Great Expectations I (1962)

[Music] among the gravestones of a bleak churchyard set in the desolate at Marsh country Great Expectations began here Pip met magwitch the escaped convict his whole life was to be shaped by this meeting and one other meeting soon to come in our first film on the novel we analyzed some of the elements common to all novels note how many of these elements are present in the first chapter of Great Expectations the story has started off with a bangang Dickens knows how to create suspense at once the plot which will turn on the mysterious relationship between pip and the convict magwitch has begun to unroll two major characters pip and magwitch have been added to the population of our minds the brooding atmosphere of the whole book has been partly established by the description of the Lonely Countryside its flat marshes the low leaden line of the river the cold wind blowing from the sea the shape or form of the novel seems to suggest itself it sounds so far like the horizontal novel of incident arranged chronologically and that's what it will turn out to be but the first chapter does more than suggest story plot characters setting and shape it draws the first faint lines of the patterns of some of the themes which make up the novel's deeper content one of these themes is the theme of the prison the prison both as fact and symbol had a strange Fascination for Dickens remember Dr manette in A Tale of Two Cities well as we probe deeper and deeper into Great Expectations we shall find that it is pervaded by the idea of imprisonment in this very first scene we met a man with a great iron on his leg ordering pip to bring him a file that file will reappear in the story we will meet criminals and ex-criminals criminal lawyers and jailers and prison scenes but the prison in Great Expectations is more than a literal prison it is a prison of the imagination we have seen magwitch trapped in his leg irons but his mind too is in prison as we shall discover little Pip also has become a captive a captive of his fear of magwitch a captive of the secret between them but we discover as we read on pip is fated to become a prisoner of magwi in a deeper sense for his life though he will remain unaware of it for many years is to lie in the hands of the convict whom in his childish ter ER he had befriended from this first Dreadful moment magwitch and pip are linked together it is not until much later when the terrifying brute and the terrified child have changed their whole relationship that both win to freedom I said that this meeting was one of the two which would shape Pip's whole career it is time for the second meeting time for Dickens to draw draw the sides of that strange triangle which connects pip Estella Miss havisham to pip a simple Country Boy Miss havisham's house is legendary behind its Grim walls behind its Windows barred with iron lives an immensely rich and Grim lady the house the old unused Brewery the Wilderness of empty casks and barrels in the brewery yard guard all as Dickens writes have a certain sour remembrance of better days lingering about them pip obeying a strange summons to come and play at the house is admitted by a young girl very pretty and very proud what makes these characters pip and Estella and Miss havisham live in Our Minds come along boy perhaps it's because they're like personages in a fairy Tale the poor wood Cutter's son The Princess and The Witch go in after you miss that'd be ridiculous boy I'm not going in Miss Miss har who is it pip ma'am pip Mr pumble Chu's boy man come come to play come near let me look at you come close [Music] come [Music] near well what do you think that is that that where those cobwebs are I can't guess what it is ma'am it's a great cake it's a bride cake it's mine look at me you're not afraid of a woman who's never seen the son since you were born no do you know what I touch here yes ma'am what do I touch your heart broken I'm tired I want diversion I've done with men and women play sometimes I have sick fancies I have a sick fancy to see some play there there play play play are you suen and obstinate no ma'am I'm very sorry for you ma'am I'm very sorry I can't play just now but but it's so new here and so strange and so fine call Estella call Estella you can do that call EST at the door 20 minutes to 9 Miss havisham's emotional life had stopped years ago at 20 minutes to 9 but Pip's emotional life is ready to begin this is the moment of its beginning it's your own my dear one day and you will use it well now let me see you play with this boy with this boy why is a common laboring boy well you can break his heart you can break his heart heart we feel at once that Miss havisham like magwitch has a Mania the stopped clock the bride cake the spiderwebs all a part of her Obsession Estella is a tool of that Obsession Estella is being trained as if she were an animal to Revenge Miss havisham on the world of men the world which has betrayed her pip will also become a tool of that Obsession all the more willingly because he himself will become obsessed by Estella these three human beings the innocent young boy the cold cruel young girl the half-mad woman who has shut out the light of day who has stopped her life's clock at 20 minutes to 9 all three are imprisoned behind walls created by their own minds will these walls Ever Fall yes but not before they have become much higher much stronger than they are now in our last film we spoke of the Victorian admiration for respectability they called it that today we call it status to the Victorian middle class respectability had almost the force of a religion it had to do you remember with the idea of being a gentleman with wealth and display with looking down on your social inferiors now in a way although the story takes place during the reign of William ivth Great Expectations is a novel about this strange Victorian religion of respectability gentility give it any name you like Pip's journey through life is a search for respectability and as we learn when Pip finds out at last that his respectability has been one only by the use of money given him by a criminal the most unrespectable of wretched beings his whole life seems to fall in Ruins about him when was this passion to be a gentleman born in PIP we've just watched its birth in the scene of a few minutes ago pip is bewildered When Miss havisham orders him to play but it's so new here and so strange and so fire he is bewildered because this is his first encounter with a kind of Life different from his humble one at the Forge from his sister's kitchen where he and Joe gargery eat their bread and butter Miss havisham and Estella are