What happens in Chapter XXIII of Great Expectations?
Pip arrives at the Pocket household and meets Mr. Pocket, a young-looking man who seems perpetually distracted, and his wife Belinda, who had been raised to expect a titled husband but instead married Mr. Pocket. He is shown to his room and introduced to the other lodgers: the sullen Drummle and the younger Startop. It becomes clear that the household is mostly managed by the servants, who enjoy good meals and socialize downstairs while the Pockets appear ineffectual. Pip learns from Herbert that Mr. Pocket attended Harrow and Cambridge, but after marrying young, he took up the role of a "Grinder" for students before drifting into literary work in London. During dinner, the sycophantic neighbor Mrs. Coiler flatters Pip and commiserates with Mrs. Pocket about her unmet aristocratic expectations. Drummle is revealed to be the heir to a baronetcy, which pleases Mrs. Pocket immensely. When the cook misplaces the beef, Mr. Pocket reacts with his usual gesture of trying to pull himself up by his own hair. After dinner, nurses Flopson and Millers bring in the children; Mrs. Pocket almost lets the baby hurt itself with nut-crackers until little Jane steps in, leading to an angry reprimand from Mrs. Pocket and a frustrated outburst from Mr. Pocket. In the evening, Pip goes rowing on the river with Drummle and Startop, where a rowing instructor tells him he has "the arm of a blacksmith." The night concludes with the discovery that the cook is drunk on the kitchen floor, hiding a bundle of butter for sale, and Mrs. Pocket blames the housemaid Sophia for causing trouble. Mr. Pocket then collapses on the sofa "in the attitude of the Dying Gladiator" as he bids Pip good night.
Analysis
This chapter humorously highlights the clumsiness of domestic life, focusing on the absurd rather than dramatic situations. Dickens uses a close first-person perspective, with Pip as the confused newcomer, to show the Pocket household as a place where servants have taken full control, and social pretension has replaced common sense.
The main comedic aspect is Mr. Pocket's unique gesture: whenever chaos reigns, he thrusts his hands into his disheveled hair, seemingly trying to pull himself up by it. This gesture recurs throughout the chapter, serving as a visual refrain that marks each new peak of absurdity and domestic disarray.
Mrs. Pocket represents the theme of aristocratic delusion inherited from her grandfather's false claim to nobility. Her book of titles, her conversations with Drummle about baronetcies, and her defense of the drunken cook—who "felt I was born to be a Duchess"—show how this delusion poses a genuine threat to those around her, especially during the nut-cracker scene.
Dickens contrasts Mrs. Pocket's overwhelming dignity with little Jane's practical skills, making Jane the most competent family member. Mrs. Coiler is described as a "serpentine" flatterer, with her physical traits ("snaky and fork-tongued") highlighting her moral emptiness. The chapter wraps up with Mr. Pocket in "the attitude of the Dying Gladiator," a mock-heroic image that captures his powerless, defeated state in his own home.
Key quotes from Chapter XXIII
“He laid down the carving-knife and fork,—being engaged in carving, at the moment,—put his two hands into his disturbed hair, and appeared to make an extraordinary effort to lift himself up by it.”
Pip describes Mr. Pocket's habitual gesture of distress when the cook is announced to have mislaid the beef during dinner.
““Good God!” cried Mr. Pocket, in an outbreak of desolate desperation. “Are infants to be nut-crackered into their tombs, and is nobody to save them?””
Mr. Pocket cries out after Mrs. Pocket scolds little Jane for removing the nut-crackers from the baby's hands.
“Still in that attitude he said, with a hollow voice, “Good night, Mr. Pip,” when I deemed it advisable to go to bed and leave him.”
The chapter's final line, describing Mr. Pocket collapsed on the sofa in the pose of the Dying Gladiator after the revelation about the drunken cook.
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