villain," said I.
"I tell you it was your doing-I tell you it was done through
you.... I come upon her from behind, as I come upon you to-night.
I giv't her! . . . But it warn't Old Orlick as did it; it was you.
You was favored, and he was bullied and beat... Now you pays for
it. You done it; now you pays for it."
Pip pays for his remote complicity (both wish-fulfilling and
circumstantiali)n his sister'sd eath,j ust as he paysf or everya tom
of sin that touches his life. But his very human sinning is merged
with its opposite; his sinning and its chastening consequences
help him toward redemption,a nd, out of the inextricablew eb
of good and evil (the Haunted Man again), he slowly fashions
his salvation.
674 GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Tilat salvation can begin only after Pip has been purged by
the hellish fires his sins have kindled. Orlick (here both Satan
and alter ego) now takes up a candle (it was a candle, Estella's
starlike candle, that led Pip into the labyrinth of Satis House)
and, flaring it so close to Pip that Pip must turn his face aside "to
save it from the flame," begins that terrible purification. The
cleansing continues to the verge of death, and Pip loses consciousness.
When he comes back to life, he lies "unbound" on the floor,
his eyes "fixed on the ladder." "What night is to-night?" asks the
newly seeing Pip. "How long have I been here ?" "I had a strange
and strong misgiving," he continues, "that I had been lying there
a long time-a day and night-two days and nights-more." But
Pip's long night of labyrinthine wandering is almost over. "The
time has not gone by," says Herbert, speaking of Magwitch's
imminent try for freedom, but also suggesting, in the context,
Pip's own struggle for salvation. "Thank God!" replies Pip. When
asked what hurt he has, he replies, "I have no hurt but in this
throbbing arm." Pip has passed safely through hell, but his
throbbing arm (throbbing from his previous burning and present
trussing and symbolic of his unexpiated sin) is a reminder that
he has not yet been regenerated. Some months in the future he
must undergo another, spiritual death and rebirth.
Orlick's significance is compressed and organic. In storybook
terms he is a villain; in psychological terms a projection of Pip's
darker self; in cosmic terms a manifestation of nascent evil.
Dickens makes Orlick's depravity convincing by fusing these
elements, bv making Orlick's activities, speeches, even his gestures,
doubly and trebly meaningful. What we learn about Orlick the
ordinary journeyman, and through him about Pip and hiis interior
history-Pip's contamination by evil, moral cowardice, false
values, dark urges, morbid guilt, frustration, suffering, and
chastening-is translated by means of allusion, imagery, and
parallelism into an archetypal quasi-Christian retelling of man's
innocence, fall, lharrowing, and redemption.
Orlick's simultaneous roles as journevman, devil, and alter
HARRY STONE 675
ego help extend and complicate the book. But what is true of
Orlick is true of all the charactersin Great Expectationis-they
contributein multiplew ays to the novel'si ntricatem eaning.T he
more centralt he charactert,h e more variousa nd interrelatedth e
filaments which radiate from him. Magwitch, for example, is a
parto f the greats tructuringn odeso f the novel,p arto f the fairytale
pattern,t he psychologicale laborationt, he mythic fall and
redemptionB. ut, like the otherk ey charactersh, e integratesa ddit-
ionalt hemes,t hemesh aving to do with money, socialr esponsibility,
and imprisonment.
Yet he also remains Pip's extension and foil, and his relationship
to Pip, similar in function though not in kind to Orlick's, is
the mosti mportanta specto f his role.M agwitchs howsu s society's
guilt in producing criminals; the tainted nature of Victorian
wealth and gentility; and (by means of his social, business, or
blood relationships)t he intricateu nity of society,t he universality
of guilt and responsibilityB. ut our most completea warenesso f
these meanings comes through Pip. Pip is both Dickens and
Everyman. He achieves this status because Dickens uses him to
focus his own most profoundly human yearnings and failings.
Pip does more than state the human lessons of Great Expectations,
however; he batters himself against their unyielding truth,
and he feels the retributiono f their denying force. Only in his
extremity does he submit himself, and thereupon find and accept
himself.
We see Pip doing all this; we see it most dramaticallyin his
changing relationshipt o Magwitch:i n his first trafficw ith his
convict-saviorin, his later unawarenessd, enial, and ultimatea cceptance
of him; but we also see it in his changing relationship
with Joe, Biddy, Herbert, and Miss Havisham; and we believe in
Pip's submissiona nd regenerationb ecauset he self-awarenesos f
his narrationc onvincesu s that he no longer is what he once was.
The roles of the chief characters reveal themselves most
succinctly in the fairy-tale elements of the book's structure, a
cyclical structure that knits the book together and provides its
chief ironic revelationsT. he fairy-talei nfluenceo ccursi n names,
676 GREAT EXPECTATIONS
images, actions, settings, and resolutions-Orlick's fairy-tale demonism
is one part of that influence. However, as Magwitch's
symbolic upending of Pip at the dawning moment of his consciousnesss
uggests,G reat Expectationsi s an exceedinglys ubtle
fairyt ale: thingsa re rarelyw hat they scem;v alues,i dentitiesa, nd
relationshipas re hiddeno r reversed.
