CHAPTER 19 Practice Quiz — Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: CHAPTER 19
What does Pip do with his apprenticeship indentures at the start of Chapter 19?
Joe brings the indentures from the parlour press and they burn them in the fire together, formally ending Pip's apprenticeship as a blacksmith.
What favour does Pip ask of Biddy before he leaves?
Pip asks Biddy to help improve Joe's learning and manners so that Joe will be better suited when Pip elevates him to a higher social position.
How does Mr. Trabb react when Pip reveals he has come into a handsome property?
Mr. Trabb abandons his breakfast, insists on re-measuring Pip as though he were "an estate," and treats him with exaggerated deference, even ordering his shop boy around with extra severity.
What does Mr. Pumblechook repeatedly ask to do during his lunch with Pip?
Pumblechook repeatedly asks "May I?" — meaning may he shake Pip's hand — doing so dozens of times throughout the meal in an absurd display of sycophancy.
What business proposition does Mr. Pumblechook make to Pip?
Pumblechook suggests Pip become a sleeping partner in his corn and seed trade, investing capital for a fifty percent return — transparently trying to profit from Pip's new fortune.
What does Miss Havisham say to Pip during his farewell visit?
She tells Pip he has a promising career before him and instructs him to "be good — deserve it — and abide by Mr. Jaggers's instructions," then dismisses him with "Good-bye, Pip!"
Where does Pip break down crying on the morning of his departure?
Pip breaks into tears at the finger-post at the end of the village, overwhelmed by the quiet morning and his sudden awareness of how ungrateful he has been to Joe and Biddy.
How does Biddy respond when Pip accuses her of being envious and grudging?
Biddy calmly says she will try to do all in her power to help Joe regardless of Pip's opinion of her, adding quietly that "a gentleman should not be unjust neither."
What does Joe do when Pip falls asleep at the old Battery?
Joe follows Pip to the Battery and sits beside him smoking his pipe, greeting Pip with a cheerful smile when he wakes. He explains simply, "As being the last time, Pip, I thought I'd foller."
How does Sarah Pocket react when she sees Pip in his new clothes?
Sarah Pocket "positively reeled back" and her "walnut-shell countenance" turned "from brown to green and yellow." She stares at Pip throughout his visit, visibly confounded by his transformation.
What false claim does Mr. Pumblechook make about Pip's fortune?
Pumblechook claims to have been "the humble instrument of leading up to this" and says he always predicted Pip's success, telling Pip he had always said "That boy is no common boy."
Why does Pip choose to walk to the coach alone on his departure morning?
Pip is ashamed of the contrast between his new gentlemanly appearance and Joe's humble look, fearing how it would appear if they walked to the coach together in sight of the High Street.
What does the tradespeople's changed behavior toward Pip reveal about a central theme of the novel?
It illustrates the corrupting power of wealth and social class. Trabb, Pumblechook, and others treat Pip with deference only because of his money, showing how financial status distorts human relationships.
How does Chapter 19 explore the theme of ingratitude?
Pip is grateful to Miss Havisham (who he wrongly assumes is his benefactress) while being ungrateful to Joe and Biddy who truly raised him. He only recognizes this when he cries at the finger-post.
What does Biddy's comment about Joe's pride suggest about the nature of true dignity?
It suggests that real dignity lies in competence and self-respect in one's own sphere, not in social climbing. Joe's pride in honest work is presented as more admirable than Pip's ambition for gentility.
Why is Chapter 19 described as the end of "the first stage of Pip's expectations"?
It marks Pip's physical and emotional departure from his childhood world. The first stage establishes Pip's origins, his desire for gentility, and the moral compromises his ambition will demand.
What is ironic about Pip's plan to bestow "a gallon of condescension" on the villagers?
The older narrator uses this phrase with deliberate self-mockery, recognizing that his younger self's charitable impulse was really vanity disguised as generosity — the opposite of true kindness.
How does Dickens use dramatic irony in Miss Havisham's farewell scene?
Miss Havisham neither confirms nor denies being Pip's benefactress, allowing him to believe what he wants. The reader senses her manipulation, but Pip remains completely unaware he is being used.
What do the rising mists symbolize at the end of Chapter 19?
The mists represent both the obscuring of Pip's moral clarity and the gradual unveiling of the unknown world ahead. They echo the marshland mists from Chapter 1, linking Pip's departure to his origins.
What rhetorical device does Dickens use with Pumblechook's repeated "May I?" requests?
Dickens uses comic repetition (also called anaphora in a loose sense) to satirize Pumblechook's sycophancy, escalating the absurdity until Pip notes "it began to be unnecessary to repeat the form."
What are "indentures" in the context of Chapter 19?
Indentures are legal documents binding an apprentice to a master tradesman. Burning them symbolizes the formal end of Pip's apprenticeship to Joe as a blacksmith.
What does "emancipation" mean as Pip uses it after burning his indentures?
Emancipation means liberation or release from bondage. Pip uses it to describe his feeling of freedom after ending his apprenticeship, though Dickens implies his new "freedom" is its own form of bondage.
What is a "collation" as described in Mr. Pumblechook's parlour?
A collation is a light meal or refreshment spread. Pumblechook prepares an elaborate collation of chicken, tongue, and wine to flatter Pip and position himself as a worthy confidant.
Who says "Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears" and what is the context?
The older Pip (as narrator) says this after describing his breakdown at the finger-post. He reflects that tears are "rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts" and felt more gentle afterward.
What does Biddy mean when she says Joe "may be too proud to let any one take him out of a place that he is competent to fill"?
Biddy means that Joe takes genuine pride in being a skilled blacksmith and may not want to be "improved" or elevated to a station that isn't his own, even if Pip thinks it would benefit him.