Uncle Pumblechook of Dickens's Great
Expectations is a stereotype of the rising middle class that aspires to be
wealthy and to imitate what Dickens considered a frivolous aristocracy. In short, he is
a fauner and a flatterer. Like her uncle, Mrs. Joe perceives the upper class as
superior; anything that they do has justification and is only unusual to those of the
lower classes. Because of this admiration for the upper class, Pip feels that Miss
Havisham will be misunderstood if he describes her
realistically:
I entertained an impression that there would be
something coarse and treacherous in my dragging her as she really was (to say nothing of
Miss Estella)before the contemplation of Mrs. Joe. Consequently, I said as little as I
could, and had my face shoved against the
wall.
When the "bullying"
Uncle Pumblechook comes to tea, Pip is even more inclined to be reticent about the
truth. When Uncle Pumblechook interrogates Pip, finally Pip fabricates an elaborate
tale of Miss Havisham's sitting in a velvet coach with four dogs that fought for veal
cutlets out of a silver baskets. Since Pumblechook has never been allowed into the
house, and since Pip describes the room as lit only by candles, a situation with which
Pumblechook is familiar, Pip's uncle verifies the
tale:
"That's
true, Mum....That's the state of the case, for that much I've seen
myself."
Added to this truth,
Mrs. Joe and Uncle Pumblechook want to believe Pip, for their awe of the aristocracy
is so fatuous that they want to think they are unique in their habits and very different
in their ways.
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