Do you think that "hands" play an important part in Great Expectations? Discuss.

At times hands do indeed play a significant role in the
narrative of Great Expectations. For, they are often used as
indicators of character.  For instance, in the second chapter of the novel, Pip is
"brought up by hand," and he describes his sister, Mrs.
Joe,

Knowing
her to have a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her
husband as well as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by
hand.

In contrast, Joe's
hands, although strong and calloused, are at times gentle.  For example, when Pip learns
from Mr. Jaggers of his "great expectations," Joe lays his hand lovingly upon Pip's
shoulder "with the touch of a woman."  But, when he later visits Pip in London, Joe's
hands nervously  juggle his hat that wishes to fall.

When
the soldiers come on the marsh looking for the two convicts, they hold out a pair of
handcuffs to Pip.  This gesture reinforces the guilt that Pip has within him.  Then,
when he is invited to Miss Havisham's, Pip is made aware of his hands and how they
indicate his class.  For instance, Estella  is repulsed by Pip, declaring him a "common
laboring boy" whose "hands are coarse."   Then, after he returns home, Pip, who has been
affected greatly by Estella's reaction to him, bemoans his "coarse
hands":

I took
the opportunity of being alone to look at my coarse hands and my common boots.  They had
never troubled me before, but they toubled me
now.

With her hands Miss
Havisham covers her heart, while Estella uses hers to slap the young Pip.  She mocks
him, asking if he will cry. Later, she holds the gate for Pip and touches him with a
"taunting hand."  Before Pip leaves, he encounters Mr. Jaggers, a burly man, who takes
Pip's chin in his large hand, turning his face to the light.  Years later, Pip observes
how the lawyer so often washes his hands as though to rid himself of the corruption
and evil that accompanies the many from the streets that he defends in
court.

And, when Magwitch suddenly appears in London, much
like the young Estella, Pip watches the hands of Provis that hold his and Pip is
repulsed as he "laid his hand on my shoulder." Then, "he took both my hands and put them
to his lips, while my blood ran cold within me."

When Pip
visits Miss Havisham for the last time, she wrings her hands in agony as she realizes
that she has been cruel to Pip.  She asks him to forgive her and sign his
name.

Finally, it is Joe's large hands that offer Pip the
solace and care that he so desperately desires.