English Conversation Handout 7

(Page Created - 9 April 2001 - Last Updated - 11 July 2001)

 

(Great Expectations continues:)

Summary: Pip is an orphan who lives with his sister and her husband. One day, he met a convict who threatened to kill him if Pip did not do as he told him. Pip did as the convict asked, and later he witnessed the convict being caught by some soldiers. One year after this he is invited to the house of Miss Havisham to amuse her by playing with Estella. Miss Havisham is a very rich, eccentric woman who lives in a large, dark house with Estella. Pip had to stop visiting Miss Havisham, when he became 14 and began to work as an apprentice blacksmith. At the same time Estella left to go to France. Saddened by Estella’s leaving Pip always thinks of her. Some six years later he is visited by a Mr Jaggers, who tells him that a mysterious benefactor wants to make him a gentleman, and give him a very good income. To get this, Pip must leave where he lives to live in London, and he is not to know the name of his benefactor. Before leaving for London, Pip visits Miss Havisham to say goodbye.

Part 1: A very well dressed Pip is visiting Miss Havisham’s house:

Miss Havisham: "Pip! You are very handsomely dressed, Pip."

Pip: "I leave to go to London tomorrow, Miss Havisham. I hoped that you would not mind my saying goodbye to you."

Miss Havisham: "Well, please explain?"

Pip: "I have been given some very good fortune recently, and I am very grateful for it."

Miss Havisham: "I have spoken with Mr Jaggers, I have heard about your good fortune. So you will go to London tomorrow?"

Pip: "Yes, Miss Havisham."

Miss Havisham: "You have been adopted by a rich person? A person whose name is to be a secret from you."

Pip: "Yes, Miss Havisham, I do not know their name."

Miss Havisham: "Mr Jaggers has been made your guardian?"

Pip: "Yes, Miss Havisham… Is, egh… Estel…"

Miss Havisham: "Estella is in France, and she is prettier than ever she was before. Her beauty is admired by everyone who sees her. You too now have a promising career. If you are good, you will deserve your promising career…. You will always keep the name Pip, you know."

Pip: "Yes, Miss Havisham."

Miss Havisham: "Goodbye, Pip." (Pip bows to Miss Havisham, kisses her hand and leaves.)

Part 2: Pip arrives in London and walks Mr Jaggers’ offices. Mr Jaggers’ assistant is busy, he does not hear Pip arriving:

Pip: "Cough, cough… Excuse me please, is Mr Jaggers here at the moment?"

Clerk: "No, I am sorry he is not here now. He is in court at the moment. Am I speaking to Mr Pip?"

Pip: "Yes, I’m Mr Pip."

Mr Wemmick: "Mr Jaggers said that you were coming today. Would you kindly wait in Mr Jaggers’ office? Come this way please, it will not be long until he comes back." (They walk into Mr Jaggers’ office, where a man is sitting:)

Mr Wemmick: "Please, wait outside, Mike."

Pip: "I hope that I am not troubling you?"

Mike: "You are most certainly not troubling me."

Mr Wemmick: "Is this your first time in London, Mr Pip?"

Pip: "Aghh… yes sir."

Mr Wemmick: "Agh, I remember my first coming to London, that is a long time ago now."

Pip: "Excuse me, whose death mask is that?"

Mr Wemmick: "That one? Oh, that is one of our most famous clients. He gave us our biggest publicity. This chap murdered his boss. He planned the murder well but… as you see, not well enough."

Pip: "Does that look like him?"

Mr Wemmick: "Does it look like him? It looks exactly like him. This cast was made very soon after he died."

Part 3: Mr Jaggers arrives at his offices:

Mr Jaggers: "Good morning Mike, your man will appear in court this afternoon. Have you got the witness?"

Mike: "Yes Mr Jaggers."

Mr Jaggers: "Please wait here."

Mr Wemmick: "Mr Pip is here, sir."

Mr Jaggers: "Agh good, is he in my office?"

Mr Wemmick: "Yes, he is waiting there now."

Mr Jaggers: "Good morning Mr Pip, so you arrived safely in London?"

Pip: "Good morning Mr Jaggers."

Mr Jaggers: "We can soon deal with your case. Wemmick, please bring Mr Pip’s file. Wemmick here will take you to a Mr Pocket’s rooms in Barnard’s Inn, where you will live. Oh… sit down Mr Pip, sit down. Mr Pocket will give you good advice about the places in London where you should go to. I take it that you are happy with that?"

Pip: "Yes, Mr Jaggers."

Mr Jaggers: "Now to money. Your allowance will be £250 per year. This means that you will collect from Wemmick here the amount of sixty-two and a half pounds every quarter. That is a very good amount of money. Do you think that is a very good sum of money with which you can live very well?"

