| Great Expectations examines whether certain seemingly conflicting elements are reconcilable:money and human affection, fantasy and reality in romantic love, as well as disinterested virtue and worldly pleasure. Pip demonstrates a propensity to go to extremes in various aspects of life. He is in potential danger of overlooking human affection in his genteel lifestyle based on money; in the realm of romantic love, obsessed with fantasy, he is prone to losing sight of reality; burdened with unarticulated moral pressure from Joe and Biddy, he almost relinquishes his heart’s desire. It is through his friendship with Herbert Pocket that these conflicting forces are reconciled. A character of light weight as he is, Herbert is indispensible in Pip’s inner maturing process, for he provides Pip with an alternative way to deal with monetary bondage, love trouble and moral burden. Inspired by Herbert, Pip becomes increasingly aware that monetary relationship can be blended with genuine human affection, that love and marriage should be rational instead of fantasized, and that he does not need to be bound to excessive moral debt. With Herbert’s constant assistance, Pip becomes truly free in the end:free from being reduced to a puppet of his great expectations, free to pursue commonness instead of loftiness, and free to choose a way of life truly congenial to him.Herbert Pocket, as Pip’s foil in Great Expectations, receives far less attention than he deserves, which is understandable because Herbert is a character of light weight in the novel. Unlike Magwitch and Joe, Herbert plays no essential part in plot development. Most of the time, he is a patient listening ear, offering counsel and companionship without bringing about drastic changes in Pip’s story. However, plain as he is, Herbert plays a significant role in Pip’s inward growth. As an embodiment of Humean "middle station of life", he points toward an alternative path of initiation that leads to commonness instead of loftiness, characterized by moderate fulfillment of material desire without jeopardizing human affection, a rational attitude toward love and marriage, and the blending of moral pursuit and worldly pleasure. Herbert is the one that Pip is spontaneously identified with, one that becomes financially related to Pip but manages to maintain their intimate friendship, and imposes no moral or emotional burden on him.According to Franco Moretti, English fictional heroes are often characterized by commonness. They represent a "class in the middle", which offers a "universal negation to social and cultural extremes" (Moretti 191). Though often associated with obscurity and vulgarity, commonness conveys a notion of equality, and thus is "an essential component of a democratic culture" (191). In the social realm, commonness denotes a middle station of life, a term put forward by David Hume to refer to the middle ground between "the Great" and "the Poor" (Hume 550). Situated between the hedonistic leisurely lifestyle of the upper class and the extreme deprivation of the lower class, commonness signifies a moderately affluent living condition that incorporates leisure enjoyment with necessity of sustenance and motive of ambition. In the cultural realm, commonness indicates a middle path between degradation and sublimity. Moretti cites Tom Jones as an exemplar of the common English hero, suggesting that his modest means of living and ordinary personality are desirable, correspondent with a culture that "thrives on universalistic and standardized values" instead of placing too much emphasis on uniqueness or heroism (192). Pip’s initial rejection of commonness results in his catastrophic disillusionment, and through his friendship with Herbert, he finally embraces commonness in material life, romantic love and moral consciousness.Pip-Herbert friendship enriches the former’s understanding of commonness. enables him to enjoy worldly pleasures that belong to the middle station of life, and embrace such common qualities as tenderness, independence and rationality. Initially, Pip dismisses commonness in material life and romantic love:he is willing to live a leisurely, parasitic life on an unearned fortune supposedly coming from the upper middle class, and pictures himself as a knight fighting for the love of a beautiful lady. As a consequence. Pip almost becomes a puppet of the domineering Magwitch who seeks to defy his criminal background by making a gentleman out of money, and is rendered heartbroken by Estella who is an unattainable target of fantasized love incapable of providing consolation. With Herbert’s non-judgmental assistance. Pip develops human tenderness to Magwitch. and forms a rational understanding of love and marriage. Moreover. Herbert offers Pip the option of moral commonness, so that Pip does not have to return to Joe and Biddy, both of whom are role models that point toward pure innocence without trying to address Pip’s real needs. Herbert supplies Pip with consolation and guidance in the world of experience, conducts rational deliberation with Pip on an equal basis and in a cordial manner, learns about Pip’s attitudes, desires and anxieties instead of projecting his own wishes and expectations upon Pip, and stands by Pip whatever life choices the latter makes.The novel’s characterization of Herbert reflects Dickens’ ambivalence about commonness, a notion that connotes both the freedom to remain ordinary and the lack of spiritual loftiness. Not only does Herbert represent the merits of the Victorian gentleman such as thrift, considerateness and open-mindedness, he also embodies some of its demerits, such as vain delicacy and lack of self-discipline. This is why Dickens, as an enthusiast of moral fable, cannot place Herbert at the moral center of the novel. Nevertheless, despite Herbert’s imperfections, he provides invaluable guidance in Pip’s maturing process from guilty bewilderment to true inner peace based upon free choice and a clear conscience. Pip-Herbert friendship reconciles conflicting forces and points toward a lifestyle characterized by delightful commonness and true contentedness, which is the ideal outcome for an English fictional hero according to Franco Moretti’s observation. |
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