A Two-Faced Man

When a hard-working man, like Wemmick, is given a job that requires a lot of seriousness, they may appear to others as a demanding individual. To Pip, his first impression of Wemmick is that he is cynical and has a dry personality, but when invited to his house for dinner, he observes that this orderly man has two different sides to his life. Work and business can cause a person to become someone they are not -- knowing that at any moment they could lose their job. When Wemmick returns to his home with Pip, he is allowed to reveal the true, merry and jovial man he is. He claims his house is a castle and although it is just a small gothic home he is proud and content with his living quarters and would not change it for the world. He tells Pip that he is own engineer, his own carpenter, his own plumber, and his own jack of all trades. This proves that Wemmick is satisfied with the way he lives and is fine with having to work hard to provide not only for himself, but his “aged parent.” In this chapter, Dickens is showing us that going to work every day can cause a person to have to hide their true identity until their work day is finished. “ Wemmick got dryer and harder as we went along, and his mouth tightened into a post office again.” (p. 209) In this quote, Pip is observing Wemmick’s personality changing as he leaves home and approaches work. This is the main concept Dickens is trying to get across; not that work is unhealthy, but that it can result in a person having to act like someone they are not.