different from Joe and Mrs Joe they're so strange so fine and then he hears estella's scornful voice with this boy why he's a common laboring boy and something is born in his heart the first dim beginnings of a desire to escape from a life of simple toil into the Glamorous Life of the gentleman and that brings us to Joe gargery perhaps the finest character in a book full of Rich characters here we are pit Joe of course is not a gentleman in the Victorian acceptance of the word and never will be here's your right prra and from this fact and from Pip's eventual realization years later of the true character of Joe gargery is woven one of the main threads of the novel lur up pep glor CH it is the first day of Pip's apprenticeship at the forge for Joe naturally this is a wonderful day but as for pip pip had once believed in the Forge Dickens writes as the glowing road to manhood and Independence but now the forge seems to him coarse and common and he would not have Miss havisham or Estella see him on this day on any account in estella's words he feels that he is indeed nothing but a common laboring boy [Applause] the years pass and Pip's life falls into a regular routine of Labor Morning Joe morning but he's no happier now than he was on his first working day he's still haunted by the fear that sooner or later with blackened face and hands doing the coarsest part of his work he'll be seen by a Stella and that she'll exalt over him and despise him [Applause] what pip does not know of course is that his life which he considers miserable and degrading is soon to change in a way he could not even have [Music] [Applause] dreamed I have reason to believe there is a blacksmith here by name Joseph or Joe gar which is the man I am that man you have an apprentice commonly known as pip yeah I am pip my name is Jer and I'm a loyer in London Joseph gargery I am the bearer of an offer to relieve you of this young fellow your op print you would not object to cancel his indentures at his request and for his good you would want nothing for so doing well Lord forbid that that I should want anything for for not standing in Pip's way Lord forbidding is pious but not to the purpose the question is do you want anything the answer is no very well recollect the admission you have just made and don't try to go from it presently who's it going to Troy I didn't say anyone is but now I return to this young fellow and the communication I've got to make is that he has great expectations I am instructed to communicate to him that he will come into a handsome property further I am instructed to communicate to him the desire of the present possessor of the property that he be removed from this present sphere of life and brought up as a gentleman in a word as a young fellow of Great Expectations now Mr bip you must understand first that the name of the person who is your liberal benefactor must be kept a profound secret until such times as that person chooses to reveal it no it may be years hence secondly you are distinctly to understand that you are positively prohibited from making any inquiries on this head if you have any suspicion in your own breast keep that suspicion in your own breast if you have any objection to this now is the time to mention it speak out I have no objection sir I should think not now Mr pip to details there is lodged in my hands a sum of money amply sufficient for your suitable education and maintenance you will please consider me as your guardian I tell you at once that I am paid for my services otherwise I would not render them when can you come to London I suppose I can come directly sir first you should have some suitable clothes to come in you should not be working clothes you will want some money should I leave you 20 G well Joseph gger you look dumbfounded I am it was understood that you wanted nothing for yourself remember it were understood and it are understood but what if it was in my instructions to make you a present as compensation as compensation for what for the loss of his Services if is that already welcome to go free with his services to honor and Fortune as there no words can tell him but if you think money can make compensation to me for the loss of the little child what what what come to the forge and ever the best of friends gargery I warn you this is your last chance no half measures with me if you mean if I mean to say if you come into my place a bull baited and a bad me come out and fight I mean to say as such if you're a man come on Joe Joe well Mr pip I think the soon you leave here as you are to be a gentleman the better thus with all the wonderful unreality and abruptness of a fairy story news comes of Pip's Great Expectations Joe gargery is not impressed until he realizes how much it means to pip as for pip himself he is all too ready to say goodbye to the forge with its light its warmth its honesty ready to say goodbye to Joe a the forge is the symbol and So within a matter of days pip is off to London to a life of Great Expectations here at the center of English life it is time to receive his first lesson in the ways of the world he receives it from a curious young man named Herbert pocket a young man whose nose he had once blooded as a boy in the abandoned Garden of Miss havisham's mouldering mansion but this second meeting in the great bustling city of London is more congenial Here My Dear pip is the dinner your first I believe in London yes it is I beg of you to take the top of the table no because the dinner is of your providing no no please I I won't hear of it as you wish well do sit down then um yes my dear pip as you know I've been brought up as a blacksmith in a country place and I know very little about the ways of politeness I would take it as a great kindness if you will give me a hint now and then whenever you see me going wrong with pleasure I venture to prophesy that you want very few hints but let me introduce the topic my dear pip by mentioning that in London it is not the custom to put the knife in the mouth for fear of accident of course and that while the fork is reserved for that use it's not put further in the mouth than necessary I see what you mean it's scarcely worth mentioning only it's as well to do as other people do don't you think oh I do yes now where were we in our little talk oh yes we were discussing with Ham's father who as you know was a gentleman down in your part of the country and was a brewer I don't know why it should be a crack thing to be a brewer but it is indisputable that while you cannot possibly be gential and bake you may be as Gentile as never was and Brew you see it every day and yet a gentleman may not keep a public