CHAPTER 28 Practice Quiz — Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: CHAPTER 28
Where does Pip decide to stay when he returns to his hometown in Chapter 28?
Pip decides to stay at the Blue Boar inn instead of at Joe's forge, rationalizing that he would be an inconvenience and too far from Miss Havisham's.
Why does Pip decide not to bring the Avenger on his trip home?
Pip fears that Trabb's boy might mock the Avenger in the High Street, or that Miss Havisham might hear of the servant and disapprove.
Who are the unexpected passengers on Pip's coach?
Two convicts in handcuffs and leg-irons, being transported to the dockyards, accompanied by a gaoler armed with pistols and a bludgeon.
How does Pip recognize one of the convicts on the coach?
Pip recognizes him by his "half-closed eye" as the man who gave him two one-pound notes at the Three Jolly Bargemen years earlier.
What do the convicts discuss that Pip overhears during the coach ride?
They discuss how the recognized convict was asked by a fellow prisoner to find a boy and deliver two one-pound notes to him, confirming the link to Magwitch and young Pip.
How does Pip avoid being identified by the convicts when they reach town?
Pip retrieves his portmanteau from the boot and slips off the coach at the first lamp on the town pavement, before the convicts can hear his name.
What does Pip find in the newspaper at the Blue Boar?
A local newspaper article claims that Pumblechook is Pip's "earliest patron, companion, and friend" and the "founder" of his fortunes.
What does Pip's decision to avoid Joe's forge reveal about his character?
It reveals his growing snobbery and capacity for self-deception. Pip admits he is manufacturing excuses but proceeds anyway, showing how deeply his shame about his origins has taken hold.
How is the gaoler (keeper) characterized in this chapter?
The gaoler is on friendly terms with the convicts, standing beside them casually "as if the convicts were an interesting Exhibition not formally open at the moment, and he the Curator."
Why is Herbert's farewell — "Good-bye, Handel!" — significant as the coach departs?
Pip is relieved that Herbert uses the nickname "Handel" rather than "Pip," since the convicts might have connected the name Pip to the boy they were discussing.
How does the choleric gentleman on the coach react to the convicts?
He flies into a violent passion, calling it "poisonous and pernicious and infamous and shameful" to be mixed with "such villainous company," but is eventually forced to accept the situation.
What is Pumblechook's role in this chapter?
Though he does not appear in person, a newspaper article credits him as Pip's patron and the founder of his fortunes — a self-serving, false claim that satirizes provincial self-importance.
How does Chapter 28 illustrate the theme of the inescapability of the past?
Despite Pip's transformation into a gentleman, the convict world literally follows him onto the coach. The overheard conversation about the two pound notes collapses the distance between his old life and his new one.
How does Pip's self-deception at the start of the chapter connect to the novel's theme of social pretension?
Pip knowingly manufactures excuses to avoid Joe, comparing himself to a counterfeiter passing forged coins. His awareness of his own dishonesty yet inability to stop it shows how social ambition corrupts genuine feeling.
What does the class divide on the coach symbolize in this chapter?
The angry gentleman's fury at sharing space with convicts, and the convicts' dehumanizing treatment, reflect the rigid class hierarchy of Victorian England — a system Pip has now entered from the bottom.
How does the Pumblechook newspaper article reinforce the theme of false identity?
Just as Pip hides behind manufactured excuses and a new name, Pumblechook fabricates a false narrative as Pip's patron. Both demonstrate how social ambition encourages people to create dishonest versions of themselves.
What is the extended metaphor Dickens uses to describe Pip's self-deception?
Dickens compares Pip's rationalizations to counterfeiting — passing forged coins and nutshells disguised as banknotes on himself, emphasizing that the worst swindlers are those who deceive themselves.
How does dramatic irony function in the convict scene?
Pip overhears evidence pointing to Magwitch as his benefactor but cannot grasp its significance because he still believes Miss Havisham is his patroness. The reader understands more than Pip does.
What sensory imagery does Dickens use to convey the convict's presence?
Pip feels the convict's breathing "like being touched in the marrow with some pungent and searching acid," and the convicts carry "that curious flavour of bread-poultice, baize, rope-yarn, and hearthstone."
How does Dickens use satire in the Pumblechook newspaper paragraph?
The overwrought, bombastic prose style of the article — with its classical allusions to Telemachus and Quintin Matsys — mocks provincial journalism and Pumblechook's inflated self-importance.
What does "portmanteau" mean in the context of this chapter?
A portmanteau is a large traveling bag or suitcase, typically made of stiff leather and opening into two equal halves. Pip retrieves his from the boot of the coach.
What does "choleric" mean as used to describe the angry gentleman?
Choleric means easily angered or bad-tempered. The choleric gentleman flies into a rage at the prospect of sharing his coach seat with convicts.
What are "nutshells" in Pip's self-deception metaphor?
In Pip's metaphor, nutshells represent worthless substitutes passed off as valuable banknotes. Pip says he folds up his own nutshells (false excuses) and accepts them as genuine reasons.
What does Pip mean by: "All other swindlers upon earth are nothing to the self-swindlers"?
Pip argues that no external con artist is as effective as the person who deceives himself. He recognizes that his excuses for avoiding Joe are self-generated lies he willingly accepts as truth.
What is the significance of the convict's description of the marshes: "Mudbank, mist, swamp, and work; work, swamp, mist, and mudbank"?
This chiastic description reduces the marshes to a bleak, repetitive cycle, reflecting the dehumanizing monotony of convict labor. It also evokes the landscape of Pip's own childhood, linking convict suffering to his origins.