Great Expectations

15 Pages 3735 Words

ward Pip and less aggressive, but generally he operates in an aggressive manner both towards people, clients and really anyone. When we first meet him properly in the Jolly Bargemen at Pip’s hometown, Mr Wopsle is reading a drama about a courtroom to Joe and some other acquaintances in the presence of Jaggers. When he finishes reading, Jaggers asked him what he thought the outcome of the case would be, he thought the defendant guilty, but Jaggers then said “How can you be so sure, without hearing complete evidence?” and the mood of a light hearted atmosphere changes as Jaggers starts to almost lecture Wopsle about making predictions before full evidence was heard. The atmosphere changed just by Jaggers seeming pleasure in telling people that they were wrong. He also has a habit of throwing is forefinger at people when speaking to them which makes the receiver feel as if they are being interrogated.

He can do this and know that a person will not retaliate is because people would not dare anger him or try and dent his pride, because he has helped so many criminals get off charges, the person who had tried to harm Jaggers would have the criminal population to answer to as well. He also takes pride in this, by saying that he can leave his house unlocked without being robbed, because he is so respected. He is almost a megalomaniac and is obsessed by his power.

When Pip and talks to the reader about his feelings about Jaggers, he uses negative language, Jagger’s dark office, with the two masks that remind him of death. It is grimy and dirty. The wall is particularly dirty where clients have been backed against it. The place seems so dirty, with the ‘blacks and flies’ everywhere and everything layered with ‘dust and grit that lay thick’. Pip, the narrator, repeatedly uses words such as ‘twisted’, ‘distorted’, ‘dreadful’, and ‘twitchy’ while describing the office. All these words create an eerie atmosphere ...