house may he not on any account but a public house may keep a gentleman [Music] if I may my dear pip yes excuse my mentioning that in society as a body the spoon is not generally used overhand but um under now this has two advantages you you get at your mouth better which after all is the object and it saves a good deal of the attitude of opening oysters on the part of the right elbow this is an amusing scene and Dickens meant it to be but he also wanted to show how far pip has already traveled from the warmth and simple wisdom of Joe gargery pip is beginning to learn about the so-called great world many novels that you may have read like those of Thomas wolf for example or like Great Expectations developed vment novels in the development novel The theme is always the same a young man or woman leaves a simple home often in the provinces in the country and Journeys to the big city the development novel traces his or her education in worldliness in sophistication the seductions of ambition the passions of Love pip will confront all these things and under their pressures develop for good or ill he will pass through some experiences that are unique not many of us have a magwitch or a mish havisham in our lives but he will also have some experiences common to all young men and women who must by the law of nature grow up thus Great Expectations is an especially interesting book to read at say 17 it's an even more interesting book to read it say 57 time passes we see pip now very fashionable and a bit of a fop in his rooms at Barnard in in London receiving an old friend Jo how are you Joe how are you pip come in come in give me a hat John oh no no thank you no old Trouble Over Me p P CH there no trouble Jo no trouble n pip just let me look at you which you that grow and that that swelled and that that gentle fol as to be sure you're a honor to your king and country an honor to your king and country Joe believes this and so we fear does pip but Joe we soon learn has come for more than a friendly visit hu being now alone sir oh Joe how can you call me sir hust to being now alone I will conclude to mention what have led my Evan had the present honor of breaking whittles in the company and Abode of gentlemen well sir this is how it were I at the Jolly bargan to the night pit where a point a beard to give refreshment to the work in maner and do not overstimulate when they're come in pumble juk and this same identical come up to me and his word were Joseph Miss havisham she wished to speak to you Miss aam Jo she wished were pumble word to speak to you um yes yes Joel go on please well sir next day having clean himself I goes and I sees Miss aishu and her expression are then as following Mr gy you you are in correspondence with Mr pip I having had a letter from you I were able to say I am would you tell him then said she that Estella has come home and would be glad to see him Estella or bidy when I gets home and asks if to write the message to you bdy says I know he would be very glad to have it be word of mouth it's holiday time you want to see him go I have now concluded sir and pip I wish you ever well and ever prospering but you're not going AR Joo yes I am but you're coming back to dinner Joe no I'm not dear old chap life's made up of ever so many pars all welded together as I may say and one man's a blacksmith and one's a white Smith one's a Goldsmith one's a copper Smith divisions among such must come and must be met as they come if there has been any fault at all today it's mine but you and me as not two figures to be together in London nor yet anywhere else but what's private and understood among friends it's not that I'm proud that I want to be right and you shall never see me no more in these clothes I'm wrong in these clothes I'm wrong out of the forge or the kitchen or off the marshes you wouldn't find have so much fault in me if supposing you is to put your head in at the forge window and say Joe the blacksmith there at the old Anvil and the old burnt apron sticking into the old work I'm awful dull but but I hope I've beat out something n the rights of this at last and so God bless you dear old pip old champ God bless you and so Joe as he says has beat out something nigh the rights of this at last he understands now what has happened and has accepted it pip of course is trapped trapped in his dream of a Stella trapped in the prison of his Great Expectations does he know it no he is no more aware of the net of delusion in which he is caught then we are aware of our own heartbeat but Joe is aware of it Joe who cannot construct a clear English sentence again and again we shall note that Joe is almost the only person in the novel who always feels clearly and he is also the one person who speaks incoherently it's one of the marks of Dickens that he can use the bumbling wandering language of Joe for two purposes at once for humor and to suggest to us that Integrity of character and smooth manners do not necessarily go together you and me is not two figures to be together in London says Joe with a clear eye and a heavy heart and back he goes to his Forge and back goes pip to being a gentleman we began this film with a scene showing the beginning of Pip's boyish infatuation with aella that scene also showed us the beginning of Miss havisham's DED scheme of Revenge now it is time for Pip's infatuation to become as obsessive as Miss havisham's fantasy the time has come for Pip's heart as Miss havisham promised herself years ago to be broken as years before that Miss havisham's own heart had been broken how do you do pip oh you kiss my hand as though I were a queen eh well well I I heard miss haversam that you were so kind as to wish me to come and see you and I came directly well Estella hello pip and so Estella now a beautiful hoty young woman has come back into Pip's life later pip is left alone with Miss havisham the strange witch-like creature whom he supposes to be his benefactor as a boy he had wheeled her about imprisoned in her invalid's chair the symbol of her crippled distorted mind now a man he does so again is she beautiful graceful do you would her Everybody Must to seiz her Miss aam love her love her love her how does she use you love her love her love her if she favors you love her if she wounds you if she tears your heart to pieces and as it grows older and stronger it will tear more deeply love her love her love her he me pip I adopted her to be loved I bred her and educated her to be loved I made her into what she is that she might be loved I'll tell you what love is it is blind devotion self humiliation utter submission giving your heart and soul to the smiter that I did [Music]