Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Why does Pip return Magwitch's unopened pocket book?

I think that Pip's reasons for acting in this way can be
summed up by the following sentence from the start of Chapter 47.  Here, Pip says
that



I had
quite determined that it would be a heartless fraud to take more money from my patron in
the existing state of my uncertain thoughts and
plans.



This is why he sends
the pocketbook back without opening it.


So why would it be
a "heartless fraud?"  I think that the reason is that Pip does not like the fact that
his benefactor is a convict and a felon.  He had thought all this time that Miss
Havisham was the one who was helping him out.  But now he comes to find that his money
comes from a criminal.  This does not fit with Pip's vision of himself as a
gentleman.


To me, then, Pip is giving the money back
because he does not want to be hypocritical.  He does not want to take money from
someone that he looks down on.  Now that he knows the money comes from a criminal, he
does not want it because he is too good for that (this is like how he does not want to
acknowledge Joe -- he thinks he is above his former status).

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