Abuse Of Mrs Joe example essay topic

While it suits the plot for Pip's protector to be a blacksmith (he has the means to remove the convict's leg-iron) it also seems a fitting occupation for the man Dickens depicts. The job is hard and requires skill, yet no formal learning, so Joe seems a fool to those around him. We forgive the child, Pip, for doing this. But others - Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook - both patronize Joe and ignore him. Miss Hav isham, a shrewder judge, seems to see what Joe is really like, in spite of his awkwardness, when she signs Pip's indentures (i.e. when Pip is apprenticed). Joe becomes self-conscious and tongue-tied in unfamiliar surroundings, yet can speak well.

This does not appear in the clumsy rhyme of his intended epitaph for his father ("What sume " er the failings on his part, Remember reader he were that good in his hart"). Joe is more eloquent when he says of his blacksmith father: "he hammered at me with a wigour (vigour) only to be equalled by the wigour with which he didn't hammer at his anvil". Joe's plain speaking often exposes others' false standards, as when he says of Pip's house in London, that he "wouldn't keep a pig in it", at least not if he wanted "a miller (mellow) flavour" in the pork. Joe appears to be a poor scholar, but Biddy's patience succeeds where Pip has failed, and he learns to read and write.

The physical strength of blacksmiths is proverbial and Joe illustrates this well. Or lick, himself a big man, is knocked down by Joe "as if he had been of no more account than the pale young gentleman" (Herbert, when younger), and Pip knows of no-one who could stand up long against Joe, although Joe is not at all aggressive. Joe is typically a gentle giant. He does what he can to protect Pip from "Tickler" (Mrs. Joe's stick), but sees that too much interference will lead to more trouble later.

The reader is amused by the picture of Mrs. Joe's constant assaults upon this great man, who never retaliates, for fear of becoming like his bullying father. Joe's great size is almost a metaphor for his moral stature. He knows what he can do well in life (his job) and sees what is wrong with Pip's fantasy existence in London long before Pip does. Though Joe tells Pip he will never see him again out of his forge and his working-clothes, he is man enough to go once more to London when Pip is ill and in danger of prison. His money, earned by honest toil, pays off the immediate debt.

Joe wants no thanks and is embarrassed when Pip refers to it: he does not give the matter a second thought, just as there is no question whether he will take time off from his business (and so lose income) to look after his friend. Both the older Pip who tells the story and Biddy, at the time of the events narrated, point the reader to Joe's virtues. There are touches of sentimentality in the depiction of this honest, simple but deep character; but they are only touches, and Pip, aware of his earlier ingratitude to Joe, can be excused for indulging them. The portrayal of Joe is convincing and very moving. We are not sure about his father, but Joe is certainly "good in his hart". Great Expectations - Mrs. Joe The importance of Mrs. Joe in Great Expectations has two major parts: the significance of the character, and the symbolism of the character.

The signif ance of Mrs. Joe is to complete the figure of Joe The symbolism of Mrs. Joe is actually the physical manifestation of Joe's fears in combination with his desire for a commanding father-figure. First, Mrs. Joe's reign of terror is obviously necessary for Joe's existence. In the beginning of Great Expectations, Joe requires identification as a major character. Without the weakness that Mrs. Joe instills in Joe via her reign of terror, Joe never develops to a major character. Joe is identified as a compassionate, sensitive character, and the most direct way to display this feature is to have the character appear vulnerable. Mrs. Joe serves as the tyrant for which Joe is made helpless.

Joe, unless he is a scared character, does not recognize the friend he has in Pip. Without Joe as a major role in Pip's life, Pip also seems very incomplete. Second, Mrs. Joe also serves as the comical interlude of an otherwise sombre story. When she had exhausted a torrent of such inquiries, she threw a candlestick at Joe, burst into a loud sobbing, got out the dustpan -- which was always a very bad sign -- put on her coarse apron, and began cleaning up to a terrible extent.

Not satisfied with a dry cleaning, she took to a pail and scrubbing-brush, and cleaned us out of house and home, ... Truly, a frightening creature is that that may destroy a household by cleaning when anger besets her. Third, the comedy also has a serious side, though, as we remember our mothers exerting their great frustrations upon the household tasks of cleanliness. So, Mrs. Joe serves very well as a mother to Pip. Besides the age difference and the motherly duties of housekeeping for Pip and Joe, the attitude of a scornful mother is also apparent.

