The Aged

I've been reading Charles Dickens' book 'Great Expectations' and really enjoying it. I read a section last night that I thought was so funny and so well written, I'd better document it here for posterity ... and for you, dear Reader, whoever you are. :)

The main character of the story, Pip, is visiting a friend in his home named John Wemmick. This Wemmick has an aged father who lives with him. What initially struck me as funny was the name he uses to refer to his father. As I've been reading Dickens, his wit and wisdom are hard to capture in brief quotations, so this one might be kind of long, but walk with me into Wemmick's house/castle as he says to Pip:

"You wouldn't mind being at once introduced to the Aged, would you? It wouldn't put you out?"

I expressed the readiness I felt, and we went into the castle. There we found, sitting by a fire, a very old man in a flannel coat: clean, cheerful, comfortable, and well cared for, but intensely deaf.

 "Well aged parent," said Wemmick, shaking hands with him in a cordial and jocose way, "how am you?" [Note: Wemmick is not prone to bad grammar.]

"All right, John; all right!" replied the old man.

"Here's Mr Pip, aged parent," said Wemmick, "and I wish you could hear his name. Nod away at him, Mr. Pip; that's what he likes. Nod away at him, if you please, like winking!"

"This is a fine place of my son's, sir," cried the old man, while I nodded as hard as I possibly could. "This is a pretty pleasure-ground, sir. This spot and these beautiful works upon it ought to be kept together by the Nation, after my son's time, for the people's enjoyment."

"You're as proud of it as Punch; ain't you, Aged?" said Wemmick, contemplating the old man, with his hard face really softened; "there's a nod for you;" giving him a tremendous one; "there's another for you;" giving him a still more tremendous one; "you like that, don't you? If you're not tired, Mr. Pip - though I know it's tiring to strangers - will you tip him one more? You can't think how it pleases him."

 I tipped him several more, and he was in great spirits.

The way Wemmick treated his father "the Aged" with humor, but also with tenderness and concern for his happiness really made me smile. I find myself smiling and laughing quite a bit as I read Dickens, but it's hard to share those smiles with others without sharing a lot. His humor is sometimes subtle and seems to weave its way through the narrative so that he revisits his jokes in different ways at various points in the text. The sum of it all is delightful and I have so enjoyed reading his works. I will definitely read more of Dickens after this book.

Shortly after this encounter with the Aged, Pip is expecting a visitor named Joe. Joe is a friend, a good honest hard working man, but a little coarse and the impending visit gives Pip some anxiety, which he concedes to be a weakness. His anxiety arises chiefly from the possibility that a certain man whom Pip despises might meet Joe and have a lower opinion of Pip because of the meeting. Pip then comments, "So, throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise."

Profound and funny. I would like to have known the man Charles Dickens. He was, in my opinion, a genius. Luckily, he left enough of himself behind that I can get to know him pretty well through his writings.