- 54 -
Only when Biddy tells him how Mrs. Joe had asked Joe and Pip's pardon
shortly before she died does he feel a strong flow of pity, immediately
suppressed by an equally strong desire ->to Dunish Orlick. Whether or not
13)
we accept Julian Moynahan's theory of Orlick as Pip's alter ego Pip's
excessive feelings of guilt for the vicarious crime can only imply that the
'punishment' is as harsh and unjust as her treatment of him had been.
The main source of guilt, however, stems from his inability to accept
one of the primary tenets of Christian teaching, to be grateful and
respectful to one's parents, or those who stand in their place. He finds
it impossible to love and respect his unlovable mother-sister. Ironically,
some of his bad characteristics may be derived from his sister: his self-
engrossed egocentricity, his class-consciousness and his earlier lack of
generosity, while his meekness and capacity for suffering come from Joe.
But Pip hever cares to admit that to himself.
Though there is a vague force within Pip striving to be fair to Mrs. Joe's
memory I began to wonder in what part of the house it, she, my sister was',
267), mainly because 'it would be well for my memory that others
should be softened as they thought of me' (264), there can hardly be
any doubt that Dickens designed her as a shrew. If she is not the most
unpleasant character in the book, she is certainly the most unpleasant
mother-figure in all of Dickens's novels for never showing even a spark
of the natural affection of loving care that Dickens suggests every child
needs to grow up to be balanced mature man.
Mrs. Joe is understandably discontented, but nog rightly so. Being self-
absorbed, she goes in for superficialities, like Pip, and fails to recognize
Joe's depth, his kindness, innate goodness and genuine humility. Mrs. Joe
and young Pip find Joe dull and stupid, and only when Pip has been defeated
by his ambitious dreams, does he wistfully recognize in Joe his own lost
innocence. Yet the undisguised resentment is too vivid for Pip (or Dickens)
t0 realize how much he immolates Mrs. Joe to his own feelings of guilt and
dissatisfaction.
One cannot help feeling that, while reliving his youth through Pip,
Dickens's resentment towards his mother, for failing him when he needed
her most, had reached a new pitchA5)It was perhaps intensified after
his own marital breakdown, when he accused his own wife of being a careless
mother. He is no longer mildly ridiculing her in the scatterbrained
Mrs. Nickleby and the childlike but lovable Mrs. Copperfield.
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