Blog 2- Mr. Jaggers

Mr. Jaggers, a powerful criminal lawyer, rips apart others in his testimony as if he were a jagged edge and leaves others to quiver in his path. Mr. Jaggers is a rich, foreboding man that lives in London and is often described as having a cold and impenetrable exterior. He has a large head, dark complexion, deep set eyes, bushy black eyebrows, and his hands smell very strongly of scented soap. In this scene, Pip gets to see Mr. Jaggers, firsthand in in all of his enormity in the courtroom. He witnesses the fear that Mr. Jaggers instills in the witnesses, judges, convicts, just about anyone he comes in contact with. "If anybody, of whatsoever degree, said a word that he didn't approve of, he instantly required to have it 'taken down.' If anybody wouldn't make an admission, he said, 'I'll have it out of you!' and if anybody made an admission, he said, 'Now I have got you!' the magistrates shivered under a single bite of his finger. Thieves and thieftakers hung in dread rapture on his words, and shrank when a hair of his eyebrows turned in their direction. Which side he was on, I couldn't make out, for he seemed to me to be grinding the whole place in a mill; I only know that when I stole out on tiptoe, he was not on the side of the bench; for, he was making the legs of the old gentleman who presided, quite convulsive under the table, by his denunciations of his conduct as the representative of British law and justice in that chair that day. " (p.202) As you can see, Mr. Jaggers is the jagged edge in the courtroom. He has a very sharp wit about him and he rips and cuts others in his words and even a mere look. It seems like everyone quivers in his presence, almost being deathly afraid of him. If someone says a word that he doesn't approve of, he has it removed immediately. No one dares to stand up to him, thus be cut up by his words. He won't take no for an answer, as he manages to get everything out of everybody. Therefore, Mr. Jaggers is appropriately named because he is the jagged edge that no one wants to go near.

Blog one- Mrs. Joe

Mrs. Joe has been established as a stern and hostile woman through her abuse who often resorts to hitting others. Mrs. Joe, the wife of a blacksmith named Joe and and the sister to Pip runs a strict household. In this scene, Joe, Mrs. Joe and Pip are sitting down to their meal of bread and butter. Joe and Pip usually have a fun little contest when they eat their bread and look at their bite marks, however, Pip is not eating his bread. Pip's bread disappears while Joe isn't looking and Joe questions what happens, thinking that Pip ate it in one bite, causing a problem for Mrs. Joe. She wants to know what is going on and Joe apparently doesn't give her a proper answer, which she demands. “By this time my sister was quite desperate, so she pounced on Joe, and, taking him by the two whiskers, knocked his head for a little while against the wall behind him: while I sat in the corner, looking guiltily on”(p.11). As you can see, Mrs. Joe resorts to abuse when she demands something she wants. This quote shows how she runs her house: intimidating and hitting others others. She wants to know the answer and knocks Joe's head against the wall until he tells her. She is clearly the head of the house, taking control of Joe and Pip. She treats them both like children even though Joe is the male in the house. Both Joe and Pip are inferior to her. But the weird thing is that Joe allows her to abuse and hit them, instead of telling her to stop. This shows how Mrs. Joe is superior to him, proving how she uses abuse to run her household. Therefore, this shows that Mrs. Joe is violent and abusive because of the way she treats others, especially Joe and Pip.