Pip must take responsibilityf or his corruption.Y et the
moment of corruptioni s imposedu pon him: it comes from the
outside, from Magwitch the outlaw convict. This ambiguity is at
the hearto f GreatE xpectationsF. or thoughM agwitchi s a societyproduced,
s ociety-corruptincgr iminalw ho infects everythingh e
touches, he is also a lawless fragment of Pip's self, and Pip must
recognize and accept this before hie can absolve himself. Magwitch's
ambiguousr ole as corruptera nd savior (comparablet o
Orlick's more sinister ambiguity) is clarified by his fairy-tale
attributesH. is veryn amei s parto f Dickens'i rony,f or the "witch"
of his surname,a n appropriatde esignationa t the openingo f the
story,p rovest o be the reverseo f what Magwitcha t lastb ecomesa
saving fairy godmother. His Christian name is a more trustworthyc
lue. Criminala nd outcastt houghh e is, lhei s namedA bel;
he is more sinned against than sinning.
His rolea s a godmotheri ntroducesa hosto f ironies.P ip pities
and aids the hunted convict, and Magwitch, in best godmotherly
traditionr, edeemsP ip'sa ctso f kindnessb y princelyr ecompenses.
But Pip's altruistic acts are strangely and terrifyingly complex:
they are also acts of sin (they involve stealing, lying, and secrecy),
and this ambiguityi s reflectedb y the blighting consequenceos f
Magwitch's gifts. Magwitch gives Pip education, status, wealth,
expectations-the fairy-tale favors Pip 1had yearned for. But in
Pip's perilous moral state such rewards become curses. Pip, since
he is Everymans,i nceh e is fraila nd humanim, usts trugglet oward
salvation;h is imperfectionsa ndlt he sins they lead to (imperfections
and sins enlargedb y Magwitch'sg ifts) are the awful taskmastersw
hich chastenh imi.M lagwitclehp itomizest he ambiguity
of these gifts; his gifts are scourges. But Magwitch and his love
are Pip's true gifts. As in Beauty and the Beast, Pip must accept
HARRY STONE 677
Magwitch the beast as beast. It is the act of loving acceptance, the
humility, charity, and community of the act, which turns Magwitch's
and thus Pip's own beastliness into beauty, into a means
of salvation.
Magwitch's slowly revealed fairy-tale role is paralleled by Miss
Havisham's. As her name ("sham," "have a sham") indicates, she
too is not what she seems. At the outset, she appears to be another
Dickensian godmother disguised as a witch-another old Martin
Chuzzlewit or Betsey Trotwood. And Pip in his mistaken morality
is certain Miss Havisham is a godmother. But Miss Havisham is
no godmother, she is a veritable witch. Her sham godmotherhood
is only one strand in a web of shams. She allows Pip to delude
himself, to believe she gives him the gifts he receives, and that she
rears for him the greatest gift of all, a Cinderella princess. Actually,
Miss Havisham's only gifts are witclh's curses-the curse of
frigidity and suffering for Estella, longing and torment for Pip,
degradation and jealousy for the worldly Pockets (another meaningful
name). Miss Havisham is witchlike in her appearance,
witchlike in her isolation, witchlike in lher abode, witchlike in
her vengeance, and witchlike in her fiery destruction.
The Cinderella she rears is another part of her sham, and
another part of Dickens' topsy-turvy fairy tale. For Estella, far
from being the starlike princess slhe appears to be (and that her
name implies), is the siren offspring of a convict and a murderess.
Pip, in his self-wounding yearning for her, is yearning, as always,
for a self-projected and self-defeating nmirage. Estella possesses
only the externals of ladyhood; in reality she is a blighted creature
who mirrors Pip's own blight. Estella is a "lady" in the same
ironic sense that Pip is a "gentleman"-both have been "made";
both have been fashioned impiously as instruments of revenge;
both unknowingly stem (one by birth, the other by adoption)
from the declasse Magwitch; both are further distorted by the
witchlike Miss Havisham; both see their sinning shapers die for
their sins; both must suffer for their own assent in those sins and
must be reborn. One part of Pip's rebirth consists in recognizing
and accepting Estella's true identity and then confessing to her
678 GREAT EXPECTATIONS
debased father-now under the sentence of death-that he loves
her.
