I’d be
the first to voice my appreciation for flawed characters. I love seeing someone wrestle with their own
fears and failings, someone who struggles with doing the right thing and doesn’t
always know if they’re worth saving.
Every once in a while, though, I come across a character who just makes
me happy. Herbert Pocket is one such fellow.
Like
Pip, we meet Herbert first as a child – just once, but it’s a memorable
introduction. Even not knowing his name,
we remember Pip’s encounter with him, and when, as adults, Pip realizes where he
met Herbert before, we instantly recall the incident. On the grounds of Miss Havisham’s crumbling
Satis House, Pip is accosted by a “pale young gentleman” eager for a fight. In most stories, this scene would show a
spoiled young rich boy picking on a poor boy and getting what for, but with
Herbert, it’s clear that he means Pip no ill will. He doesn’t pick a fight because Pip is a
commoner raised by a blacksmith; he picks a fight because he enjoys it, as a sport. He cheerfully provides Pip with a “reason” to
fight him by dutifully pulling his hair and head-butting him in the stomach,
announces that they’re to follow “regular rules,” and arranges water and a
sponge “available for both.” Even
better, he’s a terrible fighter, but
he keeps springing back up for more every time Pip knocks him down. The whole situation sort of appears out of
nowhere, and I daresay most first-time readers probably find it just as
perplexing as Pip does, and yet I know I couldn’t help but like this
inept-but-tenacious pugilist.
Though
Herbert apologizes profusely for the fight when he and Pip meet again as
adults, it nicely demonstrates Herbert’s chief traits: he throws himself into things with
whole-hearted abandon, he doesn’t give up for anything, and even when he starts
a fistfight with a stranger, it’s evident that he doesn’t have a malicious bone
in his body. Upon Pip’s arrival in
London to pursue a gentleman’s education, Herbert is one of his earliest and
most sincere friends. He corrects Pip’s
rough-around-the-edges manners only because Pip asks him to, and he does it with
such gentle, offhand unconcern that hardly anyone could be embarrassed by his
amiable instruction. He doesn’t mind
that Pip doesn’t initially act like a gentleman and doesn’t think less of him
for his origins. Throughout the book, he
supports Pip in nearly everything he does – he gives Joe a far warmer welcome
in London than Pip would, he expresses his misgivings about Estella purely out
of concern for Pip’s well-being, and he sticks by Pip through the whole
Magwitch situation.
I totally agree. Herbert is one of the most caring and affectionate characters in this novel, which made him so lovable:)
ReplyDelete