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Molly's False Innocence In Charles Dickens Great Expectations

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An individual’s exterior and outward demeanor often hides his or her true being. The classic novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens reflects this theme several times as the protagonist, Pip, an ambitious but lowborn boy, receives money from an unknown benefactor and travels to London to become a gentleman. He goes through many trials on his journey for success, and it is while on this odyssey that he meets many people who tend to hide their true selves, sometimes to escape trouble. The world is full of sneaky persons and it is hard to know who to trust when there are so many pretending to be someone they are not. One of the disguised people in this novel is Mr. Jaggers’ housekeeper, Molly. Pip finds out that “Mr. Jaggers was for her...and worked the case in a way quite astonishing...this woman was so artfully …show more content…

During her trial, Molly’s jealous nature is hidden by delicate clothing, making her appear helpless; one wouldn’t expect she is capable of murder until they see her scarred arms, the marks of her fight with the woman she killed. In Victorian-era England, women were generally thought of as obedient and gentle, so this fact adds to Molly’s false innocence. Molly, overlooked and ignored, is safe pretending to be a harmless woman. Another character who conceals his personality is Magwitch, the convict from Pip’s past. When Pip saw him for the first time in many years, “[he] made out that...he had long iron-grey hair. That his age was about sixty. That he was a muscular man...When at last I put the glass to him, I saw with amazement that his eyes were full of tears” (247, 249).

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