H o w t o R e a d L i t e r a t u r e1 6 6values of the Brownlow kind include harbouring the weak and
defenceless. It is not just a question of not blowing your nose on
the tablecloth.
We have seen that Pip wakes from a fever to find himself lovingly
restored to Joe. Oliver, rather similarly, surfaces after a lengthy bout
of illness to find himself in Brownlow’s elegant home, safe for a
while from Fagin’s felonious clutches. Both heroes make a transi-
tion from one world to another, but in different directions. Oliver
is snatched from the lower orders into civilised society, while Pip is
returned from civilised society to the lower orders. That the two
characters travel in opposite directions reflects different responses
to the question of which sphere of life is more genuine. In a sense,
though, Great Expectations has the best of both worlds. Pip will not
stay at the forge. He will resume his life in respectable society, if on
a less extravagant scale. He leaves the forge, returns, and then
launches out once more. His is not exactly a tale of rags to riches
and back to rags. It is more a question of from rags to a middle- of-
the- range jacket and trousers.
There is, needless to say, much in this narrative that I have left
unexamined. All interpretations are partial and provisional. There
is no last word. It may be worth noting, however, what this brief
analysis tries to do. Stepping back from the flow of the narrative, it
has an eye for certain recurrent ideas and preoccupations. It notes
some parallels, contrasts and connections. It tries to see character
not in isolation, but as one element in a pattern which also includes
theme, plot, imagery and symbolism. How language is used to
create mood and emotional climate is briefly examined. The
account pays some attention to the form and structure of the narra-
tive, not just to what the story says. It considers what attitudes the
novel takes up to its own characters. It glances at the various