Great Expectations Wealth and Money Quotes

I had heard of Miss Havisham up town, – everybody for miles round had heard of Miss Havisham up town, – as an immensely rich and grim lady who lived in a large and dismal house barricaded against robbers, and who led a life of seclusion.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 7. This is the first time Pip mentions Miss Havisham, a central character who will have a major effect on his life. We learn that she is a member of the upper class, in contrast to Pip’s working class background. Despite her riches, she is also spoken of as a lonely person living in seclusion.

In an arm-chair, with an elbow resting on the table and her head leaning on that hand, sat the strangest lady I have ever seen, or shall ever see. She was dressed in rich materials, – satins, and lace, and silks, – all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 8. Pip describes his first impressions of Miss Havisham when he sees her in Satis House. Obviously wealthy, expensively dressed, and laden down with jewelry, young Pip doesn’t know what to make of the strange lady. Dressed as a bride, she turns out to be one of the strangest and most memorable characters in literature.

“Whether common ones as to callings and earnings,” pursued Joe, reflectively, “mightn’t be the better of continuing for to keep company with common ones, instead of going out to play with oncommon ones.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 9. Joe warns Pip that it is better for a commoner with modest earnings to mix with his peers than spend time with the wealthy. He counsels him that social climbing and spending time at Satis House will do him no good. Sadly Pip ignores the wise advice from his father figure.

It was not a verbal remark, but a proceeding in dumb-show, and was pointedly addressed to me. He stirred his rum and water pointedly at me, and he tasted his rum and water pointedly at me. And he stirred it and he tasted it; not with a spoon that was brought to him, but with a file…”I think I’ve got a bright new shilling somewhere in my pocket, and if I have, the boy shall have it.” He looked it out from a handful of small change, folded it in some crumpled paper, and gave it to me. “Yours!” said he. “Mind! Your own.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 10. When Pip meets Joe in the Three Jolly Bargemen tavern he sees a mysterious stranger stirring his rum and water with a file and not a spoon. Pip recognizes it as the same file he gave years earlier to convict Magwitch which he used to cut off his leg irons. The stranger gives Pip a shilling wrapped in two pound notes, a large amount of money in those days. This foreshadows Pip later learning that Magwitch has been his benefactor all along and the great shame this triggers in him.

“Come here! You may kiss me, if you like.” I kissed her cheek as she turned it to me. I think I would have gone through a great deal to kiss her cheek. But I felt that the kiss was given to the coarse common boy as a piece of money might have been, and that it was worth nothing.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 11. Pip has his first kiss with Estella, the girl he is besotted with. The intimate moment of connection is not quite what he expected. The peck on the cheek is offered by Estella in a cold and disinterested manner. It is his reward for beating an older boy in a fight, later revealed to be Herbert Pocket. In a simile, Pip likens the kiss to something transactional, like a worthless monetary tip you would give a common boy.

“No. Gargery is your master now. Gargery! One word!” Thus calling him back as I went out of the door, I heard her say to Joe in a distinct emphatic voice, “The boy has been a good boy here, and that is his reward. Of course, as an honest man, you will expect no other and no more.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 13. When Pip asks if he is to come again to Satis House, Miss Havisham says no. Offering Pip twenty-five guineas for his service to her, she asks him to hand it to his “master” Joe who will take him on as his apprentice.

Scattered wits take a long time picking up; and often before I had got them well together, they would be dispersed in all directions by one stray thought, that perhaps after all Miss Havisham was going to make my fortune when my time was out.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 17. Pip is conflicted between being content with life at the forge and his aspirations to become a gentleman and win the attentions of Estella. He believes that Miss Havisham is the one who will help him advance his social status and become wealthy. But Pip is jumping to unrealistic conclusions and deceiving himself here. Other than help him become an apprentice and give him a guinea each year, Miss Havisham has given him no reason to believe she is going to make him his fortune.

At those times, I would decide conclusively that my disaffection to dear old Joe and the forge was gone, and that I was growing up in a fair way to be partners with Joe and to keep company with Biddy, – when all in a moment some confounding remembrance of the Havisham days would fall upon me like a destructive missile, and scatter my wits again… perhaps after all Miss Havisham was going to make my fortune when my time was out.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 18. At times Pip appears to embrace the working class life with its promise of a partnership at Joe’s forge and close relationship with Biddy. But his head is quickly turned by the lure of the wealthy life he remembers from his visits to the upper class Havisham mansion. This memory, he says in a simile, hits him “like a destructive missile.” He goes on to fantasize that Miss Havisham will make his fortune for him, which there is no evidence of. This is an example of self-deception on the part of Pip and his overactive imagination.