Great Expectationsd oes contain a true Cinderellap rincess
and a true princelikeg entleman.C haracteristicalltyh,e true princess
is not queenly Estella but humble Biddy. Pip spurns Biddy
until it is too late. That he fails to win her is anotheri nversiono f
the fairy tale. The true gentleman is not Pip or Drummle or
Jaggersb ut simple Joe, whom Pip in his pseudo-gentilitya voids
as the quintessenceo f ungentlemanlinessP.i p'se rrorso f vision,a
resulto f his and society'su psidedownm orality,a re at the core of
the fable. His initial upending,h is later topsy-turvyv alues, his
weather-vanev acillationsb etweeng ood and evil, as well as his
final return to an upright position, are all implicit in his name,
Pip Pirrip-a name both parts of which read the same backward
as forward.
The magicaln ames of GreatE xpectationsa nd the relationships
they mirror or disguise are organic portions of the novel's
fairy-tale conception. That conception controls the book again
and again. Thus, though Pip fails to marry the true princess in
the primary fairy tale, Joe, the true prince, does win her, and so
fulfills a minor fairy-tale theme. And though Pip's accrual of
money provesa curse,H erbert'si denticala ccrualo f money (the
fairy tale within the fairy tale) proves a blessing-and this not
only to Herbert but to Pip. Pip's anonymous endowment of
Herberti s the only good thatc omeso f his expectationsB. y having
the identical fairy-tale money given in the identical fairy-tale
manner corrupt in one instance and save in the other, Dickens is
showingt hati t is not moneyi tselfw hich corruptsb ut its improper
use-a lessone laboratedb y the money-givingo f Magwitcha nd
Miss Havisham.A ll this is so unobtrusivelye mbeddedi n the
action that it comes as something of a shock to discover that the
rewardsa nd retributionsin GreatE xpectationsa re as carefully
weighted as in the early novels. But now the rewards elaborate
and fulfill the theme; in the early novels they wrenched it.
The fairy-talec onfigurationos utlinedh ere are buttressedb y
hundredso f complementaryd etails.T he onset and development
I-HARRY STONE 679
of the magical relationship between Magwitch and Pip, for example,
gains much from its fairy-tale associations. When Pip
meets Magwitch he falls under his spell, a submission accompanied
by ritualistic portents. The moment of yielding occurs at the instant
Magwitch upends Pip-Magwitch's hypnotic eyes bore
"powerfully down" into Pip's, while Pip's innocent eyes look
44most helplessly" up into the convict's. In this fateful instant of
weakness, Pip yields himself to evil, a yielding marked by a fairytale
meeting of eyes, the nfrst of many similar looks. Pip's dawning
moment of individual identity is also a moment of taint and guilt.
His subsequent sense of sinfulness is a realistic reflection of his
contamination (a contamination which is really a part of the
human condition, which is coeval with individuality and selfconsciousness),
but his contamination, like his induction, is also
underlined by fairy-tale signs. The evil adult world impinges upon
Pip in the same way that Dickens, in hiis own childhood, visualized
a sadistic adult world impinging upon himself. The supreme
imagery of evil is adapted from the imagery of fairy tales: it involves
fateful glances, solemn compacts, ogres, cannibalism, and
the like; and in each world the crucial relationship is the same: it
centers about a brutal adult and a waiflike child. Yet the effect of
the book is neither fabulous nor self-pitying. Dickens avoids the
former distortion because his basic situation is psychologically realistic-
it emerges from his own experiences; he avoids the latter
because, although he surrounds Pip witlh an expressionistic reflection
of his own childhood terror, he distances that terror through
retrospective humor. For the reader, thierefore, Pip's real but
fairy-tale nightmare partakes of fairy-tale whimsey-a combination
which allows Dickens to reveal and conceal his involvement.
Magwitch, for instance, threatens to eat Pip's "fat cheeks"-a
threat that Pip accepts as literal. Later Magwitch swears to have
Pip's heart and liver "tore out, roasted and ate," and he tells the
trembling child of a bloodthirsty cohort who can "softly creep
and creep his way to him and tear him open"-the exact threat
Good Mrs. Brown terrified Florence with in Dombey and Son.
This ogreish bullying is grotesque and amusing-for Dickens as
680 GREAT EXPECTATIONS
well as the reader. But for Dickens it also carries a burden of
undiminished horror, a burden madc explicit by Pip's reactions
and their consequencesP. ip finds Magwitch'sf erocioust hreatsa s
real and endlessly ramifying as the young Dickens found the
atrocitiesin "CaptainM urderer"o r "Chipsa nd the Devil"-two
blood-thirstyc annibalisticst oriest hat he heard nightly from his
nurse. (A key word in the terrorizingr efraino f "Chipsa nd the
Devil" is "Pips.")A s a resulto f Magwitch'sc annibalisticth reats,
Pip entersi nto an indissolublec ompactt o aid him, and Pip'sl ast
glimpse of the outlaw occurs as he glances "over his shoulder"
while racing homeward toward the forge. In that backward
glance (so reminiscento f fateful glancesi n mythologya nd fairy
lore) Pip sees Magwitch plunging toward the river, the flowing
streamw hich runss ymbolicallyth rougha ll of GreatE xpectations
and which will ultimately convey Magwitch and himself to death
and salvation.
