Mrs. Camilla Quotes

There were three ladies in the room and one gentleman. Before I had been standing at the window five minutes, they somehow conveyed to me that they were all toadies and humbugs, but that each of them pretended not to know that the others were toadies and humbugs: because the admission that he or she did know it, would have made him or her out to be a toady and humbug.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 11. Miss Havisham may be nasty and unpleasant, but she mostly wears this openly and honestly. However, the relatives that hover around her are the worst kind of hypocrites and sycophants. They are flatterers who pretend to like Miss Havisham because they want her money when she dies. Among the pretenders Pip meets in Satis House are Mrs. Camilla, Cousin Raymond, Sarah Pocket and Georgina. He takes an immediate dislike to them, labeling them “toadies and humbugs,” or dishonest and deceptive people. Dickens uses these characters to satirize the insincerity, superficiality and greed of London’s high society. They embody that society’s absurdities and flaws.

“He is so very strange! Would anyone believe that when Tom’s wife died, he actually could not be induced to see the importance of the children’s having the deepest of trimmings to their mourning?”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 11. One of the toadies that hover around Miss Havisham in the hope of inhering her wealth is Mrs. Camilla. This satirical character of Dickens’s puts on an air of scandalized shock at the lack of attention paid to the clothing worn at a funeral. To the ridiculous Camilla, it’s as if it was the most important thing about the funeral.

“You know I was obliged,” said Camilla, – “I was obliged to be firm. I said, ‘It WILL NOT DO, for the credit of the family.’ I told him that, without deep trimmings, the family was disgraced. I cried about it from breakfast till dinner. I injured my digestion.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 11. The ridiculous Mrs. Camilla is at once dramatic and hyperbolic in her comments about the trimmings worn at the funeral of the wife of a man named Tom. With absurd exaggeration, she says she cried about it from breakfast to dinner and hurt her digestion. Dickens uses Mrs. Camilla as a satirical figure to satirize aspects of upper class Victorian society like its superficiality.

“Raymond is a witness what ginger and sal volatile I am obliged to take in the night. Raymond is a witness what nervous jerkings I have in my legs. Chokings and nervous jerkings, however, are nothing new to me when I think with anxiety of those I love. If I could be less affectionate and sensitive, I should have a better digestion and an iron set of nerves. I am sure I wish it could be so. But as to not thinking of you in the night – The idea!” Here, a burst of tears.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 11. Mrs. Camilla puts on a comically exaggerated pretense of concern for the wealthy Miss Havisham’s health. She claims to be so sick with anxiety that she suffers jerkings and choking during the night. After Camilla’s absurd speech to the lady of the house Pip says, “Here, a burst of tears,” as if issuing stage directions. Dickens is satirizing the behavior of Miss Havisham’s relatives, who are motivated by greed rather than concern for her well-being.

“Camilla, my dear, it is well known that your family feelings are gradually undermining you to the extent of making one of your legs shorter than the other.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 11. Cousin Raymond says this to wife Mrs. Camilla when she complains of suffering “nervous jerkings” because she cares too much for others. The absurd hyperbolic image of Camilla’s leg shortening is topped only by her ridiculous claim of hysterical leg “jerkings” because of worry over Miss Havisham’s health. Raymond and Camilla are parasitic relatives who hover around Miss Havisham’s house hoping to inherit her fortune. Both characters are satirical creations of Dickens.
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