CHAPTER 2 Practice Quiz — Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: CHAPTER 2
What does Joe warn Pip about when he arrives home from the churchyard?
Joe warns Pip that Mrs. Joe has been out looking for him a dozen times and has taken Tickler with her, meaning Pip is in for a beating.
What is Tickler?
Tickler is a wax-ended piece of cane that Mrs. Joe uses to beat Pip, worn smooth from repeated use on his body.
How does Pip save food for the convict during supper?
Pip stuffs his bread-and-butter down the leg of his trousers, comparing the effort to leaping from a rooftop or plunging into deep water.
What does Joe think happened to Pip's bread-and-butter?
Joe thinks Pip swallowed the entire slice in one gulp ("Bolted" it) and is worried it will make him ill.
What does Mrs. Joe give Pip and Joe as medicine?
She doses them with tar-water, a foul-tasting remedy she keeps in the cupboard. Pip gets a full pint and Joe gets half a pint.
What does Pip hear on Christmas Eve that leads him to ask about convicts?
Pip hears cannon fire (great guns), which Joe explains is a signal that a convict has escaped from the prison ships on the marshes.
What does Pip steal from the pantry and forge on Christmas morning?
He steals bread, cheese, mincemeat, brandy, a pork pie from the pantry, and a file from among Joe's tools in the forge.
How is Mrs. Joe physically described in Chapter 2?
She has black hair and eyes, a prevailing redness of skin, is tall and bony, and almost always wears a coarse apron stuck full of pins and needles.
How is Joe Gargery physically and temperamentally described?
Joe is fair with curls of flaxen hair, undecided blue eyes, and is described as mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, and foolish — a Hercules in strength and also in weakness.
What is Mrs. Joe's relationship to Pip?
She is Pip's older sister, more than twenty years his senior, who raised him after their parents died. She constantly reminds everyone of this sacrifice.
How does Pip describe his relationship with Joe?
Pip says they are "fellow-sufferers" who share confidences, and he always treated Joe as "a larger species of child, and as no more than my equal."
What does Mrs. Joe mean when she says criminals "always begin by asking questions"?
She is trying to silence Pip's curiosity about the Hulks, but the statement terrifies him because he has been asking questions all evening and already plans to steal food.
How does Chapter 2 develop the theme of guilt and conscience?
Pip is tormented by his secret promise to steal for the convict, seeing accusatory images in the fireplace coals and imagining himself drifting to the Hulks as a criminal.
How does Mrs. Joe's household reflect the theme of power and abuse?
Mrs. Joe rules through physical force (Tickler) and emotional guilt, controlling both her husband and Pip. Her domestic tyranny mirrors the broader power structures Dickens critiques in the novel.
What role does secrecy play in Chapter 2?
Pip must hide both his encounter with the convict and the bread in his trouser leg. This pattern of concealment becomes a defining element of the novel's larger plot.
How does Chapter 2 introduce the theme of crime and social class?
Pip learns about the Hulks and escaped convicts, then terrifies himself into believing he is already on the path to criminality — connecting childhood disobedience with genuine criminal punishment.
What is the double meaning of "brought up by hand"?
It literally means bottle-fed (not nursed), but Pip interprets it as being raised through physical punishment, since Mrs. Joe has a "hard and heavy hand."
How does Dickens use dark humor in the bread-and-butter scene?
Joe's earnest alarm over Pip's "Bolting" creates comedy from a tense situation, while Mrs. Joe's violent response to a simple misunderstanding heightens the absurdity of the household dynamics.
What foreshadowing appears at the end of Chapter 2?
Pip's nightmare of drifting to the Hulks and hearing a ghostly pirate call out to him foreshadows the novel's deep entanglement with crime, punishment, and the convict Magwitch.
How does Dickens use first-person retrospective narration in this chapter?
Adult Pip narrates his childhood experiences with mature commentary, as when he reflects that "few people know what secrecy there is in the young, under terror."
What does "connubial missile" mean when Pip uses it to describe himself?
It means a marital projectile — Mrs. Joe literally throws Pip at Joe during their domestic quarrel, and Pip wryly notes he "often served" in this role.
What are "the meshes" in Mrs. Joe's speech about the Hulks?
It is the local dialect pronunciation of "marshes" — the marshy wetlands near the Gargery home where the prison ships are moored.
What is tar-water and why does Mrs. Joe administer it?
Tar-water is a folk medicine made from pine tar and water, revived as a cure-all in Dickens's era. Mrs. Joe forces it on Pip and Joe as a general remedy, especially when she believes they have misbehaved.
Who says "you and me is always friends" and in what context?
Joe says this to Pip after noticing his bread has disappeared, trying to gently address the situation without betraying Pip to Mrs. Joe. It shows Joe's loyalty and protectiveness.
What does Pip mean when he says "Conscience is a dreadful thing when it accuses man or boy"?
He reflects on the unbearable weight of his guilty secret — his promise to steal food — made worse by the physical burden of bread hidden in his trouser leg. It captures his tormented state on Christmas Eve.