Classics Retold

My father's family name is Pirrip. My christian name is Philip. I called myself Pip. My father's family name is on his tombstone.  My sister is Mrs Joe Gargery, and her husband is a blacksmith.  I never saw my father or my mother.  Their days were long before the days of photograph. My memory of them is associated with their tombstones.  The shape of letters on the tombstone of my father gave me an odd idea of how he looked: A square, stout, dark man with curly black hair.  From the character and turn of inscription, "Also a Georgiana, wife of the above" I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly.  The five little stone lozenges each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of five little brothers of mine - who gave up struggling for life very early. Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea.  On a m...

A wooden structure historically used for public execution by hanging or to leave the bodies of executed criminals on public display in iron cages. This practice, known as gibbeting or hanging in chains was  intended a grisly deterrent to crime.  A gibbet was essentially a reinforced gallow type structure. It consisted of a tall upright post with a projecting arm at the top. After a criminal was executed, the corpse was placed inside an iron cage, and suspended from the gibbet. These structures were erected in highly conspicuous places such as hill tops or busy crossroads. 

In Chapter 1 of Great Expectations the description "the church jumped over its own weather-cock" is an exaggeration or hyperbole used to show Pip's dizziness and terror after the convict gave him a tremendous dip and roll.  Pip becomes so disoriented that the world seems to run upside down.  To Pip's spinning vision the church appeared to turn upside down, so that the church tower seemed to pass over weather-cock,  that normally stands on top of the steeple.  The description vividly conveys the sensation of the whole world turning upside down. 

In chapter 1 of Great Expectations, Pip says " he gave me a most tremendous dip and roll". Here dip and roll means he seized little Pip and violently shook him forcing him down, and tossing him about.  This he did to frighten the boy into obeying.  In simple English it means "he grabbed me and gave me a violent shake, pushing me down and tossing me around."  The phrase dip and roll gives the convict's physical strength and Pip's terror.  It is a picturesque way of rough intimidating handling of a child. 

Wittles is an old dialect of victuals which comes from the Latin victus meaning food or nourishment. In Great Expectations the convict uses this word to Pip. Dickens uses this word to capture the convict's rough uneducated speech. It helps to characterise him as a poor working class man from the rural marshes. The convict is starving after escaping from the prison. 

A steeple is a small pointed tower found on buildings, most commonly Christian churches and cathedrals. Consisting of a tower base, a belfry, and a tapering spire, it traditionally serves both practical purposes (like housing bells) as an architectural metaphor pointing the mind towards heaven.  Pip narrates, "When the church came to itself --- he was so sudden and strong that he made it go head over heels before me, and I saw the steeple under my feet"  Here Dickens gives us a vivid description of Pip's fear.  The full idea is that the convict has turned Pip upside down, by grabbing him by legs.  To Pip the world appeared upside down.  The church steeple now seems to be below his feet. Dickens uses this image to help the reader experience Pip's terror and confusion.  Everything is literally turns upside down--- both his body and symbolically his peaceful childhood.  This is the moment when the escaped convict bursts into Pip's life and changes its cou...

A pollard is not a separate kind of tree.  It is a tree that has been pollarded. Trees that have been cut back at the top usually about 2 to 4 metres above the ground are called pollard. The new shoots of the pollarded tree grow from the cut trunk.  Pollarding was common in England because it produced a regular supply firewood and poles; kept branches above the reach of grazing animals; and prolonged the life of the tree.   Willows, alders, ashes and oaks were often managed this way.  In 19th century literature, like that of Dickens and Hardy, pollards were part of rural landscape.  Their thick turncated trunks with tufts of new branchl gave them a distinct and eerie appearance.