CHAPTER 17 Practice Quiz — Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: CHAPTER 17
How often does Pip visit Miss Havisham during his apprenticeship?
Once a year, on his birthday. It becomes an annual custom where she gives him a guinea and speaks of Estella in the same way each time.
What does Pip confide to Biddy during their walk on the marshes?
He tells her he wants to be a gentleman, that he is disgusted with his trade and his life, and that he admires Estella dreadfully.
How does Biddy respond when Pip says he wants to be a gentleman?
She advises against it, saying she thinks he is happier as he is. She asks whether he wants gentility to spite Estella or to gain her over, and suggests Estella is not worth gaining.
What does Pip wish he could do regarding Biddy?
He wishes he could fall in love with Biddy instead of Estella, believing it would be the best thing for him. But Biddy tells him decisively that he never will.
Who appears at the churchyard sluice gate as Pip and Biddy walk home?
Orlick starts up from the gate and insists on walking them home, despite being told he is unwanted.
Why is Biddy afraid of Orlick?
She says it is because he likes her—he "dances at me, whenever he can catch my eye," which she finds frightening rather than flattering.
What emotional state does the chapter end with for Pip?
He is trapped in confusion, oscillating between moments of clarity when he sees Biddy and the forge as the better life, and moments when thoughts of Estella and Miss Havisham scatter his resolve.
What changes does Pip notice in Biddy during Chapter 17?
Her shoes come up at the heel, her hair grows bright and neat, her hands are always clean. He also notices she has "curiously thoughtful and attentive eyes" that are very pretty and very good.
How does Biddy learn everything Pip learns without apparent study?
When Pip asks how she keeps up with him, Biddy says she must "catch it—like a cough." She absorbs knowledge effortlessly, including blacksmithing terms and tools, making her theoretically as good a blacksmith as Pip.
What does Biddy remind Pip about their past when he praises her improvement?
She reminds him that she was his first teacher, which surprises Pip and causes Biddy to shed a tear on her needlework.
How is Miss Havisham described during Pip's annual visits?
She is described as a "faded spectre in the chair by the dressing-table glass," unchanged in a room of yellow light with stopped clocks, as though time has frozen in that place.
Who watches over Pip's sister while he and Biddy go walking?
Joe more than readily undertakes the care of Mrs. Joe on that Sunday afternoon so Pip and Biddy can go out together.
What central conflict does Pip experience in Chapter 17?
He is torn between two visions of his future: a contented life with Biddy and Joe at the forge versus his obsessive desire for gentility driven by Estella. He knows the first is wiser but cannot choose it.
How does Chapter 17 explore the theme of self-knowledge without self-mastery?
Pip explicitly recognizes his foolishness, calling himself an "idiot" and a "fool," yet this awareness cannot redirect his heart. He knows Biddy is better than Estella but cannot act on that knowledge.
What does Pip identify as the source of his discontent with life at the forge?
He traces it directly to Estella telling him he was common and coarse. He says he would never have been dissatisfied "if nobody had told me so," showing that his unhappiness is externally imposed rather than natural.
How does the theme of stasis versus change operate in this chapter?
Miss Havisham's house represents frozen time, while the outside world—Biddy's growth, the changing seasons, the sailing ships—moves forward. Pip is caught between these two temporal modes.
How does Dickens use Biddy as a literary foil to Estella?
Biddy is plain, warm, present, and wise, while Estella is beautiful, cold, absent, and cruel. The sunlit marshes of Biddy's scene contrast with the darkened rooms of Satis House, reinforcing the opposition.
What is the effect of retrospective narration in Chapter 17?
The older Pip undercuts his younger self with comments like "I have no doubt, now, that the little I knew was extremely dear at the price," creating dramatic irony as the reader sees truths the young Pip cannot act upon.
What does Orlick rising from the ooze by the sluice gate symbolize?
His emergence from the stagnant ooze associates him with the dark, threatening underside of the marshland, foreshadowing future danger. It contrasts with the flowing river and open sky of Pip and Biddy's walk.
How does Dickens use the stopped clocks as a symbol in this chapter?
The stopped clocks represent the way Miss Havisham's influence freezes Pip's emotional development, keeping him trapped in shame and dissatisfaction while the natural world and people like Biddy continue to grow.
What does "supposititious" mean as used in the chapter?
It means hypothetical or supposed. Dickens uses it to describe Orlick's favorite threatened penalty of being "jiggered" as a "favourite supposititious case"—an imagined punishment with no definite meaning.
What does "capricious" mean in Pip's description of Biddy?
It means given to sudden, unpredictable changes of mood or behavior. Pip says Biddy was never "capricious, or Biddy to-day and somebody else to-morrow," contrasting her steadiness with Estella's inconsistency.
Who says "I must catch it—like a cough" and what does it reveal?
Biddy says this when Pip asks how she learns everything he learns without studying. It reveals her natural intelligence and modesty, as well as her gentle humor.
What is the significance of Biddy saying "Till you're a gentleman" when Pip promises to always confide in her?
It reveals Biddy's quiet understanding that Pip's ambitions will take him away from her. She knows that becoming a gentleman means leaving behind the people and life of the forge.
What does Pip mean when he calls his confession about Estella a "lunatic confession"?
He recognizes that admitting he wants to be a gentleman solely because of a beautiful girl who treated him cruelly is irrational. The word "lunatic" shows his self-awareness about the madness of his obsession.