Mr. Jaggers' Office

Description: 

This illustration by Charles Green (scanned by Phillip V. Allingham) shows an adult Pip (right) in Mr. Jaggers' (left) office. Mr. Jaggers himself is shown wearing a three piece suit with a chain for a pocket watch, both of which shows his upper class status. In looking around the room, we can see his high backed chair, which is made from "deadly black horsehair [and has] two rows of brass nails around it," (Dickens, chap. 20). In Victorian times, horsehair was "a mark of quality because it is strong, durable, and much more expensive than the alternatives," (Christie's). We can also see that he has more decorations around his office than we've seen in previous locations, with pictures and the death masks mentioned in the novel, as well as other things such as a rug. These are all things that would be present for a person of an upper class, as they could afford to have more decorative and unnecessary things, and especially things that are very expensive such as a horsehair chair. 

 

Work Cited

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Aug. 1861.

Green, Charles. Pip in Mr. Jaggers's Office, The Victorian Web, 1898, https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/green/7.html

Associated Place(s)

Artist: 

  • Charles Green

Image Date: 

1898