This premonitoryo pening recalls some of Dickens' earlier
fairy-tales cenes.O ne is remindedo f raggedw aiflike Florence,a t
the outset of her pilgrimage and with the tolling bells ringing in
her ears, looking back over her shoulder at Good Mrs. Brown's
shaking fist; one also thinks of doomed Carker emerging from
the fateful grove and looking over his shoulder at Good Mrs.
Brown's pointing finger; and one recalls the fearsome ogre of
David Copperfield,h is terrifying "Oh-goroos,"a nd his Magwitchian
appetite for hearts and livers.
But in GreatE xpectationDs ickensm akest he fairy tale serve
his purposesin ways that go beyondh is successesin Dombeya nd
CopperfieldF. or Magwitchi s more than a child-quellingM rs.
Pipchin, a witchlike Good Mrs. Brown, or an ogreish pawnshop
keeper;l ike Orlick,h e is part of Pip, part, most particularlyo, f
the best and worsti n Pip. Dickenss uggestst his relationshipw ith
great subtlety. When Pip, after his encounter with Magwitch,
asks Joe in silent lip language, "What's a convict ?" Joe returns an
elaboratel ip-languagea nswer,t he only word of which the boy
can make out is "Pip."S imilarlyw, hen Pip's" all-powerfusli ster"
responds to his questioning about convicts and prison ships, slhe
HARRY STONE 681
makesh im feel "fearfullys ensible"t hat the "hulksw ere handy"
for him. This identificationw ith Magwitcha nd evil soon colors
Pip's entire consciousnessa, developmentm ade clear by dozens
of additional touches. When, for instance, Pip returns to Magwitch
in order to give him the stolen food and file, he becomes
symbolically shackled like the convict. "All this time," Pip relates,
"I was getting on towards the river; but however fast I
went, I couldn't warm my feet, to which the damp cold seemed
riveted,a s the ironw as rivetedt o the leg of the man I was running
to meet."
Magwitch'sr elationshipto Pip goes even deeper.T hough the
convict is a tormentor and an extension of Pip, he is also, like
Pip-as his later account of his history makes clear-a victim and a
waif. The ritual bond, which gives outward expression to their
commong uilt and commons ufferingf, oreshadowsth eir common
salvation,a nd this aspecto f their relationshipis also projectedb y
fairy-talem eans.U ndert hreat,P ip stealsf ood and a file for Magwitch.
Full of fear and guilt, he brings these pledges to the
graveyarda nd his brutislhth reatenerB. ut Pip's terrors oon gives
way to another emotion, an emotion almost magical in the transformation
it produces:
Pitying his desolation, and watching him as he gradually settled
down upon the pie, I made bold to say, "I am glad you enjoyed it."
"Did you speak?"
"I said, I was glad you enjoyed it."
"Thankee, my boy. I do."
Pip's twice-repeateda vowal of sympathy and Magwitch's
' thankee"a nd "my boy"a re premonitoryp ledges.I n the ensuing
yearsM agwitchw ill shower innumerable" thankees"u pon Pip,
forever after "my boy" to him. And when the convict finally returnst
o his young and self-deceivedfe llow bondsman," my boy"
and "dear boy' are the loving yet ironically possessive phrases
most often on his lips, first to Pip'su nutterableh orrorb ut finally
to his comfort. By the same token, Pip soon begins to refer to
Magwitcha s "my convict,"r eciprocatingM agwitch's" mnyb oy"
and unconsciouslya cknowledgingt heir consaguinityT. his is all
682 GREAT EXPECTATIONS
in the futuie, when Pip has obscured his saving goodness with
artifice and fraud. For the moment, however, the bond of fellow
feeling is quickly enlarged, and Pip in aligning himself with the
outlawed Magwitch aligns himself with sympathy and humanity
as well as pariahlikec orruptionI.n the few hoursw hichi ntervene
between Pip's traffic with Magwitch and the outlaw's recapture,
Pip makes his choice. "I hope, Joe," he says while accompanying
the hunt, "we shan't find them." Pip speaks these words on
Christmasd ay,a nd he speakst hem in a symbolics etting:" Under
the low red glare of sunset, the beacon, the gibbet, and the
mound of the Battery, and the opposite shore of the river, were
plain,t hougha ll of a wateryl ead colour."S een in the perspective
of the completed story, the landscape is as portentous as Pip's
self-confrontinge ncounterw ith Magwitch,f or it epitomizesa ll
that Pip will undergo:t he furnace-glaroef hell, the deadlye nticement
of the starlikeb eacon,t he tainto f prisona nd sin, the journev
to the brinko f the grave,t he glimpseo f the eternals lhoreb eyondl
the eternalr iver-all plain, yet all discoloredb y Pip'ss till murky
vision.
