In Chapter II of Stage I of Great Expectations,
Pip's greatest dilemma is how to steal the food for the convict without Mrs.
Joe's knowing about his theft:
I knew Mrs. Joe's housekeeping to be of the
strictest kind, and that my larcenous researches might find nothing in the
safe.
Because he may not be
able to raid the pantry without Mrs. Joe's knowing, Pip resolves to place the bread she
has cut for him down his pant leg rather than eating it. So, when Joe is not looking,
he shoves the bed into his pant leg.
On Christmas Eve, Pip
ascends the stairs to his little room; he mentions that as he does so, he is "in
terror":
I was
in mortal terror of my interlocutor(speaker) with the iron leg; I was in mortal terror
of myself, from whom an awful promise had been extracted [his guilt]; I had no hope of
deliverance from my all-powerful
sister....
Pip lies awake at
night knowing that he must raid the pantry, a pantry of which Mrs. Joe has an exact
inventory. But, his fear of the man who has threatened to cut out his liver is even
greater than his fear of Mrs. Joe.
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