Blog Entry 2

Estella is the beautiful young girl who lives with Miss Havisham. Pip views Estella as an angel from above, because she is so beautiful. Charles Dickens chose to name the beautiful girl "Estella" for the reason that her looks and name match up to that of an angel. In the book, Estella is repeatedly described as "the prettiest girl" Pip has ever seen, and is noted for her "pretty brown hair" (pg. 60, 64). Pip seems to see her as something so pretty, that she isn't from our world, and this might be because she is from a different world. Not literally, but in the sense that their lives are so vastly different. The word "stella" means "star" and in Latin, "e" means "from, or out of". The word "Estella" could then be easily translated into "from the stars". In this way of thinking, Dickens had Estella, Pip's angel, have her name as from the stars. Angels are often referred to as from the stars or the heavens, so Dickens was setting Estella up to be as pretty as an angel when he named her.

Blog Entry 1- Joe

“'It were a bit lonesome then,' said Joe, 'living here alone, and I got acquainted with your sister. Now, Pip;' Joe looked firmly at me, as if he knew I was not going to agree with him; 'your sister is a fine figure of a woman.'"

Joe the blacksmith often has to talk himself into things, he wants to believe things that aren't necessarily true, and more importantly wants to convince Pip that they are true.  In this instance, Pip and Joe are sitting by the fire together and Joe is telling Pip about his life.  Joe talks about how he was beaten as a child by an abusive father, and how when he met Mrs. Joe (Joe's wife and Pip's sister/guardian) he welcomed Pip into his home.  Joe then tells Pip that Mrs. Joe is "a fine figure of a woman".  We can see that Joe is trying to convince Pip that his sister is "a fine woman" because of the way Joe "looks firmly" at Pip,  as if to stop him from protesting so he isn't allowed to argue the point.  The fact that he is aware that other people don't agree with him about Mrs. Joe, suggests that he might not believe what he is saying about his wife.  I think he feels like he should feel that way about her because he talks about how lonely he was without her.  And how as he became used to her, he felt less lonely, which means he  didn't necessarily love her, he just liked her around.  I feel like because of this, Joe wants to convince himself, and Pip, that he thinks of Mrs. Joe as a wonderful, fine figure of a woman.

First Post

Hey Mr. T and class.
This is my first post.
Ok... bye.