When Magwitch is retaken, Pip exchanges a look with the
huntedc reaturew hich complementtsh eire arlierl ook.T he second
look is as fleetinga s the first,a nda s full of fairy-talem eaning:
I had been waiting for him to see me, that I might try to assure him
of my innocence. It was not at all expressed to me that he even comprehended
niy intention for he gave me a look that I did not understand,
and it all passed in a moment. But if he had looked at me for
an houir or for a day, I could not have remembered his face ever
afterwardsa, s having been more attentive.
Magwitch'slo ok is a portento f all that Pip will receivef ronm
him. A moment later comes the first installment of that ambiguousl
egacy.M agwitclhli es and magnifiesh is guilt in ordert o
shieldP ip. This altruistica ct (the complemento f Pip'ss imilara ct
in Magwitch's behalf) is followed by another humanizing sign.
When Joe and Pip show Magwitch a kindness, the convict's
HARRY STONE 683
clicking throat demonstrates that, like the beast-waif in the
HauntedM an, he can still be transformedb y love.
The two portentousl ooks which help structuret he opening
of GreatE xpectations-theh ypnoticf airy-talelo ok of evil and the
saving fairy-tale look of sympathy and gratitude-linger, recur,
and expand.I n the remaindero f the novel similart okens accentuate
the book's meaning. When Magwitch's convict messenger
appearsb eforeP ip and gives him money (the annunciatoryp romise
of wlhat is to come), he identifies himself by a secret sign-he
stirs and tastes his drink with a file. The words Dickens chooses
to describeP ip's reactiont o this fantasticr ecrudescenceo f his
criminal past are significant. "I sat gazing at him," Pip writes,
"spell-bound.P"i p, of course,i s "spell-bound,a"n d the spell under
which he laborss tems from the fairy-talec ompact,t o which he
continues to acquiesce.
How meaningful these fairy-tale details are may be seen if
one examines the great recognition chapter which marks Magwitch's
return,f or the chapteri s filled with supernaturatlo kens
which explicate and magnify that return. Pip greets the convict
from the top of a black staircasea, nd he listens as Magwitch's
disembodiedv oicea risesf rom the depths,f rom the "darknessb eneath."
Pip holds a lamp over the stair rail, but the lamp is
"shaded,"a nd its "circleo f light' is "veryc ontracted."T he lamp
and its circle of liglhte mbodyt he relationshipo f the two. Magwitch
moves into that circle for an instant, then out-just as he
had moved in and out of Pip's life. It is only when Magwitch
ascendst he last two steps (foreshadowingt he ascensiona nd confrontation
about to take place) that Pip finds "the light of my
lamp included us botlh."W ithin that circle of liglhtP ip sees a
"voyager" with "long iron-grey hiair' -terms subtly evocative of
Magwitclh'ps ast-holding out bothih andst o him. But the magic
circle of light which unites Pip and Magwitch, and the outstretchedh
ands which give that unity humane xpressiona, re not
understood by Pip. He finds his rough visitor abhorrent and
rejects his offered hands. Yet the ritual bond is still at work, and
684 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
the compact sealed on the marshes by looks and oaths is carried
forwardb y otlherfa iry-tales igns-by a continuingr itualo f hands.
When Pip sees tearso f gratitudea nd love in Magwitch'se yes, he
repentsh is earlierr udenessa, nd, when Magwitcha gain stretches
out his hand, he gives him his own.
Pip's actions reflect his confused state. He does not recognize
"hisc onvict,"m uch less does he recognizet hat hiei s a parto f the
creatureH. e waversb etweens nobberya nd humanity.H is desire
to spurnM agwitchg rows out of notionss uperimposedu pon his
true self, self-wounding notions of gentility and class-consciousness;
his impulsive willingness to clasp hands with him is a reflection
of his innate goodness. In other words, Pip is as Magwitch
left him: self-deluded, erring, but capable of being saved. But
now Magwitch helps Pip save himself. He does this by forcing
Pip to confront his sources and thus his true self. Pip must see
himself and Magwitch as they really are and must acknowledge
their mutual guilt and mutual responsibility.
That acknowledgmendt oes not come with the firstg limmerings
of recognition; Pip's initial reaction to his true self is terror.
When Magwitchi dentifiedh imself,P ip "shrankf rom him"a s "if
he had been some terrible beast." But Magwitch forces the truth
on Pip. "Look'ee here, Pip," he says. "I'm your second father.
You're my son." Pip nearly faints. In that state he allows Magwitch
to draw the gold watch out of his pocket, turn the diamond
and ruby ring on his finger, and kiss his hands. These ritualistic
actions, which epitomize Magwitch's fairy-tale gifts and consanguinity,
are received by Pip with fairy-tale reactions. In his
trancelike state, he "recoiled" from Magwitch's touch as if "he
had been a snake," and when the convict kissed his hands, his
"blood ran cold" within him. The recognition, and its concomitant
acknowledgment of shared taint and blood relationship (not yet
fully understood by Pip), is accentuated by the ritual of hands.
