Re: Mr Jaggers
Mitsuharu Matsuoka (matsuoka@LANG.NAGOYA-U.AC.JP)
Tue, 18 Nov 1997 10:50:32 +0900
>>Dear Sir,
>>
>>Why did Jaggers seem so eager to show his guests his house maid's wrists?
>>
>>Yours faithfully,
>>
>>Eloise Perry
For Mr. Jaggers and his chief clerk Wemmick, the human relationship of
which they can approve is between man and his possessions. The greatest
pleasure, however, is not in possessing things but in governing people.
Wemmick seems to describe his employer's character exactly to Pip: "He'd
have all he could get" (194, The Oxford Illustrated Dickens), but Mr.
Jaggers is actually interested in control or "given to government" (44)
like Mrs. Joe. As might be expected of a lawyer, Mr. Jaggers has a
penetrating insight into human motives - the insight through which he can
govern people through their secrets and weaknesses. His forefinger is
accentuated to represent the power of his government of people. Like Tom
Thumb, his finger is all the more distinguished by its latent power because
of its smallness in relation to the whole body. By cross-examining him Mr.
Jaggers causes the confusion of Wopsle, who has so far reigned over a group
at the Three Jolly Bargemen. He directs his forefinger at Wopsle, thus
"taking possession of Mr. Wopsle, as if he had a right to him" (127).
Furthermore, Pip sees him showing his power over the murderess Molly,
"coolly tracing out the sinews with his forefinger" (203). Complete
familiarity with her past secrets enables him to control her as "a wild
beast tamed" (190). Molly's wrists express power and violence; she
murdered by strangling another woman, and Mr. Jaggers can manipulate her
with a finger. The imagery of hands is a significant element in the
narrative of _Great Expectations_; William A. Cohen, for instance, explores
Dickens's use of the hand motif. William A. Cohen, "Manual Conduct in
Great Expectations" _ELH_ 60.1 (1993) 217-59.
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Mitsuharu Matsuoka
Nagoya University, Japan
matsuoka@lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp
http://lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/
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