Matthew Pocket Quotes

“It is a principle of his that no man who was not a true gentleman at heart, ever was, since the world began, a true gentleman in manner. He says, no varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 22. Pip’s friend Herbert Pocket explains to him about Miss Havisham’s disastrous relationship with Compeyson, quoting his father Matthew Pocket about the conman. Truly good actions come from a good heart and Compeyson did not have a true manner or heart, he says. His father’s metaphor about varnish being unable to hide the grain of the wood is telling us that a person’s true nature cannot be faked.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Pocket had such a noticeable air of being in somebody else’s hands, that I wondered who really was in possession of the house and let them live there, until I found this unknown power to be the servants.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 23. Here Pip describes the household of Matthew and Mrs. Pocket, where ironically the servants are in charge and not the Pockets. Dickens uses the Pockets to satirize the pretensions and incompetence of the aristocracy. The title-obsessed Mrs. Pocket, whose father was a knight, neglects her children and leaves them to be cared for by the servants.

“Good God!” cried Mr. Pocket, in an outbreak of desolate desperation. “Are infants to be nut-crackered into their tombs, and is nobody to save them?”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 23. An exasperated Matthew Pocket reacts to his inattentive and incompetent wife letting the baby on her lap play with a dangerous nutcracker. The dramatic and violent metaphorical image of babies being “nut-crackered into their tombs” highlights the parental neglect of the Pocket children. Mrs. Pocket, who is obsessed with social status, becomes so engrossed in a conversation about aristocratic titles, she forgets about the baby on her lap. Dickens is satirizing pretentious parents who prioritize social climbing over caring for their children.

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.

Mr. Pocket was out lecturing; for, he was a most delightful lecturer on domestic economy, and his treatises on the management of children and servants were considered the very best text-books on those themes. But Mrs. Pocket was at home, and was in a little difficulty, on account of the baby’s having been accommodated with a needle-case to keep him quiet during the unaccountable absence…of Millers. And more needles were missing than it could be regarded as quite wholesome for a patient of such tender years either to apply externally or to take as a tonic.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 33. It is richly ironic that Mr. Pocket makes a living as a well known lecturer on domestic economy and writing books on managing children and servants. For his own chaotic household is a disaster, the children are neglected and put in danger by the self-absorbed Mrs. Pocket, while the servants actually run the show.
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