It is exceedingly difficult to come to a full realistic assessment of the
Passionate women, simply because Pip's approach to both is self-centred and
unsvniDathettc. Fascinated as he is with Miss Havisham, first as a forbidding
fairy-tale figure with magic powers, capable of casting good and evil spells,
later as a fellow-sufferer in Paradise Lost, he tells us more about her
background, her nature and her relationships with other people than any
other character in the book. It seems natural enough that he is little
interested in Mrs. Joe for her own sake. A woman constantly 'on the Ram-page',
aggressively wielding her authority over the two men with her rough and strong
hands (assisted by "Tickler1 if need be), she inspires no one around her with
love and affection. But is she really just an exaggerated version of
Mrs. Varden, or is there something we can sympathize with
What do we know about Georgiana Maria Gargery, nëe Pirrip She is a not particu
larly attractive young woman, whose parents and all her brothers but the youngest
have died (we are never told of what) and who is left to bring up a baby
'by hand' until a large-hearted unassertive blacksmith takes pity on her or
the baby or perhaps both and marries her, prompted perhaps also by a vague
sense of guilt for having failed his mother. But because of incompatibility
of temper and lack of love, the marriage is doomed from the start.
It might be said that in Mrs. Joe Dickens describes a woman trapped by the
unasked - for responsibilities of an unwanted child.To survive, she had to
marry, or live on charity. Her own great expectations of ever rising in
society died when she married the socially as well as intellectually
inferior Joe. Whatever her dreams were, she had to face the reality of having
to look after an infant than a grown-up child, and found it unacceptable.
So she vents her frustrations and excess energy in a harsh treatment of the
culprits that deprived her of her dream, and acts the domestic martyr instead
of the domestic saint. And yet, under her thorny exterior she harbours some
good qualities. For one, Pip is always tidily, though perhaps uncomfortably,
dressed, in contrast to the ofphan Biddy whose 'hair always wanted brushing,
whose hands always wanted washing, and whose shoes always wanted mending
and pulling up at heel' (VII,40). Poor Biddy is virtually uncared for, but
Pip never realizes that. He is too busy moaning about the restrictions of
Mrs. Joe's overzealous care. When Pipe comes home late after his disturbing
adventure in the church-yard, he knows there will be trouble:
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