I n t e r p r e t a t i o n1 5 5to be dead that Magwitch ‘adopted’ Pip as a kind of compensation.
Even Pip’s remote relation Mr Pumblechook, an oily old humbug,
takes a phoney paternal interest in him, while Jaggers, who is Pip’s
guardian, is yet another of his patrons. The kind- hearted Wemmick
also gives him some fatherly care, while his friend Herbert Pocket
teaches him how to conduct himself like a gentleman.
Some of these false parents are bad, while others are good.
Mrs Joe and Miss Havisham are bad false parents, whereas
Joe, Jaggers and Wemmick are good false ones. So is Magwitch,
though more ambiguously so. But there are very few good true
parents in the whole book. Miss Havisham is a wicked fairy
godmother (she even has a crutch as a wand), while Magwitch is
the good fairy who grants your wishes. It is, however, part of fairy
lore that your yearnings rarely come true in the way you expect,
which is certainly true in Pip’s case. The magical fairy food can
quickly turn to ashes in your mouth. Dreams of grandeur can veer
into nightmare.
What are we to make of these bogus patriarchs, childlike
adults, wicked stepmothers and semi- incestuous siblings? Great
Expectations is preoccupied among other things with what we
might call the question of origins. Where do we really come from?
What are the true sources of our existence? Freud saw this as a
question raised by the small child, who might fantasise that he has
no parentage at all but is actually self- born. Perhaps we all sprang
from our own loins, and can thus escape the indignity of being
dependent for our life on others. Or perhaps, like God, there was
never a moment when we were not in existence. One reason why
the child might find the thought of its origins hard to bear is that
whatever was born can also die. As we grow up, we must come to
terms with the fact that however free and self- reliant we fancy