CHAPTER 8 Practice Quiz — Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: CHAPTER 8
Where does Pip spend the night before visiting Miss Havisham?
Pip stays at Mr. Pumblechook's house, a corn-chandler and seedsman in the market town.
What does Mr. Pumblechook subject Pip to during breakfast?
Pumblechook drills Pip with relentless arithmetic questions while eating bacon and hot rolls himself, giving Pip minimal food.
Who opens the gate at Satis House and refuses to admit Mr. Pumblechook?
Estella, a proud and pretty young girl with keys in her hand, admits Pip but bars Pumblechook from entering.
What card game do Pip and Estella play in Chapter 8?
They play Beggar My Neighbour, the only card game Pip knows. Estella wins and beggars him.
What does Estella mock Pip for during the card game?
She mocks him for calling knaves "Jacks," for having coarse hands, and for wearing thick boots.
What does Pip do after Estella brings him food in the courtyard?
Humiliated by her contemptuous treatment, Pip hides behind a gate in the brewery lane and cries, kicking the wall and pulling his hair.
What terrifying vision does Pip see in the abandoned brewery?
He sees a hallucination of Miss Havisham's figure hanging by the neck from a wooden beam, dressed in yellow-white with one shoe, but it vanishes when he approaches.
How is Miss Havisham dressed when Pip first meets her?
She wears a faded white bridal gown of satins, lace, and silks, with a long white veil, bridal flowers, and jewels. One shoe is on the table, and the outfit has turned yellow with age.
What does Miss Havisham tell Estella she can do to Pip?
Miss Havisham whispers "You can break his heart," revealing her intention to use Pip as a target for Estella's practiced cruelty.
What does Pip whisper to Miss Havisham when she asks what he thinks of Estella?
He whispers that he thinks Estella is very proud, very pretty, and very insulting, and that he would like to go home.
How does Estella deliver food to Pip in the courtyard?
She puts the mug down on the stones and gives him bread and meat without looking at him, "as insolently as if I were a dog in disgrace."
What does Miss Havisham say when she touches her left side and asks Pip what she is touching?
Pip answers "Your heart," and Miss Havisham replies with a single word: "Broken!" She says it with eager emphasis and a weird, boastful smile.
How does Chapter 8 introduce the theme of social class?
Estella's contempt for Pip's coarse hands, thick boots, and low vocabulary makes him aware of class differences for the first time, causing him to internalize shame about his common origins.
What does Pip's reflection on childhood injustice reveal about his character?
Pip reflects that "there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice," connecting his suffering under Mrs. Joe to his humiliation by Estella and revealing his deep moral sensitivity.
How does the theme of time and decay function in Miss Havisham's room?
Every object is frozen at the moment of Miss Havisham's betrayal—stopped clocks, yellowed dress, unworn shoe—symbolizing her refusal to move past her heartbreak and her choice of living death.
Who does Pip blame for his perceived shortcomings after visiting Satis House?
Pip blames Joe for teaching him to call knaves "Jacks" and wishes Joe had raised him more genteelly, showing how class shame redirects resentment toward innocent loved ones.
What Gothic imagery does Dickens use to describe Miss Havisham?
Dickens compares her to "ghastly waxwork" and "a skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress" dug from a church vault, with her bridal trimmings resembling "earthy paper" and "grave-clothes."
What do the stopped clocks in Satis House symbolize?
The clocks stopped at twenty minutes to nine symbolize Miss Havisham's psychological paralysis—her deliberate freezing of time at the exact moment she was jilted on her wedding day.
What literary technique does Dickens use when Estella's contempt "became infectious, and I caught it"?
This is a metaphor comparing class-based shame to a contagious disease, showing how social contempt is transmitted from the powerful to the powerless.
How does Dickens use irony in Pumblechook's parting words to Pip?
Pumblechook tells Pip to be "a credit unto them which brought you up by hand," which is ironic because Pumblechook himself is rudely rejected, and being "brought up by hand" has been a source of suffering for Pip.
What does "farinaceous" mean in the description of Mr. Pumblechook's shop?
Farinaceous means starchy or flour-like, referring to the grain and seed character of a corn-chandler's premises.
What does "penitential" mean in the context of Pip's upbringing?
Penitential means relating to penance or punishment. Pip's sister imposes a penitential character on his diet and daily life, treating him as if he must constantly atone.
Who says "I want diversion, and I have done with men and women. Play" in Chapter 8?
Miss Havisham says this to Pip, demanding he entertain her. Her claim to have "done with men and women" underscores her withdrawal from human society.
What is the context of Pip's observation that "there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice"?
Pip makes this reflection while crying in the brewery lane after Estella's cruel treatment, connecting his current humiliation to a lifetime of unjust treatment under his sister.
Who says "With this boy! Why, he is a common labouring-boy!"?
Estella says this when Miss Havisham tells her to play cards with Pip, expressing her disdain at being asked to associate with someone of his social standing.