This passage is from Chapter XXVIII of Great Expectations. When Pip stops at the Blue Boar, the waiter brings him the local newspaper and Pip reads that Pumblechook has taken all the credit for Pip's social success.
After making numerous excuses to himself of why he should stay at the Blue Boar rather than at the forge, Pip gets off the stagecoach and goes into the Inn. When he orders his supper, the waiter brings...
This passage is from Chapter XXVIII of Great Expectations. When Pip stops at the Blue Boar, the waiter brings him the local newspaper and Pip reads that Pumblechook has taken all the credit for Pip's social success.
After making numerous excuses to himself of why he should stay at the Blue Boar rather than at the forge, Pip gets off the stagecoach and goes into the Inn. When he orders his supper, the waiter brings him the local paper, and Pip reads a rather pretentious article about Pumblechook.
It is not wholly irrespective of our personal feelings that we record HIM as the Mentor of our young Telemachus, for it is good to know that our town produced the founder of the latter's fortunes.
The allusion to Telemachus suggests that like the son of Odysseus who is in search of his father, Pip, a fatherless young man, also has gone to London in search of finding his way. And, like Telemachus, Pip is an "honored guest" of Miss Havisham in the eyes of the townspeople.
The other allusion is to Quentin Matsys, a Flemish painter of the Renaissance who was trained as an iron smith, but he abandoned his career because he became too weak. But the legend states that he left the smithy to woo his wife. Of course, the comparison is made to Pip, who was apprenticed to Joe, but quickly abandoned his position when Mr. Jaggers informs him of his "great expectations."
Of course, these allusions and Pumblechook's flamboyant claims are all hyperbole. Reading this passage in the local paper impresses upon Pip his own pretensions and falsehoods. Like Pumblechook, Pip is a fake and a swindler.
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