character sketch of Mr Joe mother
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Mrs. Joe is an important one. First, she provides some much-needed comic relief in a novel that is often bleak and dark. The very notion of having a beating-stick with a name like 'Tickler' is, if awful, kind of funny. So is her extreme anger. For example, when she gets really furious, Mrs. Joe attacks her house in a cleaning rampage, as seen in Chapter 12. The angrier she is, the harder she cleans. The image of Mrs. Joe taking out her anger with a scrub brush is a comical one.
Another comical episode happens when Mrs. Joe's curiosity gets the better of her, after Pip has first visited Miss Havisham in Chapter 9. Along with Mr. Pumblechook, Mrs. Joe fires question after question at Pip, wanting to know everything. Pip starts to invent outrageous lies about his time with Miss Havisham, and Mrs. Joe believes every word he says. Her gullibility is so extreme that it's laughable.
Mrs. Joe also strikes an amusing figure in Chapter 13, when she walks Pip into town on his way to Miss Havisham's. Mrs. Joe is carrying many of her belongings - a shawl, a basket, some galoshes, an umbrella - in an attempt to show what wealth she has accumulated. She comes across as silly and self-important, and Pip compares her to Cleopatra displaying her treasures.
Beyond comic relief, though, Mrs. Joe is also important in that she helps define Joe as a character. Everything that she is, Joe is the opposite. She is dark and thin and unattractive; he is fair and strong and handsome. She is a punishing, angry tyrant; he is compassionate and good. Joe is extremely important in that he is Pip's ultimate father figure to whom Pip returns at the novel's end. Mrs. Joe provides the practical means for Joe to become this father figure, since he is her husband and she is Pip's mother figure. Without that connection, Joe would not be part of Pip's life.
Another comical episode happens when Mrs. Joe's curiosity gets the better of her, after Pip has first visited Miss Havisham in Chapter 9. Along with Mr. Pumblechook, Mrs. Joe fires question after question at Pip, wanting to know everything. Pip starts to invent outrageous lies about his time with Miss Havisham, and Mrs. Joe believes every word he says. Her gullibility is so extreme that it's laughable.
Mrs. Joe also strikes an amusing figure in Chapter 13, when she walks Pip into town on his way to Miss Havisham's. Mrs. Joe is carrying many of her belongings - a shawl, a basket, some galoshes, an umbrella - in an attempt to show what wealth she has accumulated. She comes across as silly and self-important, and Pip compares her to Cleopatra displaying her treasures.
Beyond comic relief, though, Mrs. Joe is also important in that she helps define Joe as a character. Everything that she is, Joe is the opposite. She is dark and thin and unattractive; he is fair and strong and handsome. She is a punishing, angry tyrant; he is compassionate and good. Joe is extremely important in that he is Pip's ultimate father figure to whom Pip returns at the novel's end. Mrs. Joe provides the practical means for Joe to become this father figure, since he is her husband and she is Pip's mother figure. Without that connection, Joe would not be part of Pip's life.
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