Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Mr. Jaggers: A delightfully serious lawyer [Great Expectations]

You wouldn't want to stand before Mr. Jaggers in a court of law.  He is no nonsense.  He could get a confession out of anyone.  He is one of the most famous lawyers in London and feared by many.  He and Pip are just finishing a dinner with Miss Havisham, a wealthy old spinster who has taken a peculiar interest in Pip.  Jaggers is Pip's guardian until the day he can inherit his "great expectation" of a  fortune from a mysterious benefactor.  And so...

"And when he and I were left alone together, he sat with an air upon him of general lying by in consequence of information he possessed that really was too much for me.  He cross-examined his very wine when he had nothing else in hand.  He held it between himself and the candle, looked at his glass again, smelt the port, tried it, drank it, filled again, and cross-examined the glass again, until I was as nervous as if I had known the wine to be telling him something to my disadvantage.  Three of four times I feebly thought I would start conversation, but whenever he saw me going to ask him anything, he looked at me with his glass in his hand, and rolling his wine about in his mouth, as if requesting me to take notice that it was of no use, for he couldn't answer."  Charles Dickens

No comments:

Post a Comment