"He laid his hand on my shoulder," writes the uncomprehending
Pip. "I shuddered at the thought," he continues with ironic disassociation,
"that for anything I knew, his hand might be stained
with blood."
HARRY STONE 685
The chaptere nds with a characteristiicn terminglingo f selfaccusing
guilt, alter-ego consanguinity, psychological symbolism,
and fairy-tale portents. Magwitch lies asleep in a nearby room,
but Pip, with his growings elf-knowledgei,s far from sleep:
In every rage of wind and rush of rain, I heard pursuers. Twice,
I could have sworn there was a knocking and whispering at the
outer door. With these fears upon me, I began either to imagine or
recall that I had mysterious warnings of this man's approach. That, for
weeks gone by, I had passed faces in the streets which I had thought
like his. That, these likenesses had grown more numerous, as he,
coming over the sea, had drawn nearer. That, his wicked spirit had
somehow sent these messengers to mine, and that now on this stormy
night he was as good as his word, and with me.
Pip's understandinga nd dread grow. Close by, slumbering
in the dark,n ow unmistakablyw ithin Pip'sk en and domain,l ies
the violent maker and projection of himself. The fury of the
night increasesP, ip's wild premonitionsa lso increase,a nd then,
at last, comess elf-awarenesasn d the beginningo f acceptanceA. ll
this is compacted in Pip's next curious impulse and the language
in which he records it. Pip's coalescing memories of Magwitch
impel him to take a candle and, with that light-giving instrument
in his hands,g o into the convict'sr oom and "looka t my dreadful
burden."
That Pip looks at lis burden, that he can feel that the burden
is part of himself, is his burden, is the beginning of his Beauty
and the Beast transformationT. hat transformationis slow, laborious,
and fablelike; it involves purgation by fire, a sojourn in
hell, symbolic illness, death, rebirth. But it also involves the completiono
f the compactm ade in the graveyarda, completionc arried
forward by the evolving pattern of fairy-tale signs-by the
ritual of hands, among others.
That ritual is not confined to Pip and his convict. It is brilliantly
emphasized, and at the same time deftly fused to the fire
motiv, in a long series of crucial recognition scenes which enable
Pip to establisht hat Estellai s the daughtero f a murderessT. he
repeatedf ire-handim agesw hich dominatet hesem other-daughter
686 GREAT EXPECTATIONS
resemblancae nd revelations cenesa ref ashionedf or theiri mmcdiate
appropriatenesbs,u t they simultaneouslyw ed Estellaa nd her
mothert o otherc haracters-tof ire and hand counterpartssu ch as
Pip and Magwitch, for instance-and to the central themes of the
novel. "GentlewomanE" stella'si ronicb ut undiscoveredr elationship
to her murderer mother (and to Magwitch, her father)
parallels" gentleman"P ip's ironic but undiscoveredr elationship
to convict Magwitch, his "second father." Still more ironically,
and continuing the parallel, the fire-hand imagery becomes not
merely the symbolo f Estella'si dentity,b ut the means by which
Pip uncovers her lineage and criminal taint, a lineage and taint
which mirror his own. This method of uniting object and thesis
by modulatingr eiteratedi mages can be seen with great clarity
in the Pip-Magwitchri tualo f hands.
In the daily intercourseb etween Pip and his convict, that
ritual becomeso ne gauge of Pip's progression.M agwitch frequentlyi
nitiatest he ritual,f requentlyg oes "throughh is favourite
action of holding out both hands for mine." But Pip has not yet
come to terms with Magwitch or himself. Magwitch's offered
hands only bewilder and dismay him; they remind him of his
demeaningi nvolvementw ith tainta nd imprisonmenta,n involvement
he has largelyf orgotteno r suppressedo r rationalizeda way.
The true implicationso f that involvementa nd of Pip's responsibilityf
or it are suggestedb y the surroundingim agery,a n imagery
which is unobtrusiveb ut powerfullyd irective." I releasedm y
hands as soon as I could," says Pip. And then hie continues with
wordst hat recallb ut do not describeM agwitch'sc onvictp ast,h is
chainsa nd irons,a nd his alter-egor elationshipto himself:" What
I was chained to, and how heavily, became intelligible to me, as
I heard his hoarse voice, and sat looking up at his furrowed bald
head with its iron-greyh air at the sides."
