Halbmaier 1

Connor Halbmaier

March 7, 2018

Mrs. Joe and the Angel of the Hearth Ideology

In the novel Great Expectations, written by Charles Dickens, the reader is introduced to a

variety of characters. Each of these characters experience some sort of change in their lives,

which creates a change in their identity and helps to develop the themes of the novel. Not every

character undergoes a major change, while others have their entire way of life flipped upside

down. One such character is the character Mrs. Joe. Mrs. Joe is first introduced to the reader as a

character with a fierce temper, which conflicts with the theme dealing with the Victorian

ideology known as the “angel of the hearth”. However, later on in the novel, Mrs. Joe identity is

forcibly changed, causing her to become a more likable character. In Charles Dicken’s novel,

Great Expectations, Mrs. Joe is a character that starts out with a fierce temper, but is ultimately

changed into a more patient women, which helps to explain the “angel of the hearth” ideology.

During the Victorian Age, there was an ideology known as the “angel of the hearth”,

which concerned the women of the time period. The basic concept of this ideology is that the

woman of the house are supposed to be the care takers. They were supposed to be loving and

submissive, taking care of all the needs of the household while the men went out to work for a

living. The only time they were in charge in the household was when the men weren’t there.

When the men were present, they had to cater to their whims, not acting out against them. This is

all a part of the separation of spheres concept, which states that the women’s sphere belongs in

the domestic area while the men’s sphere belongs in the industrial area.
 Halbmaier 2

In Great Expectations, Mrs. Joe is one of the care takers and older sister of Pip, the main

character of the novel. However, she isn’t a loving one. According to Pip, she has “a hard and

heavy hand”, and has a “habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon” Pip (Dickens 7).

Right away, Mrs. Joe is introduced in a way that contradicts the idea of the angel of the hearth.

Pip isn’t the only person she treats harshly. She does the same thing to her blacksmith husband,

Joe. This is where the contradiction arises, since Joe is the man of the house, which implies that

he should be the one in charge. Instead, their roles seem to be reversed. Pip describes Joe as

being a “mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish, dear fellow” (Dickens 7). This

is how Mrs. Joe be, but instead, she is a formidable woman who strikes fear into the hearts of her

husband and younger brother through the use of a weapon called Tickler, which is described as

being a “wax-ended piece of cane, worn smooth” from coming into contact with Pip so much

(Dickens 8).

Another component of the ideal “angel of the hearth” is that they educate their children

and help them grow. Mrs. Joe, on the other hand, doesn’t educate Pip in ways to make him live

as successful of a life as he can. She even stifles his curiosity when he was asking questions

concerning the firing of rifles that could be heard in the night. “’Drat that boy,’ interposed my

sister, frowning at me over her work, ‘what a questioner he is. Ask no questions, and you’ll be

told no lies’” (Dickens 13). Instead of striving to answer the questions that Pip posed, she

criticizes him for asking them. She does eventually answer Pip’s questions, but mostly out of

sheer annoyance of his continuing to ask them.

One of the biggest ideas that appears constantly in the beginning parts of the novel is the

idea of Mrs. Joe raising Pip “by hand”. This phrase appears multiple times, and it gives the

impression that the only reason why Mrs. Joe decided to raise Pip in the first place was out of a
 Halbmaier 3

sense obligation towards society. Multiple people of society mention to Pip that she had raised

him “by hand”, stating that he should be grateful. One such person is Mr. Pumblechook. When

he was taking Pip to his home in order to visit with Miss Havisham, Mr. Pumblechook said to

Pip, “Boy, be for ever grateful to all friends, but especially unto them which brought you up by

hand” (Dickens 48). This constant referring to this idea that Mrs. Joe raised Pip “by hand” by

herself and by other people seems to imply that she didn’t to want to raise the boy, despite his

being her sister. This is most likely the reason why Mrs. Joe is so harsh with Pip, beating him

with Tickler and reluctantly answering his questions. In fact, Pip mentions that Mrs. Joe beat him

so much that he thought that when people told him he was raised “by hand” as a child, he

thought they were referring to the fact that Mrs. Joe beat him (Dickens 7).

The main reason as to why Mrs. Joe acts this way is due to her living situation. Mrs. Joe,

being married to a blacksmith, isn’t the wealthiest person around due to the fact that being a

blacksmith isn’t a profitable career. This doesn’t mean that they are completely poor. They do

have access to good foods such as pickled pork and greens, roast meats, and mincemeat pies,

although they don’t have these types of food all that often (Dickens 20). However, they are still

living a lifestyle that requires Mrs. Joe to work hard to keep things in order around the house.

