Key Quotes and Analysis

“My sister’s bringing up had made me sensitive. In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice.” (Ch 8)

– Pip

These words are uttered by Pip. He believes that his sister hurls insults at him on account of his “commonness.” In the early stages of the novel, Pip is tormented by his commonness and yearns to become a respectable and remarkable adult. The quote also highlights how one’s early childhood can impact one’s psyche. As a child, Pip is repeatedly told by several characters that he is a commoner and that he has to improve himself.

“We changed again, and yet again, and it was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on. And the mists had all solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me.” (Ch 19)

– Pip

Though this quote is about the coaches that Pip is traveling in, it is an apt metaphor for his journey up the class ladder. It represents his transformation into a gentleman, which in turn opens up opportunities and possibilities hitherto unavailable to him.

“Pip, dear old chap, life is made of ever so many partings welded together, as I may say, and one man’s a blacksmith, and one’s a whitesmith, and one’s a goldsmith, and one’s a coppersmith. Diwisions among such must come, and must be met as they come.” (Ch 27)

– Joe

These words are spoken by Joe. In this quote, Joe explains Britain’s class system to Pip. Joe urges Pip to navigate the realities of the class system, and not be overwhelmed by them. At the beginning of the novel, Joe and Pip are working class characters, though Pip goes on to become a gentleman.

Other Key Quotes

“If you can’t get to be oncommon through going straight, you’ll never get to do it through going crooked. So don’t tell no more on ’em, Pip, and live well and die happy.” (Ch 9)

–Joe

“Love her, love her, love her! If she favors you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces—and as it gets older and stronger, it will tear deeper—love her, love her, love her!” (Ch 29)

–Miss Havisham

“It was spacious and I dare say had once been handsome, but every discernible thing in it was covered with dust and mold, and dropping to pieces.” (Ch 11)

–Pip

“It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home.” (Ch 14)

–Pip

“In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice.” (Ch 8)

–Pip

” . . . no man who was not a true gentleman at heart, ever was, since the world began, a true gentleman in manner . . . no varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself.” (Ch 22)

–Herbert

“I did really cry in good earnest when I went to bed, to think that my expectations had done some good to somebody.” (Ch 37)

– Pip

“Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.” (Ch 40)

–Mr. Jaggers

“So fur as I could find, there warn’t a soul that see young Abel Magwitch, with us little on him as in him, but wot caught fright at him, and either drove him off, or took him up. I was took up, took up, took up, to that extent that I reg’larly grow’d up took up.” (Ch 42)

–Magwitch

“[S]uffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but—I hope—into a better shape.” (Ch 59)

–Estella