“I am instructed to communicate to him,” said Mr. Jaggers, throwing his finger at me sideways, “that he will come into a handsome property. Further, that it is the desire of the present possessor of that property, that he be immediately removed from his present sphere of life and from this place, and be brought up as a gentleman, – in a word, as a young fellow of great expectations.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 18. In the modest candlelit parlor of the forge, Mr. Jaggers brings life changing news to Pip, which is one of the main plot points of the novel. Pip is to be the beneficiary of a fortune from a secret donor so that he can move to London and realize his dream of being a gentleman. His new life is about to begin.

My dream was out; my wild fancy was surpassed by sober reality; Miss Havisham was going to make my fortune on a grand scale.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 18. Pip is shocked by the news of his inheritance. Jaggers has warned him that the name of his benefactor must remain a secret. But Pip has already made up his mind that he has Miss Havisham to thank for his good fortune. Pip has deceived himself into believing that the upper class Miss Havisham has taken a great interest in him, wishes to make him a gentleman and is his new benefactor. But the irony is that the convict Magwitch will be revealed to be his mysterious patron.

“First,” said Mr. Jaggers, “you should have some new clothes to come in, and they should not be working-clothes. Say this day week. You’ll want some money. Shall I leave you twenty guineas?”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 18. Pip’s upwardly mobile journey to being a gentleman begins following the news that he is to benefit from a large amount of money from an anonymous benefactor. Lawyer Jaggers presents him with twenty guineas to divest himself of his working class clothes and change to more suitable apparel.

“Pip is that hearty welcome,” said Joe, “to go free with his services, to honour and fortun’, as no words can tell him. But if you think as Money can make compensation to me for the loss of the little child – what come to the forge – and ever the best of friends!”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 18. An offended Joe gives this response to Jaggers’s offer of compensation for the loss of Pip in leaving the forge to train as a gentleman. Jaggers seems to think that everyone can be bought and has their price. But not so the highly principled Joe. Joe shows his strong moral integrity and unswerving loyalty and love for Pip, as he rejects the money offer. To Joe, money cannot compensate for the loss of his “little child” and his “best of friends.” Yet never one to stand in the way of the young brother-in-law he raised and cared for as a boy, he wishes Pip well in his new good fortune.

As Joe and Biddy became more at their cheerful ease again, I became quite gloomy. Dissatisfied with my fortune, of course I could not be; but it is possible that I may have been, without quite knowing it, dissatisfied with myself.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 18. When Pip learns that a secret benefactor has provided him with a fortune, he is at first delighted. But as the initial excitement about the announcement calms down, he becomes strangely gloomy. Faced with the prospect of leaving his modest home in the country and moving up to a new social class in London, he confesses to being dissatisfied with himself. This reflects Pip’s internal struggle with questions about identity, self-worth, social class and where he fits in society. For Pip is driven by ambition to escape his working-class roots to become a gentleman. There is a subtle foreshadowing here of the psychological hardship that Pip’s obsession with climbing the social ladder will bring him.

I drew away from the window, and sat down in my one chair by the bedside, feeling it very sorrowful and strange that this first night of my bright fortunes should be the loneliest I had ever known.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 18. Pip shares his thoughts from the night he learned about his “great expectations,” the fortune from a secret donor that will propel him into high society. But despite his newfound wealth and upward social mobility, he is full of inner conflict and confusion. He is about to leave for London shortly to be educated to be a gentleman. While he watches from his bedroom window Joe and Biddy quietly talking about him, he feels strangely dissatisfied. Pip should be overjoyed on this first night of his “bright fortunes.” But a sense of irony and foreshadowing are created when he speaks in the same sentence about feeling “sorrowful” and “the loneliest I have ever known.” His future loneliness is hinted at here and also foreshadowed are themes of the corrupting influence of money and social class.

With all the novelty of my emancipation on me, I went to church with Joe, and thought perhaps the clergyman wouldn’t have read that about the rich man and the kingdom of Heaven, if he had known all.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 19. When he goes to church with Joe, Pip feels a sense of guilt over the news about his “great expectations.” This happens as he listens to the clergyman reading the passage from the Bible on how difficult it is for the wealthy to get to get into heaven: Matthew 19:23 “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.”

