Great Expectations

Quote

Character

Chapter

“In our already-mentioned freemasonry as fellow-sufferers, and in his good-natured companionship with me, it was our evening habit to compare the way we bit through our slices, by silently holding them up to each other’s admiration now and then, which stimulated us to new exertions.”

Pip

2

“‘When I offered to your sister to keep company, and to be asked in church at such times as she was willing and ready to come to the forge, I said to her, “And bring the poor little child. God bless the poor little child,” I said to your sister, “there’s room for him at the forge!”’”

Joe Gargery

7

“O dear good Joe, whom I was so ready to leave and so unthankful to, I see you again, with your muscular blacksmith’s arm before your eyes, and your broad chest heaving, and your voice dying away. O dear good faithful tender Joe, I feel the loving tremble of your hand upon my arm, as solemnly this day as if it had been the rustle of an angel’s wing!”

Pip

18

“Herbert Pocket had a frank and easy way with him that was very taking. I had never seen any one then, and I have never seen any one since, who more strongly expressed to me, in every look and tone, a natural incapacity to do anything secret and mean.”

Pip

22

“It was fine summer weather again, and, as I walked along, the times when I was a little helpless creature, and my sister did not spare me, vividly returned. But they returned with a gentle tone upon them that softened even the edge of Tickler. For now, the very breath of the beans and clover whispered to my heart that the day must come when it would be well for my memory that others walking in the sunshine should be softened as they thought of me.”

Pip

35

“Look’ee here, Pip. I’m your second father. You’re my son – more to me nor any son. I’ve put away money, only for you to spend.”

Abel Magwitch

39

“Herbert received me with open arms, and I had never felt before, so blessedly, what it is to have a friend.”

Pip

41

“Startop. A good fellow, a skilled hand, fond of us, and enthusiastic and honourable.”

Herbert

52

“My mind, with inconceivable rapidity, followed out all the consequences of such a death. Estella’s father would believe I had deserted him, would be taken, would die accusing me; even Herbert would doubt me, when he compared the letter I had left for him, with the fact that I had called at Miss Havisham’s gate for only a moment; Joe and Biddy would never know how sorry I had been that night; none would ever know what I had suffered, how true I had meant to be, what an agony I had passed through.”

Pip

53

“’But he knowed Orlick, and Orlick’s in the county jail.”

Joe

57

“O Joe, you break my heart! Look angry at me, Joe. Strike me, Joe. Tell me of my ingratitude. Don’t be so good to me!”

Pip

57

“For, the tenderness of Joe was so beautifully proportioned to my need, that I was like a child in his hands.”

Pip

57

“‘Which dear old Pip, old chap,’ said Joe, ‘you and me was ever friends. And when you’re well enough to go out for a ride – what larks!’”

Joe

57

“Ever the best of friends; ain’t us, Pip?”

Joe

57

“Enclosed in the letter, was a receipt for the debt and costs on which I had been arrested. Down to that moment I had vainly supposed that my creditor had withdrawn or suspended proceedings until I should be quite recovered. I had never dreamed of Joe’s having paid the money; but, Joe had paid it, and the receipt was in his name.”

Pip

57

“I went towards them slowly [Joe and Biddy], leaving arrogance and untruthfulness further and further behind.”

Pip

58

“They awakened a tender emotion in me; for my heart was softened by my return”

Pip

58