Key Quote
“"Ask no questions, and you'll be told no lies"”
Mrs Joe / Joe Gargery · Chapter 2
Focus: “questions”
This proverb — used to silence young Pip's curiosity — establishes the novel's world as one built on concealment and enforced ignorance, where truth is a privilege denied to children and the powerless.
Technique 1 — PROVERBIAL AUTHORITY / SHUTTING DOWN ENQUIRY
The proverb (a short, familiar saying expressing conventional wisdom) is weaponised: it uses the form of traditional wisdom to silence curiosity. By framing the suppression of questions as advice, the speaker transforms censorship (the suppression of speech or information) into guidance. Dickens exposes how folk wisdom can function as a tool of control — the proverb sounds helpful but actually forbids the child from understanding his own world.
The conditional structure — 'ask no questions and you'll be told no lies' — creates a false causal logic (connecting cause to effect): it implies that questions CAUSE lies, making the questioner responsible for the dishonesty. This is victim-blaming through grammar: if Pip receives lies, it's because he asked. Dickens reveals how authority deflects accountability onto the powerless through linguistic sleight of hand.
Key Words
RAD — STAGNATE
The proverb enforces stagnation: by forbidding questions, it prevents growth. Pip is denied the information that would allow him to understand his situation — the secrecy about his dead parents, his benefactor, and his prospects. The adults who use this proverb choose the comfort of silence over the discomfort of truth, keeping Pip intellectually and emotionally frozen in ignorance.
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Technique 2 — MICROCOSMIC TEXT — THE NOVEL IN MINIATURE
This proverb functions as a microcosm (a small thing representing a larger whole) of the entire novel: *Great Expectations* is fundamentally about the gap between appearances and truth, between what people are told and what is actually happening. Every major plot development — Pip's benefactor, Estella's parentage, Miss Havisham's motives — is a truth concealed by lies. The proverb establishes the novel's epistemological framework: truth is always hidden, and those who seek it are punished for asking.
Dickens places this proverb early in the novel as a thematic seed (an early element that grows into the work's major concerns): Pip's entire story is driven by questions — Who is my benefactor? Why does Miss Havisham help me? Who are Estella's parents? — that the adults around him refuse to answer. The novel validates Pip's curiosity against the proverb's suppression: the story proves that you SHOULD ask questions, because what you're told voluntarily is almost always a lie.
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Context (AO3)
VICTORIAN CHILDHOOD
Victorian children were expected to be 'seen and not heard' — obedient, quiet, and respectful of adult authority. The proverb enforces this power dynamic: children's curiosity is reframed as impertinence. Dickens, who championed children's rights throughout his career, consistently critiques societies that silence the young.
CLASS & KNOWLEDGE
Access to information in Victorian England was determined by class: education, literacy, legal knowledge, and social awareness were privileges of the wealthy. By denying Pip information, the adults perpetuate his class position — keeping him ignorant keeps him powerless and dependent.
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WOW — PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED (Freire)
Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed argues that education systems often function as 'banking models' — depositing approved knowledge into passive students while suppressing critical consciousness (the ability to question and analyse social structures). 'Ask no questions' is the banking model reduced to its essence: accept what you're told; don't think independently. Freire advocated instead for problem-posing education — learning through questioning, dialogue, and critical engagement with the world. Pip's entire journey can be read as a movement from banking education (accept your place, don't ask questions) to problem-posing education (who am I really? Who benefits from my ignorance? What is truly valuable?). Dickens anticipates Freire's insight: the suppression of questions is not protection but oppression — and genuine education begins only when the learner dares to ask the questions that authority forbids.
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