Ode on a Grecian URL

As you work through the logic and structure your second essay, the most important thing you can do is make sure that you are

1. Identifying subtleties in the language and form of the text that a casual reader would have missed, and
2. Connecting those subtleties to one of the larger themes and, ultimately, the larger question or problem of that text.

Those can be difficult instructions to follow if you're unsure what constitutes a sufficiently close reading, or a sufficiently close connection between a close reading and textual themes.

Here are two wonderful hebdomadals from two weeks ago that are right on target in both their close readings and their thematic analysis.

This first hebdomadal is from Lydia (313):

Card games appear in both Jane Austen�s Pride and Prejudice and Charles Dickens' Great Expectations as a social interaction with many layers of innuendo, differing between books, but there nonetheless. Austen uses card games for brilliant dialogue between Elizabeth and Caroline, but Dickens employs it to show more emotionally charged moments between Estella and Pip. Cards are a great way to involve more than one character in a key moment because of the competitive circumstances and social settings the games are played in. In comparing the scenes of both books I am amazed at the similarities between the reasons for each conversation between the characters involved. In Elizabeth and Caroline's conversation there is no small amount of malice that Caroline directs toward Elizabeth in the form of praise of her intensive reading, but she is belittling her in hopes making her fall from Darcy's admiration. Between Pip and Estella, Estella is taking the same tactic but for different reasons. She doesn't care if Miss Havisham likes Pip or whether anyone sees her treatment of him, she just wants to make sure he knows he is beneath her. So in that context both card games are used to injure the main character, and seemingly tell them their 'place' in the world but the reasons behind each assault is where we can truly see the difference in perspective of the respective books.

Austen wants the reader to understand that while Caroline views Elizabeth as a rival for Darcy's affections, she in no way believes Elizabeth to be her equal in any other way. She uses the setting of a card game to further illustrate that Elizabeth is outside the metaphorical circle of play, and therefore out of their circle of acquaintance.

On the other hand, Dickens shows Estella for the proud, heartless being she is from the very beginning by the definite wording of how she throws down her cards at the end of the game. "She threw the cards down on the table when she had won them all, as if she despised them for having been won of me." (chapter viii, page 60). Through this dramatic wording and intense visual picture you get of Estella, your initial impression of her is imprinted and my thoughts are that you will not improve your opinion as the book continues, and you understand that this book is not so much about Pip knowing that Estella doesn�t like him, but once again making sure he knows his place. Dickens shows you from early on that this book is not so much about outside relationships but more a personal battle Pip fights to
find himself.

It is in that difference that you find the contrast between the two works of literature, and their meaning and purpose to the reader.

This second essay is by Scott (313):

Pip describes the geography of his home town, Kent, after he introduces the story of his parents and his name while at the church cemetery. Pip lives in the town of Kent in the marsh county near a river that meets up with the sea. According to the novel's explanatory notes, it was based on Charles Dickens' own childhood memories of Chatham. Pip's "village" is located "on the flat inshore among the alder-trees and pollards, a mile from the church," and Pip describes the marshes as "the dark, flat wilderness beyond the churchyard�with scattered cattle feeding on it." (4) The layout of this town can be interpreted as a metaphor for the emotional and social position of Pip within the town and within his own family.

When describing his home town, it seems like Pip emphasizes natural rather than manmade features of the area. Pip chooses to put the town into the context of the river, wilderness, marshes, and trees rather than choosing buildings such as houses, schools, stores, community centers, and other features common to a town. This is probably due to the fact that Pip is not well-connected to the people of the town, knowing more about the town's physical features than the people who inhabit it.

The only building that Pip refers to when initially telling the reader about the town is the church where he is presently located. He uses the church as a main reference point when telling about the town. It is significant that Pip tells his audience the geography of the town relative to the church because Pip feels more attached to the place where his parents are buried than where he actually lives. Pip doesn't even mention where he lives until the convict asks him. The church appears isolated from the rest of the town with wilderness and cattle-feeding grounds surrounding it. Just like the church is physically isolated from the town, Pip is emotionally isolated from family and society. It is also fitting that the church is overgrown with nettle, a poisonous weed, because Pip is a poisonous weed to society, being overwhelmingly unwanted and an occasional liar and thief. Pip even believes his sister assumes he "insisted on being born" (23).

The placement of Pip�s house in Kent is symbolic of his place in society. Mr. Pumblechoock lives on the "high street of the market town," and Miss Havisham lives nearby in the Satis house, near a brewery (52). The Pumblechoocks and Ms. Havisham live closer to commerce and industry of the town than Pip does, and are also more socially connected than Pip and the Gargerys. Pip lives among "alder
trees and pollards" in an area that Pip mentions more natural than civilized characteristics. Pip's apparent isolation from society symbolizes his emotional isolation from the world as an orphan. The Satis House is located at a higher elevation than Pip's house, and Miss Havisham and the Pumblechoocks are higher up in social status than the Gargerys. When Pip had to walk up elevation to go to Miss Havisham's house, he was moving both physically and socially upward. Charles Dickens strategic use of geography symbolizes the emotional and social states of the characters within his novel.