Wopsle's Penchant For Theatre

Wopsle is one of the guests to Mrs Joe on the Christmas eve. He is a clergyman but his penchant for theatre is a fiction among students of village school run by his great-aunt. He had a room upstairs of the cottage where his great-aunt runs the school. Students including Pip could overhear his Orations of Mark Antony, over the body of Caesar, followed by Collins's Ode on the Passions.  The poem is a series of personifications of human passions --- Fear, Anger, Despair, Hope and Revenge.  Pip acclaims Wopsle's Revenge. Pip remembers that in later life he himself fell into the society of Passions.  Pip says that Wopsle is not merely reading poetry; he is performing it dramatically, giving each passion an exaggerated theatrical presence. There is an irony here. Wopsle is preparing for the Church, but he is fascinated by dramatic performance. Dickens is planting the idea that Wopsle's real vocation is stage, something that eventually happens.