Great Expectations

Pip is now too old to go to Mr. Wopsle’s great-aunt’s school. Before he leaves the school, Biddy makes sure to impart everything she knows using the shop’s disorganized catalogue of prices and a little comic song she once bought for a half-penny. Though the song is mostly incoherent and written in Cockney English, Pip tries to memorize it in his yearning to please Biddy and his “desire to be wiser” (247). Pip also tries to pass on whatever his learns to Joe, using the old Battery as his classroom. In his mind, he wants Joe to be suitable to Estella after Pip and Estella marry.

One day, Pip asks Joe if he thinks he should return to see Miss Havisham. Joe muses that if Pip returns, Miss Havisham might think he expects something of her. Pip protests that he wants to thank her, but he really wants to see Estella.

The next day in Joe’s forge, Pip reminds Joe of his “half-holiday” visit to Miss Havisham. A surly journeyman named Dolge Orlick protests to Joe that if Pip gets a half-holiday, he deserves one as well. Joe refuses his request, and Orlick points a hot iron bar threateningly at Pip.