CHAPTER 24 Practice Quiz — Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: CHAPTER 24
What does Mr. Pocket tell Pip about his intended career?
Mr. Pocket explains that Jaggers told him Pip is not designed for any profession and simply needs to hold his own with the average of young men in prosperous circumstances.
Why does Pip want to keep his room at Barnard's Inn?
Pip wants to keep his Barnard's Inn room because living there would agreeably vary his life while Herbert's society would benefit his manners.
How much money does Jaggers authorize for Pip's furniture?
Jaggers authorizes twenty pounds, arrived at through an uncomfortable negotiation where he starts at fifty, drops to five, then walks Pip up to "four times five."
What does Wemmick show Pip in Jaggers's office?
Wemmick shows Pip plaster death-mask casts of two celebrated criminal clients — one a murderer and the other a forger suspected of also killing his victims.
How many clerks work in Jaggers's office?
There are only four people total in the office: Wemmick and three clerks. Wemmick explains that people want Jaggers himself, not second-hand service.
Where does Wemmick invite Pip to visit?
Wemmick invites Pip to visit him at his home in Walworth, offering a bed and promising to show him some curiosities and his garden with a summer-house.
What does Pip witness at the police court at the end of the chapter?
Pip watches Jaggers dominate a crowded police court, terrifying magistrates and witnesses alike. Pip cannot even tell which side Jaggers is on.
How does Pip describe Matthew Pocket as a tutor?
Pip says Pocket was zealous and honourable in fulfilling his duties, which inspired Pip to be equally committed. He never found anything ludicrous about Pocket in his role as tutor.
What is Wemmick's "guiding star" philosophy?
Wemmick's guiding star is "Get hold of portable property." He collects mourning rings, brooches, and other items from condemned clients, viewing them as curiosities and valuable assets.
How does Wemmick describe Jaggers's professional manner?
Wemmick says Jaggers is "as deep as Australia" and compares him to someone who sets a man-trap and watches it until it goes "click" and catches someone.
Describe the three clerks Pip meets in Jaggers's office.
The first looks like something between a publican and a rat-catcher, gathering evidence for the Bailey. The second is a flabby "smelter" in excessive perspiration. The third has a face-ache tied up in dirty flannel and copies the other two's notes.
What hint does Wemmick give Pip about Jaggers's housekeeper?
Wemmick tells Pip to "look at his housekeeper" when dining with Jaggers, calling her "a wild beast tamed" and saying it will not lower Pip's opinion of Jaggers's powers.
How does the money negotiation scene reflect the theme of social class?
Pip's inability to confidently name a price for his furniture reveals his inexperience with financial matters that a true gentleman would handle easily, exposing the gap between his aspirations and his actual social education.
How does Chapter 24 connect wealth to the criminal world?
The death masks, mourning rings, and stories of murderers and forgers in Jaggers's office demonstrate that respectable wealth and criminal profit are deeply intertwined — foreshadowing the source of Pip's own fortune.
What does Wemmick's portable property philosophy suggest about materialism?
Wemmick's open embrace of collecting valuables from condemned clients presents a frank, unsentimental materialism that parallels and parodies Pip's own pursuit of gentlemanly wealth and status.
How does Mr. Pocket contrast with Mr. Jaggers in this chapter?
Pocket represents genuine integrity and mutual respect in education, while Jaggers embodies manipulation and professional dominance. The contrast highlights two very different models of authority Pip encounters in London.
What literary device does Dickens use when describing Jaggers's boots?
Dickens uses personification: Jaggers's "great bright creaking boots" seem to laugh "in a dry and suspicious way," extending his intimidating personality to his very clothing.
How does Dickens create dark humor through Wemmick?
Wemmick cheerfully addresses the death-mask casts as though they were old friends, saying things like "You liked your bit of game, didn't you?" — treating executed criminals with casual, affectionate familiarity.
What simile does Dickens use to describe Wemmick eating?
Dickens describes Wemmick throwing pieces of biscuit into his "slit of a mouth" as if he were "posting them" — like dropping letters into a mail slot — making his eating mechanical and comic.
What foreshadowing appears in this chapter?
Wemmick's mysterious instruction to observe Jaggers's housekeeper at dinner foreshadows the later revelation about Molly, and the criminal atmosphere of Jaggers's office foreshadows the convict source of Pip's expectations.
What does "acquiesced" mean in context when Pip says "I acquiesced, of course"?
Acquiesced means accepted or agreed without protest. Pip passively goes along with the plan for his education because he knows nothing to the contrary.
What does Wemmick mean by calling a clerk a "smelter"?
A smelter melts metals. Wemmick uses it to describe a clerk who can forge or fabricate documents, saying the man "would melt me anything I pleased" — a dark joke about criminal services.
What does "apostrophizing" mean in the context of Wemmick addressing the death masks?
Apostrophizing means speaking directly to an absent or imaginary person (or object). Wemmick addresses the plaster casts of dead criminals as if they could hear him.
Who says "it's not personal; it's professional: only professional" and what does it mean?
Wemmick says this to Pip about Jaggers's intimidating manner. It means Jaggers deliberately cultivates confusion and control as a legal strategy, not because he personally dislikes anyone.
What is the significance of Jaggers saying "Now I have got you!" in the courtroom?
This phrase captures Jaggers's predatory approach to law. Whether someone makes or refuses an admission, Jaggers turns it into a trap, embodying Wemmick's earlier image of him as someone who sets a man-trap and waits for the click.