Biddy's words of Chapter XXXV of Great Expectations come
after Pip has returned to the forge after learning of his sister's death. Even though
Mrs. Joe has been terribly cruel to him, Pip does feel "a shock of regret." Pip attends
the funeral for his sister foolishly directed by Mr. Trabb as "larks sang high above it
[the coffin]." After Pip and Joe and Biddy return to the forge, and the shadows of
evening close in, Pip accuses Biddy of not having written to him about these "sad
matters." Biddy replies with more than a little
irony,
"Did
you, Mr. Pip?"..."I should have written if I had thought
that."
Biddy also resents
Pip's condescending attitude as he asks her where she will go now that she can no longer
wait on Mrs. Joe:
"How am I going to live?" repeated Biddy,
striking in, with a momentary flush upon her
face....
Thus, the reader is
led to understand that Biddy's words "let me be hurt if I have been ungenerous" are
touched with more than charity towards Pip by taking his "hurt" from him as he
unrealistically feels Biddy has done him an unjustice by not staying in touch with him.
For, she is again ironic as she says these words, implying that Joe should be the one
who is hurt because Pip has failed on several occasions to visit the forge when he was
in the area (in Chapter XXVIII he stays at the Blue Boar rather than coming to visit
Joe, for instance).
No comments:
Post a Comment