But Pip's final surrendera nd reversala re not far off, and,
when theyo ccur,t he book'si ntricates tructureo f magicalp ortents
culminates and is resolved. When Pip hias committed himself to
lhelp Magwitcli and has brought him to a secret place of safety,
HARRY STONE 687
he takesl eaveo f his convict in a way which reversest heir earlier
symbolicl amplighta nd stair-raisl cene and emphasizesh is moral
revolution". We left him,"w ritesP ip of Magwitch," on the landing
outsideh is door,h olding a light over the stair-raitlo light us
downstairsL. ookingb acka t him, I thoughto f the firstn ight of hlis
returnw hen our positionsw ere reversed,a nd when I little supposed
my heart could ever be as heavy and anxious at parting from
him as it was now."
The cyclicals cenes,t he symbolicr eversalst, he doublem eanings,
the fairy-talen ames,t he magicalp ortentsc ontinue.H erbert's
nicknamef or Pip (a nicknamet hat violatest he name-clauseo f
Pip's compact) is Handel. The name draws attention to Pip's
spell-like involvement in the crucial ritual of hands (Hand-el),
and instantly, and usually ironically, recalls Pip's blacksmith
origins (for Herbert christened Pip Handel because of Handel's
HarmoniousB lacksmith).A s the book progresseso, therf airy-tale
motifs are carried forward, repeated, and fulfilled. When Pip
takes Magwitch on board his boat for their culminating journey
down the eternal river, the convict says, "Dear boy! . . . Faithful
dear boy, well done. Thankye, thankye!" The "dear boy" and
"thankye" recall Magwitch's words in the opening scenes near
the river and complete the promise of those words. For Pip is now
totally committed to Magwitch. When Herbert asks Pip, "You
go with him?" Pip replies, "No doubt." And when Herbert asks
"Where?"P ip, with unmistakablem eaning,a nswers," well down
the river,"" well beyondG ravesend."D uring that final journey,
Magwitch dips his hand into the water, looks into its ever-flowing
depths, and listens to the boat's head "making a sort of a Sunday
tune." In another moment he and Compeyson and Pip will be
immersedi n those life- and death-dealingw aters,C ompeysont o
be sucked to an unshriven death, Magwitch to emerge mortally
wounded but spiritually at peace, and Pip to rise to further
regenerationa nd ultimater ebirth.
That regenerationis now markedb y clusterso f culminating
fairy-tale imagery, including, of course, much directive imagery
688 GREAT EXPECTATIONS
of hands and looks. Magwitch has come full circle, but so has
Pip; though Magwitch is once more a shackled prisoner, Pip no
longer flees from him or rejects his hand:
When I took my place by Magwitch's side I felt that that was my
place henceforth while he lived.
For now my repugnance to him had all melted away, and in the
hunted wounded shackled creature who held my hand in his, I only
saw a man who had meant to be my benefactor.
Now also the look of long ago is regiven and completed. "It
happened,"P ip writes," on two or threeo ccasionsin my presence,
that his desperater eputationw as alluded to by one or other of
the people in attendanceo n him. A smile crossedh is face then,
and he turned his eyes on me with a trustful look, as if he were
confident that I had seen some small redeeming touch in him,
even so long ago as when I was a little child."
By the time Magwitchs tandsi n the prisonersd' ock on trial
for his life, Pip has completed his Beauty and the Beast transformation.
This is made clear by his action when Magwitch enters
the prisonersd' ock. "No objectionw as made to my getting close
to the dock, on the outside of it, and holding the hand that he
stretchedf orth to me." Dickensu niversalizetsh is sceneo f shared
guilt and unity in society'ss acrificiadl ock and gives the episode
an apocalyptic meaning. As the condemned men and women,
including Magwitch, his hand still held by Pip, stand for sentencing
before the judge, the rays of the April sun stream through
the courtroom'rsa in-studdedw indows,m aket he raindropsg litter
and dazzle, and link the judge and the condemned in one great
equality of light. In this "way of light," both during and after
the sentencingM, agwitchc lings to Pip'sf reelyo fferedh and.A nd
later,d uringM agwitch'sla nguishinga nd death,P ip remainsw ith
him and sharesh is suffering.P ip'ss elflessv igil helps him achieve
the peaceh e had failed to win by his self-centeredst rivings-and
Magwitch, as usual, is the ambiguous touchstone both of his
chasteninga nd his salvation.T hese final transformationasr e all
reflectedb y the continuingf airy-tales ymbolismb, y recurrencesnow
strikingly inverted-of the supernaturagl ate motif. Pip,
HARRY STONE 689
whose concern for Magwitch had induced him to obey Orlick's
summons and go to the gates of hell, is also brought by the convict
to the gates of heaven; gates which are ironically, and in keeping
with Dickens' inverted fairy tale, the gates of man's earthly
prison. Pip waits at those prison gates as the child Dickens had
waited at the Marshalsea prison gates. And just as that corrosive
waiting had shaped Dickens' great gift and achievement, Pip's
faithful waiting and ministering bring him a miraculous gift,
the gift of humility and understanding, the gift that saves him.