This, of course, draws Joe even closer to Pip, by relation. Mrs. Joe serves as link to make it so that Joe appears very much to be the father of Pip. In addition, Joe, although terrified of Mrs. Joe, is a very honorable man and would never consider divorcing his wife. Through this condition, however, Joe appears to be even a more honorable man to choose to preserve the sacred marriage rather than seek his comfort. It is ironic that Mrs. Joe be referred to as Mrs. Joe constantly when there doesn't seem to much a part of Joe in her. The main purpose it serves is probably to characterize Mrs. Joe as a more masculine, and, therefore, typically more commanding, character.

In the tradition of marriage, the wife usually gives up her last name to show that she is property of the man, therefore it is especially ironic that she be called Mrs. Joe when it is clear that Joe, rather, belongs more to her than vice-versa. It is also ironic that Joe be the one that seems to be stuck in tough situation in his marraige. Often, in this time, women suffered from the abuse of their husbands and expected to keep the marriage together regardless. However, Joe is clearly the one being abused in this story and he also is the only one decent enough to care enough about the marraige to try and keep it together by enduring the abuse of Mrs. Joe.

Fifth, through love, Joe shows the audience that truly he is not just a very timid man but a whole-hearted man. Truly, it takes a loving man to stay in love with such a woman as Mrs. Joe. No kissing ever took place between Joe and Mrs. Joe (much less child birth), and it becomes clear to the reader that the relationship between Joe and Mrs. Joe is a very one-way relationship. It would seem that Joe cares enough for Mrs. Joe, though Mrs. Joe never once seems to show a bit of compassion for Joe. Illustration of this can be seen in Mrs. Joe's numerous do rogatory references to being married to a lowly blacksmith. Surely, after Mrs. Joe dies, Joe reflects upon how he was treated and what he will do differently in the future.

With Mrs. Joe gone, a piece of Joe's life is again freed up and can slowly be reclaimed, making him into a stronger person. Eventually marrying Biddy makes it apparent that Joe is changed, as Biddy seems more the feminine, quiet, traditional girl, compared to Mrs. Joe. Sixth, Mrs. Joe represents the semi-aristocracy that oppresses Joe and Pip. She continually threatens Joe and Pip with bodily harm, pushing Joe and Pip together under a common oppression, just as the aristocracy ridicules Pip through Estella and Joe through Pip, eventually. Although Mrs. Joe isn't exactly wealthy, she has the aristocratic connections that define her as part of the elite class. The home life is supposedly filled by a pair of nurturing parents, however, in this book, the home serves as sort of a microcosm.

The social structure and events that take place within the house echo all the rest of the events in the book: from the theft of the file and food and Pips first feelings of guilt, to Mrs. Joe's oppression of her husband and little brother. Finally, Joe first sought this relationship with such an overbearing character because he has always needed someone to make his decisions for him. He did not used to suffer under such abuse, I assume, although he has always been clumsy physically as well as mentally. Examples of this are his general timidity to confrontation and his occasional stumbling over items, especially when trying to act in the presence of Pip when he is a gentleman. Joe's speech and use of words illustrate his plainest and accent Pip's aristocracy. Decisions never came easily for Joe and he'd much rather someone else make them for him rather than have to choose on his own.

Being uneducated, Joe never felt sure of himself that he could make an appropriate decision, anyway. When asking for Mrs. Joe's hand in marraige, it can be assumed that Mrs. Joe did everything short of buying the wedding ring herself to make the marriage a reality. So, Mrs. Joe essentially created Joe to be the character that he allowed himself to be. With the slow death of Mrs. Joe, Joe reclaimed his life from his earlier insecurity. Mrs. Joe's importance in tying Joe to Pip made the relationship between the two significantly more belive able, and without her, the great expectation of this book would never have been met. Word Count: 1112 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.

Divisions among such must come, and must be met as they come". Joe says these words to Pip as a farewell in Chapter 27, after their awkward meeting in London. Pip, now a gentleman, has been uncomfortably embarrassed by both Joe's commonness and his own opulent lifestyle, and the unpretentious Joe has felt like a fish out of water in Pip's sumptuous apartment. With this quote, Joe tells Pip that he does not blame him for the awkwardness of their meeting, but he chalks it up instead to the natural divisions of life. The blacksmith concocts a metaphor of metalsmithing to describe these natural divisions: some men are blacksmiths, such as Joe, and some men are goldsmiths, such as Pip.

In these simple terms, Joe arrives at a wise and resigned attitude toward the changes in Pip's social class that have driven them apart, and he shows his essential goodness and loyalty by blaming the division not on Pip but on the unalterable nature of the human condition.