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Joe is Pip's Mother
Oct. 9th, 2010 10:59 pmI had Great Expectations on the brain today.
Over the years I have often pondered how hard it is to define the relationship between Pip and Joe. Joe is his brother-in-law, but they don't behave like that. Joe is old enough to be his father, but they don't behave like that. Uncle? Mentor? None of it fits.
It's doubtless a measure of how long ago I became acquainted with Great Expectations that it never occurred to me to think across gender lines. I'm pretty sure I'd have gotten this sooner if I'd come fresh to the novel these days. Joe functions as Pip's mother. Joe raises Pip in exactly the same way his mother raised him. Joe comes from an abusive family with a brutalizing father and a mild and long-suffering mother. Joe identified strongly with his mother, and like many a child, he repeats her patterns. He also marries an abusive spouse. He also does (feels he can do) almost nothing to stop the child he inherits from being abused. But he, like his mother, uses his moments alone with the child to show affection and support for the abused and counsel understanding and forbearance for the abuser. Even later, when he marries Biddy, he marries someone who is more traditionally masculine than he is. Biddy, while certainly not abusive, is forthright, outspoken, commanding, one might say. She is a good counter to Joe. I have no idea if Dickens did this cross-gendering intentionally or not, but it has to stand as one of the most interesting examples of gender crossing in his corpus.
Over the years I have often pondered how hard it is to define the relationship between Pip and Joe. Joe is his brother-in-law, but they don't behave like that. Joe is old enough to be his father, but they don't behave like that. Uncle? Mentor? None of it fits.
It's doubtless a measure of how long ago I became acquainted with Great Expectations that it never occurred to me to think across gender lines. I'm pretty sure I'd have gotten this sooner if I'd come fresh to the novel these days. Joe functions as Pip's mother. Joe raises Pip in exactly the same way his mother raised him. Joe comes from an abusive family with a brutalizing father and a mild and long-suffering mother. Joe identified strongly with his mother, and like many a child, he repeats her patterns. He also marries an abusive spouse. He also does (feels he can do) almost nothing to stop the child he inherits from being abused. But he, like his mother, uses his moments alone with the child to show affection and support for the abused and counsel understanding and forbearance for the abuser. Even later, when he marries Biddy, he marries someone who is more traditionally masculine than he is. Biddy, while certainly not abusive, is forthright, outspoken, commanding, one might say. She is a good counter to Joe. I have no idea if Dickens did this cross-gendering intentionally or not, but it has to stand as one of the most interesting examples of gender crossing in his corpus.