“You are envious, Biddy, and grudging. You are dissatisfied on account of my rise in fortune, and you can’t help showing it.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 19. Following his newfound wealth that has set him on the road to becoming a gentleman, Pip displays his snobbery and sense of self-entitlement. In this outburst to Biddy, he is rude and harsh to the friend who cares for him, misinterpreting her words of advice on the many different kinds of pride there are. Foreshadowed here are the negative consequences of Pip’s blind pursuit of wealth and social status.

“Ay, ay!” said she, looking at the discomfited and envious Sarah, with delight. “I have seen Mr. Jaggers. I have heard about it, Pip. So you go to-morrow?”
“Yes, Miss Havisham.”
“And you are adopted by a rich person?”
“Yes, Miss Havisham.”
“Not named?”
“No, Miss Havisham.”
“And Mr. Jaggers is made your guardian?”
“Yes, Miss Havisham.”
She quite gloated on these questions and answers, so keen was her enjoyment of Sarah Pocket’s jealous dismay.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 19. Miss Havisham plays the deception game well in this exchange between herself and Pip in front of her relatives. They believe she has given Pip a large amount of money. Pip, thinking that Miss Havisham is the rich fairy godmother who has adopted him, has gone to see her to thank her for her supposed generosity. Here she is happy to discuss news of his “great expectations” in front of her cousin Sarah Pocket. She is encouraging the belief that she is Pip’s benefactor in order to spite her relatives. But it is also to manipulate Pip into falling in love with Estella so she can break his heart, part of Miss Havisham’s twisted plot to get revenge on men.

“Then the time comes,” said Herbert, “when you see your opening. And you go in, and you swoop upon it and you make your capital, and then there you are! When you have once made your capital, you have nothing to do but employ it.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 22. Herbert is talking to Pip about his future and his big dreams of being a successful capitalist. He sees himself seizing an opportunity when it opens up for him and making money from it to invest in further opportunities.

Mr. Pocket and I had a long talk together. He knew more of my intended career than I knew myself, for he referred to his having been told by Mr. Jaggers that I was not designed for any profession, and that I should be well enough educated for my destiny if I could “hold my own” with the average of young men in prosperous circumstances. I acquiesced, of course, knowing nothing to the contrary.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 24. In London Matthew Pocket becomes tutor to Pip in order to educate him in the ways of being a gentleman. Pip lacks formal education aside from what he was taught in the local village school and the lessons Biddy gave him. Now that he has come into money, he is to be taught enough to “hold his own” with other wealthy young men.

Heavy in figure, movement, and comprehension, – in the sluggish complexion of his face, and in the large, awkward tongue that seemed to loll about in his mouth as he himself lolled about in a room, – he was idle, proud, niggardly, reserved, and suspicious. He came of rich people down in Somersetshire.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 25. This unflattering description is of Bentley Drummle, one of Pip’s fellow students studying with Matthew Pocket. Drummle comes from wealthy people, is not very intelligent and has little or no redeeming features about him.

These people hated me with the hatred of cupidity and disappointment. As a matter of course, they fawned upon me in my prosperity with the basest meanness.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 25. Money certainly changes how people treat you, as Pip learns when Miss Havisham’s relatives react to his newfound wealth. He knows that they hate him because they think Miss Havisham has given him money from their inheritance. But because he is rich they pretend to like and admire him and treat him with more respect than when he was poor.

Dinner went off gayly, and although my guardian seemed to follow rather than originate subjects, I knew that he wrenched the weakest part of our dispositions out of us. For myself, I found that I was expressing my tendency to lavish expenditure, and to patronize Herbert, and to boast of my great prospects, before I quite knew that I had opened my lips.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 26. At a dinner party in Mr. Jaggers’s house, Pip’s guardian manipulates the conversation to bring out the worst qualities in the guests. In Pip’s case these weaknesses are his lavish spending, treating his friend Herbert as an inferior, and boasting of how wealthy he will be.

Let me confess exactly with what feelings I looked forward to Joe’s coming. Not with pleasure, though I was bound to him by so many ties; no; with considerable disturbance, some mortification, and a keen sense of incongruity. If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 27. Pip’s feelings when he is told of Joe’s planned visit to London to see him highlights the theme of class and social mobility. Pip acknowledges the ties he has to Joe, who raised him as a boy following the death of his parents. But social class has become more important to Pip than family since he began living his high society life in the capital. So mortified is he of working class Joe staining his carefully cultivated upper class image, he confesses he would pay his former best friend not to come.
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