CHAPTER 27 Practice Quiz — Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: CHAPTER 27
Who writes the letter Pip receives at the beginning of Chapter 27?
Biddy writes the letter on Joe Gargery's behalf, informing Pip that Joe will be visiting London and would like to see him at Barnard's Inn.
How does Pip honestly feel about Joe's upcoming visit?
Pip feels "considerable disturbance, some mortification, and a keen sense of incongruity." He admits he would have paid money to keep Joe away.
Who accompanies Joe on his trip to London?
Mr. Wopsle accompanies Joe to London. Wopsle has left the church to pursue acting and is making his theatrical debut in the city.
What is the main message Joe delivers to Pip from Miss Havisham?
Miss Havisham sent word through Pumblechook that Estella has come home and would be glad to see Pip.
What does Joe say about Wopsle's theatrical performance?
Joe says "there certainly were a peck of orange-peel," indicating the audience pelted Wopsle. He also describes the audience rudely shouting "Amen" between Wopsle and the ghost in Hamlet.
What does Joe do just before leaving Pip's chambers?
Joe gently touches Pip on the forehead, then walks out. Pip hurries after him but Joe has already disappeared into the streets.
Does Joe accept Pip's invitation to stay for dinner?
No. Joe firmly refuses both to stay for dinner and to come back later, insisting he must leave immediately after delivering his message.
Who is "the Avenger" and why does Pip employ him?
The Avenger is a servant boy named Pepper whom Pip hired as part of his gentlemanly lifestyle. Pip finds him useless and expensive but keeps him for appearances.
Why is Pip particularly worried about Bentley Drummle seeing Joe?
Pip holds Drummle in contempt yet is most sensitive to Drummle's opinion. Dickens observes that "our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise."
How does Herbert behave toward Joe during the visit?
Herbert is gracious and considerate, presiding over breakfast and suggesting foods Joe might like. However, Pip suspects Herbert would not have been "quite so brisk" if Joe were visiting Herbert instead.
What does Joe's alternation between calling Pip "Sir" and "Pip" reveal?
When Joe feels formal and uncomfortable, he calls Pip "Sir." When genuine affection breaks through, he calls him "Pip." This pattern maps the emotional distance between them throughout the visit.
How does Biddy's letter reveal her understanding of the situation?
Biddy's postscript—"I hope and do not doubt it will be agreeable to see him even though a gentleman"—shows she suspects Pip's new status may make him reluctant to see Joe, while gently appealing to his better nature.
What does Joe mean when he says "life is made of ever so many partings welded together"?
Joe uses blacksmith imagery to express that life consists of separations joined together, and that class divisions are natural. He accepts that he and Pip belong in different worlds without bitterness.
How does Chapter 27 illustrate the theme of appearance versus authenticity?
Pip's decorated rooms, hired servant, and debts represent an elaborate performance of gentility, while Joe's awkwardness in London contrasts with his authentic warmth and moral superiority at the forge.
What does Pip's narrator voice reveal about his self-awareness in this chapter?
The older, narrating Pip judges his younger self harshly, admitting he lacked "the good sense nor the good feeling to know that this was all my fault." This retrospective self-criticism is central to the novel's theme of moral growth.
How does Joe's farewell speech challenge Pip's definition of a gentleman?
Joe's speech demonstrates emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and generosity—qualities of a true gentleman—while Pip, with all his fine trappings, behaves with petty snobbery. Joe's dignity proves worth is independent of class.
What literary device does Dickens use through Joe's hat throughout the chapter?
The hat is a comic symbol (or running motif) of Joe's social displacement. It cannot find a resting place in Pip's rooms, just as Joe himself cannot settle comfortably into London's genteel world.
How does Dickens use dramatic irony in Chapter 27?
The older Pip narrates with full awareness of his younger self's moral failings, creating irony as readers see the gap between young Pip's snobbish behavior and the narrator's self-condemnation.
What role does dialect play as a literary device in this chapter?
Joe's malapropisms ("ekerval," "backerder," "architectooralooral") create comic warmth for the reader while simultaneously embarrassing Pip, highlighting the class divide through language itself.
What does Pip mean by "mortification" when describing his feelings about Joe's visit?
Mortification means a feeling of deep humiliation or shame. Pip feels mortified at the prospect of his humble origins being exposed through Joe's presence in his London lodgings.
What does "incongruity" mean in the context of Pip's reaction to Joe's letter?
Incongruity means a lack of harmony or compatibility between things. Pip feels a "keen sense of incongruity" because Joe's rough manners seem incompatible with Pip's new gentlemanly world.
Who says "one man's a blacksmith, and one's a whitesmith, and one's a goldsmith, and one's a coppersmith" and what does it mean?
Joe says this in his farewell speech. He uses types of metalworkers as a metaphor for social divisions, arguing that such differences are natural and must be accepted gracefully rather than resisted.
What is the significance of Pip's observation that "our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise"?
This self-reflective line reveals that Pip's snobbery toward Joe is driven by fear of Drummle's judgment—someone Pip holds in contempt. It exposes the irrational, self-destructive nature of social pretension.
What does Joe mean when he says "I'm wrong in these clothes. I'm wrong out of the forge, the kitchen, or off th' meshes"?
Joe acknowledges that he is out of place in London and in formal clothes. He belongs at his forge, in his kitchen, or on the marshes—and he wants Pip to remember him in those authentic settings rather than judging him here.