“Perhaps if I warn’t a blacksmith’s wife, and (what’s the same thing) a slave with her apron

never off, I should have been to hear the Carols” (Dickens 20). This quote, stated by Mrs. Joe,

shows that she is almost constantly working, “a slave with her apron never off”. This idea that

she is like a slave is the reason why Mrs. Joe makes the decision to send Pip off to Miss

Havisham’s home. Her reasoning behind doing this is that she believes that if Pip goes to Miss

Havisham’s house and plays there, then he would be able to please her, which in turn would lead

to Miss Havisham providing some sort of monetary reward. This reasoning can be seen in Mrs.
 Halbmaier 4

Joe’s explanation to Joe: “For you do not know that Uncle Pumblechook, being sensible that for

anything we can tell, this boy’s fortune may be made by his going to Miss Havisham’s…”

(Dickens 47-48). Mrs. Joe most likely agrees to Miss Havisham’s request because if she does

provide a monetary reward for Pip’s assistance, then that money would end up in the hands of

Mrs. Joe, who could use the money to improve her life. This also plays into the idea of Mrs. Joe

only caring for Pip out of sheer societal obligation. Since she is married to a blacksmith, who

doesn’t make a whole lot of money, she wouldn’t want another mouth to feed besides Joe’s and

her own. Yet, since she felt that society expects her to care for Pip, she does so, even though she

would rather not have to worry about that extra mouth in the family.

Later on in the novel, Mrs. Joe undergoes a major change, which makes her a much more

likable character. The catalyst for this change was an assault against by an assailant unknown at

this time. Joe and Pip were walking home when they heard that something had happened at their

home, and when they arrived there, they found out that Mrs. Joe was hit on the head with a filed

off iron shackle worn by a convict (Dickens 108). After this incident, Mrs. Joe lost her ability to

speech, as well as complete control over her limbs (Dickens 111). As a result, Mrs. Joe lost

nearly all of the power that she had before the incident. No longer could she order people around

without the use of a slate, which didn’t help much do to her horrible handwriting and spelling

capabilities. No longer could she use Tickler against Pip whenever he did something that went

against her wishes. These changes in her life didn’t turn her into a bitter person though.

According to Pip, “her temper was greatly improved, and she was patient” (Dickens 111), which

is a great change from the beginning of the novel, when Pip described her as having a “prevailing

redness of skin” (Dickens 7), most likely referring to her horrible temper. Due to the injury that

she suffered, Mrs. Joe becomes more like the “angel of the hearth”, because she is now calmer
 Halbmaier 5

and more patient, qualities that are a part of the “angel of the hearth” ideology. However, she still

doesn’t quite fit the mold, because she is unable to care for the family now that she has lost

control over her own limbs.

In Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations, Mrs. Joe is one of the characters that undergoes

a major change in their lives, which leads to a new identity. For Mrs. Joe, she starts out as being

a fierce woman who struck fear into the Pip and Joe due to the beatings she gave them using

Tickler. Reading further into the novel reveals that the only reason why Mrs. Joe ended up being

Pip’s care taker is because of her sense of societal obligation. This can be inferred due to the

multiple references of her raising Pip “by hand”, which is stated by Mrs. Joe, Mr. Pumblechook,

Pip, and a handful of other characters. She even goes so far as to use Pip to try and gain some

more money, as if to compensate for having to care for him all these years. This all goes against

the theme that women should be like the “angel of the hearth”. To be an “angel of the hearth”, a

woman had to be caring and submissive to their husbands, which is the opposite of Mrs. Joe.

However, due to the injury that she sustained, Mrs. Joe loses the power that she held in the

family, which results in her becoming a better tempered person. Through this shift in personality,

Dickens is trying to show that women should conform to the “angel of the hearth” ideology,

otherwise something bad will happen to them, just like what happened with Mrs. Joe. If they

continuously refuse to conform, they will be unable to function in society, and will eventually

die, just like Mrs. Joe, who was one of the few characters to die during the course of the novel.

Mrs. Joe is the character of the novel that undergoes one of the greatest changes seen, and it is

through this change that Dickens portrays the Victorian concept known as the “angel of the

hearth”.
 Halbmaier 6

Works Cited

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Oxford World’s Classics. Editor Margaret Cardwell. New

York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print.