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Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Book 1, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—People as Tools:
Dickens occasionally employs the motif of associating Joe, Mrs Joe Gargery, and Provis with commonplace household and professional tools. He does this to make a point of their hardscrabble lives and apparently simple personalities, and also to suggest how poor characters might have been viewed by their social superiors at that time. In the second chapter of the novel, Pip introduces his sister by saying she had
such a prevailing redness of skin that I sometimes used to wonder whether it was possible she washed herself with a nutmeg-grater instead of soap.
Related Themes:
Book 1, Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Sharing Food:
There are many scenes involving eating in Great Expectations, all of which carry some emotional weight. Dickens employs the motif of sharing food as a way of measuring the relative degrees of love between characters. For example, in Chapter 8 when the young Estella is asked by Miss Havisham to feed Pip, she humiliates him horribly by bringing
Unlock with LitCharts A+some bread and meat and a little mug of beer. She put the mug down on the stones of the yard, and gave me the bread and meat without looking at me, as insolently as if I were a dog in disgrace. I was so humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry, sorry—I cannot hit upon the right name for the smart—God knows what its name was —that tears started to my eyes.
Related Themes:
Book 2, Chapter 29
Explanation and Analysis—Insects and Decay:
Motifs of partial preservation and decay appear in almost every chapter of Great Expectations, but are often bookended with the vivid descriptions of hordes of insects, multitude of rodents, and colonies of thriving fungi in Satis House. Dickens uses these descriptions to link the natural cycles of life and development in this coming-of-age novel with Miss Havisham's bizarre choice to live in the past. When Pip enters the room where Havisham's wedding feast dries out and rots away, Dickens lavishly describes the skitter and scramble of living pests from the dead table:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I saw it written, as it were, in the falls of the cobwebs from the centre-piece, in the crawlings of the spiders on the cloth, in the tracks of the mice as they betook their little quickened hearts behind the panels, and in the gropings and pausings of the beetles on the floor.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Doubles :
Many critics have noted that Great Expectations is filled with the motif of doubles: characters who mirror each other in a way that allows the reader to note similarity and difference easily. These symmetrical pairs act as foils for each other and for the developing aspects of Pip's character. Each pair also contains a strong element of irony, as the novel's commentary on class structure and good behavior plays out in relation to them.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Sharing Food:
There are many scenes involving eating in Great Expectations, all of which carry some emotional weight. Dickens employs the motif of sharing food as a way of measuring the relative degrees of love between characters. For example, in Chapter 8 when the young Estella is asked by Miss Havisham to feed Pip, she humiliates him horribly by bringing
Unlock with LitCharts A+some bread and meat and a little mug of beer. She put the mug down on the stones of the yard, and gave me the bread and meat without looking at me, as insolently as if I were a dog in disgrace. I was so humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry, sorry—I cannot hit upon the right name for the smart—God knows what its name was —that tears started to my eyes.
Related Themes:
Book 2, Chapter 38
Explanation and Analysis—Manipulation:
Dickens uses the motif of overt manipulation right from the beginning of Great Expectations. For example, in chapter 38, Pip—watching Miss Havisham twist Estella around her finger from the other side of the room at Satis House—queasily reports that:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[...] Keeping Estella’s hand drawn through her arm and clutched in her own hand, she extorted from her [...] the names and conditions of the men whom she had fascinated; [...] I saw from this that Estella was set to wreak Miss Havisham's revenge on men.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Insects and Decay:
Motifs of partial preservation and decay appear in almost every chapter of Great Expectations, but are often bookended with the vivid descriptions of hordes of insects, multitude of rodents, and colonies of thriving fungi in Satis House. Dickens uses these descriptions to link the natural cycles of life and development in this coming-of-age novel with Miss Havisham's bizarre choice to live in the past. When Pip enters the room where Havisham's wedding feast dries out and rots away, Dickens lavishly describes the skitter and scramble of living pests from the dead table:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I saw it written, as it were, in the falls of the cobwebs from the centre-piece, in the crawlings of the spiders on the cloth, in the tracks of the mice as they betook their little quickened hearts behind the panels, and in the gropings and pausings of the beetles on the floor.
Related Themes:
Book 2, Chapter 39
Explanation and Analysis—Clean Money:
Dickens uses the motif of money-counting to describe the relationship between finance and avarice in Great Expectations. Receiving money or having too much of it is regularly linked with eventual guilt and shame. For example, in Chapter 39 Pip attempts to return some money that Provis had sent him from Australia, to an unexpected result. Pip says:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"I was a poor boy then, as you know, and to a poor boy they were a little fortune. But, like you, I have done well since, and you must let me pay them back.” [...] I took out my purse. [...] He watched me as I separated two one-pound notes from its contents. They were clean and new, and I spread them out and handed them over to him. Still watching me, he laid them one upon the other, folded them long-wise, gave them a twist, set fire to them at the lamp, and dropped the ashes into the tray.
Related Themes:
Book 3, Chapter 42
Explanation and Analysis—Doubles :
Many critics have noted that Great Expectations is filled with the motif of doubles: characters who mirror each other in a way that allows the reader to note similarity and difference easily. These symmetrical pairs act as foils for each other and for the developing aspects of Pip's character. Each pair also contains a strong element of irony, as the novel's commentary on class structure and good behavior plays out in relation to them.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—People as Tools:
Dickens occasionally employs the motif of associating Joe, Mrs Joe Gargery, and Provis with commonplace household and professional tools. He does this to make a point of their hardscrabble lives and apparently simple personalities, and also to suggest how poor characters might have been viewed by their social superiors at that time. In the second chapter of the novel, Pip introduces his sister by saying she had
Unlock with LitCharts A+such a prevailing redness of skin that I sometimes used to wonder whether it was possible she washed herself with a nutmeg-grater instead of soap.
Related Themes:
Book 3, Chapter 51
Explanation and Analysis—Partial Truth:
The satirical motif of unpleasant and slippery lawyers upholding unfair, cluttered, and archaic legal systems is common to many of Dickens's novels. Lawyers are not obligated to tell the truth, but Dickens pushes this further, caricaturing them as people who won't disclose anything whatsoever if they can help it. Mr Jaggers, a wealthy and famous lawyer who acts as Pip's guardian and middleman, displays this tendency to equivocate in Chapter 51:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Mr. Jaggers nodded his head retrospectively two or three times, and actually drew a sigh. “Pip,” said he, “we won’t talk about ‘poor dreams;’ you know more about such things than I, having much fresher experience of that kind. But now, about this other matter. I’ll put a case to you. Mind! I admit nothing.”
Related Themes:
