Key Quote
“"In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong"”
Pip (narrator) · Chapter 6
Focus: “cowardly”
Pip's unflinching self-analysis identifies moral cowardice — not ignorance — as his defining flaw: he always KNEW the right thing but lacked the courage to do it.
Technique 1 — CHIASMUS / SELF-ACCUSATION
The sentence employs chiasmus (a reversed parallel structure: right/wrong, do/avoid doing) creating a grammatical mirror that traps Pip in his own logic. The self-accusation (blaming oneself without excuse) is remarkable for its honesty: Pip does not blame circumstances, other people, or fate — he names his flaw directly: cowardice. The word 'too' appears twice, suggesting not just cowardice but EXCESSIVE cowardice — more than is normal or forgivable.
The phrase 'In a word' promises brevity — summarising a complex moral failure in a single concept. But the sentence that follows is not brief; it is elaborately constructed. This performative contradiction (acting against what one says) mirrors Pip's character: he claims simplicity while demonstrating complexity, promises directness while delivering intricacy.
Key Words
RAD — PROGRESS
Paradoxically, this self-condemnation represents progress: the ability to identify one's own moral failures is itself a form of growth. The young Pip who stole food for the convict could not articulate his moral position; the older narrator who writes this sentence can. The progression is from unreflective action (doing without thinking) to reflective understanding (thinking about what was done) — even if the understanding comes too late to change the action.
Key Words
Technique 2 — MORAL PARALYSIS — KNOWING BUT NOT DOING
Dickens identifies a specifically moral form of paralysis (inability to act): Pip's problem is not ignorance but the gap between knowledge and action. He KNOWS what is right; he simply cannot DO it. This distinction — between moral knowledge and moral courage — is the novel's most psychologically penetrating insight. Dickens suggests that conscience without courage is useless.
The repetition of 'I knew' emphasises that Pip's failures are deliberate, not accidental. He cannot claim the excuse of ignorance or confusion. This makes his self-judgement more severe: a person who does wrong unknowingly can be forgiven; a person who does wrong knowingly is culpable (deserving of blame). Dickens refuses his protagonist the comfort of innocent error.
Key Words
Context (AO3)
VICTORIAN CONSCIENCE
Victorian culture placed enormous emphasis on conscience — the inner moral voice. The evangelical Christian revival stressed individual moral responsibility, making characters like Pip who KNOW right but DON'T DO it particularly disturbing to Dickens's original readers.
BILDUNGSROMAN
As a Bildungsroman (a novel of education and growth), *Great Expectations* tracks Pip's moral development. This passage represents a key stage: the ability to name one's own flaws. The Bildungsroman tradition suggests that self-knowledge is the prerequisite for genuine growth — you must understand your errors before you can transcend them.
Key Words
WOW — WEAKNESS OF WILL — AKRASIA (Aristotle)
Aristotle's concept of akrasia (weakness of will) — acting against one's own better judgement — describes Pip's condition precisely. Unlike ignorance (not knowing what is right) or vice (not caring), akrasia is the frustrating middle state where knowledge and action diverge. Pip is not bad; he is akratic — morally weak. Contemporary psychology confirms Aristotle's insight: knowing that something is wrong (smoking, procrastinating, betraying friends) does not automatically produce the willpower to stop. Behavioural economics calls this the 'intention-action gap' — the space between what we know we should do and what we actually do. Dickens's genius is to make this universal human weakness the foundation of an entire novel, forcing readers to recognise their own akrasia in Pip's failures.
Key Words