Pip: "How could I think that it is not?"

Mr Jaggers: "Please answer my question, Mr Pip."

Pip: "Yes, there is no doubt that it is a very good allowance."

Mr Jaggers: "Here is a list of shops where you can buy things on account and who will send the bills to me. Wemmick, please take Mr Pip to Barnard’s Inn."

Mr Wemmick: "Yes, Mr Jaggers."

Mr Jaggers: "I will check the bills I receive from these shops carefully, so spend carefully. Of course, you will sometimes spend too much, but that is no fault of mine. Good bye and good luck Mr Pip."

Pip: "Good bye Mr Jaggers."

Mr Jaggers: (Shouts very loudly:) "MOLLY!"

Part 4: Pip leaves with Wemmick to walk to Mr Pocket’s rooms:

Pip: "Mr Wemmick, I do not understand Mr Jaggers."

Mr Wemmick: "Oh, no one understands Mr Jaggers, you are not supposed to understand Mr Jaggers."

Pip; "Who was that person he shouted at so fiercely in the office?"

Mr Wemmick: "Oh that was Molly, his housekeeper. He got her off of a murder charge!"

Pip: "Murder? Is he not frightened to have her in his house?"

Mr Wemmick: "Not Mr Jaggers, when you come to see us again, look very carefully at Molly."

Pip: "Will I see anything strange?"

Mr Wemmick: "You will see a wild beast tamed, just keep watching her!" (They arrive at Barnard’s Inn:)

Mr Wemmick: "Mr Pocket’s rooms are on the first floor. Do you want me anymore?"

Pip: "No, thank you Mr Wemmick."

Mr Wemmick: "As I am the one who deals with the money, we will probably meet very often, and we will surely get to know each other well. Good day."

Pip: "Good day, sir"

Part 5: Pip goes up the stairs to Mr Pocket’s door, but no one is in. He waits, and Mr Pocket arrives:

Mr Pocket: "Mr Pip?"

Pip: "Mr Pocket?"

Mr Pocket: "Oh, dear me I am extremely sorry. But the fact is that I have been out for you. I thought because you are coming from the country that you might like some fruit. So I went to the fruit market to get you some very fresh fruit."

Pip: "Well, thank you. It is very kind of you to do that for me." (Mr Pocket cannot open the door because it is stuck:)

Pip: "Can I take the parcels?"

Mr Pocket: "Yes, certainly, thank you. This door sticks sometimes." (Mr Pocket hits the door with his shoulder to open it:)

Mr Pocket: "Please come in? This is the living room, it smells a little musty, but Barnard’s does smell musty. I do not have much furniture here. Now that is my little bedroom there, and this is your room."

Pip: "Oh! It is a very nice room indeed."

Part 6: Mr Pocket notices that Pip is still holding the fruit. He apologises and asks him to give it back to him.

Mr Pocket: "Dear me, I beg your pardon, you have been holding the fruit for all of this time, I feel quite embarrassed. Please give me the fruit…. It is very quiet here, and we will be alone together, but I do not think that we will fight."

Pip: "Fight! FIGHT! I knew that I had seen you somewhere before! You are the pale young gentleman from Miss Havisham’s garden?"

Mr Pocket: "Goodness me, and you are the boy who was walking around the garden! The idea of it being you!"

Pip: "And the idea of it being you!" (They both shake hands and laugh loudly.)

Mr Pocket: "I hope that you will forgive me for having knocked you about a so badly that day?"

Pip: "Oh… of course."

Mr Pocket: "You had not come into your good fortune then, had you?"

Pip: "Egh… no."

Mr Pocket: "I was looking for a good fortune then."

Pip: "Indeed, were you?"

Mr Pocket: "If Miss Havisham had taken a liking to me, I suppose that I would have been rich by now. Perhaps, I would even have become engaged to Estella, but I did not care much for Estella, she is a fiery person."

Pip: "Who? Miss Havisham?"

Mr Pocket: "Heavens no! Estella, of course! You know that Estella was adopted and brought up by Miss Havisham to wreak revenge on all of the male sex."

Pip: "To wreak revenge on all of the male sex? Um, what revenge?"

Mr Pocket: "Heaven’s Mr Pip, I thought you knew!"

Pip: "Egh… no…."

Mr Pocket: "Dear me, it is a very interesting story, but we shall save it till dinner time. Shall I take you walking stick?"

Pip: "Oh, thank you."

Mr Pocket: "Agh, and your hat?

Pip: "Oops." (They both laugh very heartily.)

 

 

Handout 9