As Magwitch draws his last breaths, he turns to the self-condemned
fellow-sufferer at his side:
"Dear boy," he said, as I sat down by his bed: "I thought vou was
late. But I knowed you couldn't be that."
"It is just the time," said 1. "I waited for it at the gate."
"You always waits at the gate; don't you, dear boy?"
"Yes. Not to lose a moment of the time."
"Thank'ee, dear boy, thank'ee. God bless you! You've never
deserted me, dear boy."
I pressed his hand in silence, for I could not forget that I
had once meant to desert him.
A moment later, when Magwitch has spoken his last words, Pip
completes another cyclical ritual of consanguinity and acceptance.
"He smiled," writes Pip, "and I understood his touch to mean
that he wished to lift my hand, and lay it on his breast. I laid it
there, and he smiled again, and put both his hands upon it." The
symbolism of hands now culminates. "With a last faint effort
which would 1have been powerless but for my yielding to it, and
assisting it," writes Pip, "he raised my hand to his lips. Then he
gently let it sink upon his breast again, with his own hands lying
on it." Magwitch is dead. Pip murmurs a prayer for his rough
counterpart, a prayer which is an adaptation of a line from the
parable of the Pharisee and the publican. The message of that
parable-"every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he
that humbleth himself shall be exalted"-epitomizes Pip's journey
from Pharisaism to understanding, and presages his salvation.
But Pip's adaptation of the publican's prayer does more than
690 GREAT EXPECTATIONS
recall the parable's moral. By displacing the publican's "to me"
with "to him," Pip again calls attention to his alter-ego relationship
to Magwitch, and he underscores his new self-awareness and
self-inculpation: "O Lord," he pleads, "be merciful to him a
sinner!"
Pip, who is also a sinner, and who now accepts responsibility
for his and his fellow man's sins, leaves this scene of death and
regeneration to go to his own spiritual death and rebirth. He
becomes ill, sinks into a phantasmagoric delirium, awakens weeks
later, helpless, tremulous, and babylike, and in the resurrecting
springtime, under the godmotherly care of Joe, gathers strength
and wisdom for a chastened chance at life.
Great Expectations is more than a fairy tale grown big; it is a
narrative which fuses autobiographical, sociological, psychological,
and mythological elements into a deeply resonant unity. Dickens'
early experiences and fantasies, his fairy-tale finales and godmother
figures, his later disappointments and insights have been
transmuted into a subtle and endlessly ramifying fable which
concentrates reality and deepens our apprehension of life.
This achievement owes much to Dickens' reliance on the
suprarational. Through that reliance he gained a large family of
functionally associated techniques-repetition, ritualism, leitmotiv,
Doppelganger, magical symbolism, and the like-which he found
suggestive and congenial. By means of these techniques he imbued
the simplest objects of the everyday world-objects such as gates,
files, quarries, rivers, and hands-with the archetypal fears and
fulfillments of fairyland.
Dickens' universality, like his techniques, is also connected to
his mastery of the suprarational. For that mastery helped him tap
the same deep reservoir of wishes and urges that fairy-tale literature
taps, a reservoir fed by man's immemorial responses to life.
Fairy tales, like myths, legends, fables, and similar creationscategories
which overlap and reflect one another-survive because
they embody deep and profoundly attractive (or frightening)
human fears and hopes. Dickens manages to incorporate such
HARRY STONE 691
qualities into all his works, at first crudely, but then mnore subtly
and pervasively. That Dickens wrote the fables he did reflects the
particularity of his time and personality-especially the influence
of his early years. But the quality of his imagination, and the
undercurrent of myth, magic, and ritual to which it gave birth,
link his writings with the works of other great masters of the
written word.
Sophocles, insistent oracles, blind prophets, and cosmic
ironies; Shakespeare's weird sisters, portentous ghosts, and guilty
hallucinations; Dostoevsky's fatal loadstones, magical dreams, and
cyclical actions; and Dickens' ogreish witches, fragmented minds,
and recurrent episodes, are all part of the same imaginative reconstruction
of reality. This is true not simply because Shakespeare's
theatre contained elements of the Sophoclean tradition, or because
Dickens had absorbed Shakespeare in hundreds of performances
and scores of rereadings, or because Dostoevsky had pored over
Dickens' novels in his prison exile; nor is it true simply because
each author (and this applies, of course, not merely to these four)
had partaken of an analogous heritage of folklore and fancy. It is
true because through such suprarealistic counterpoint the artist's
fabling and concentrating mind is able to impose order upon the
petty welter of everyday experience. It is one of the artist's primary
ways not merely of remaking experience but of communicating
experience and commenting on it. In the hands of a master this
heightening and concentration is fused with realism (blind
Oedipus' symbolic blinding, Lady Macbeth's blood guilt, Pip's
hell journey, Raskolnikov's self-immolating, self-freeing confessions)
in ways which do not belie, but instead enhance, our understanding
of the infinite complexities of life.