When Pip receives a letter from Biddy that Joe will pay
him a visit in London, the young gentleman demonstrates his newly-acquired snobbishness
and reacts with "considerable disturbance and some mortification" as he becomes anxious
about how Joe will be perceived by Herbert Pocket, his roommate, and especially by
Drummle since this man would mock him. And, so, Pip
comments,
throughout life, our worst weaknesses and
meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most
despise.
Perceiving Joe
through what Pip believes Drummle's vision would be, Pip finds Joe's awkwardness
disturbing while the reader finds his attempts to balance his hat on the mantel
amusing. Pip is embarrassed that Joe does not know how to properly use the tableware,
forgetting in his snobishness that he himself had to be taught by Herbert. For Pip now,
Joe appears backward and "common." Because of his discomfiture at embarrassing Pip, Joe
falls into
unaccountable fits of mediations....and dropped
so much more than he ate, and pretended that he hadn't dropped it; that I was heartily
glad when Herbert left us for the
city.
Keenly aware of the
embarrassment that he has caused Pip, Joe tells him that he is out of place at the
forge; he says that he will not return to London:
"Diwisions among such must come, and must be met
as they come. If there's been any fault at all today, it's mine. You and me is not two
figures to be together in London; nor et anywheres else but what is private, and benown,
and understood among friends....You won' find half so much fault in me if you think of
me in my forge dress, with my hammer in my hand, or even my pipe....And so God bless
you, dear old Pip, old chap, God bless
you!"
It is only after this
speech, that Pip realizes Joe's wisdom and dignity. He narrates
that
the
fashion of his dress could no more come in its way when he spoke these words than it
could come in its way in
Heaven.
Pip has been blind to
this dignity and intelligence of Joe because he has been concerned with people's
appearances too much, and has placed value in appearances. Joe's illiteracy is an
embarrassment for Pip as well as he manner of dress and
speech.
Furthering the theme of Appearance vs. Reality, Pip
is concerned in Chapter 28 with going to the forge and staying before he visits Estella
at Satis House. He rationalizes that Joe might not be prepared to have him stay, and he
might be too far from Miss Havisham's. But, the truth is that he feels it is not like a
gentleman to bed at the forge; so, he stays at the Boar's Inn. Pip's snobbishness
prevents him from the reality of Joe's intelligence and his unconditional
love.
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