Wemmick Quotes

His mouth was such a post-office of a mouth that he had a mechanical appearance of smiling. We had got to the top of Holborn Hill before I knew that it was merely a mechanical appearance, and that he was not smiling at all.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 21. Dickens uses a unique metaphor to humorously describe one of the features of his character’s face. In the book Wemmick’s mouth is compared to a post-office, emphasizing the rigidly controlled and unemotional nature to his character. Wemmick is clerk to the lawyer Jaggers.

Wemmick was at his desk, lunching – and crunching – on a dry hard biscuit; pieces of which he threw from time to time into his slit of a mouth, as if he were posting them.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 24. The simile comparing Wemmick’s eating pieces of hard dry biscuit to “posting” them into his “slit of a mouth,” says much about his character. The mechanical robotic way of eating, as if he was posting letters, suggests a detached, unemotional approach to work and life.

“I am my own engineer, and my own carpenter, and my own plumber, and my own gardener, and my own Jack of all Trades,” said Wemmick, in acknowledging my compliments. “Well; it’s a good thing, you know. It brushes the Newgate cobwebs away.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 25. Pip visits Wemmick’s cottage at Walworth, which he calls “The Castle” and has modeled in the style of a small castle. Proud to show it off to Pip, he boasts of doing all the construction work himself. The metaphor of brushing the Newgate cobwebs away means that the cottage is his sanctuary after a tough day at the courts and Newgate Prison. Wemmick is the hard-working legal clerk who looks after Jaggers’s business affairs.

“No; the office is one thing, and private life is another. When I go into the office, I leave the Castle behind me, and when I come into the Castle, I leave the office behind me.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 25. This quote speaks to the duality of Wemmick, who separates his work life and home life. He lives with his father in a house styled as a small castle, complete with drawbridge, cannon and moat. There he feels shielded from the harsh reality of his profession as clerk to a powerful lawyer.

By degrees, Wemmick got dryer and harder as we went along, and his mouth tightened into a post-office again. At last, when we got to his place of business and he pulled out his key from his coat-collar, he looked as unconscious of his Walworth property as if the Castle and the drawbridge and the arbour and the lake and the fountain and the Aged, had all been blown into space together by the last discharge of the Stinger.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 25. After having dinner at Wemmick’s miniature castle home, Pip walks with him to his work place in Little Britain. He humorously tells us how Wemmick’s manner completely changes as he nears his office. He uses a post-office metaphor to describe how Wemmick assumes the cold, business-like personality he preserves for work. At home a very different Wemmick is warm and tender, especially in caring for his elderly father, whom he refers to as “the Aged.” A simile compares his ability to switch from home-mode to Wemmick’s castle, drawbridge, fountain and father being blown into space by the last firing of the “Stinger” cannon.

It struck me that Wemmick walked among the prisoners much as a gardener might walk among his plants…Thus, we walked through Wemmick’s greenhouse.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 32. Pip accompanies Wemmick to Newgate Prison where he speaks to the prisoners in a detached and very business-like manner. In an extended metaphor, the prison becomes Wemmick’s greenhouse, with him being the gardener and the prisoners his plants. It is an odd and ironic metaphor, since Newgate was a harsh and notorious place of death for its inmates, whereas a greenhouse is associated with nurturing and growth and the beginnings of life.

I saw his hand appear on the other side of Miss Skiffins. Instantly, Miss Skiffins stopped it with the neatness of a placid boxer, took off that girdle or cestus as before, and laid it on the table. Taking the table to represent the path of virtue, I am justified in stating that during the whole time of the Aged’s reading, Wemmick’s arm was straying from the path of virtue and being recalled to it by Miss Skiffins.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 37. Using a series of humorous metaphors and simile, Dickens describes how Miss Skiffins doesn’t like Wemmick putting his hand on her waist and keeps removing it. Miss Skiffins is girlfriend to the insistent Wemmick, who keeps trying to embrace her during his father’s reading.

When I did at last turn my eyes in Wemmick’s direction, I found that he had unposted his pen, and was intent upon the table before him.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 51. The metaphor of Wemmick “unposting” his pen is used to describe him having finished using his pen. The pen is likened to a letter ready for sending but not yet mailed. A number of times in the novel post office and mailing images are used to describe the behavior of the lawyer’s clerk. They serve to highlight his focused attention and dedication to his work.

“What’s all this?” said Mr. Jaggers. “You with an old father, and you with pleasant and playful ways?…Pip…this man must be the most cunning imposter in all London.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 51. When Pip speaks of Wemmick’s “cheerful playful ways” at home with his elderly father, Jaggers is surprised. He calls Wemmick a “cunning imposter.” Highlighted here is Wemmick’s dual personality. At work as Jaggers’s clerk Wemmick is cold, focused and detached, but at home he is warm and caring.
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