In conjunction with the vocabulary words I distributed last week, we began by identifying their parts of speech and ,in preparation for Wednesday's quiz , drafting sentences using the words in their proper context. All of the words are from the novel, "Great Expectations". We then turned our focus to the book, and I placed on the board the theme of "Guilt and Forgiveness". We discussed examples of the theme's recurrence in the dying words of Mrs . Joe,"Pardon me Pip" as well as in Pip , as narrator looking back at his past arrogance commenting ,"God Forgive Me." Pip's obsession with Estella was further examined as well as Miss Havisham's maniacal definition of love as self abnegation. . Marcel offered an interesting and insightful comment about the middle section of the novel deviating from an otherwise interesting and engaging plot line .This led to our identifying the two major plot lines that Dickens at least temporarily abandons to launch a social criticism of the Victorian class system, and of the Victorian judicial system. In that regard ,we further addressed Marcel's inquiry as to the purpose of the scene describing Mrs. Joe's funeral arrangements which again deviates from the main plot line but satirizes the social customs and norms of what is supposed to be "cultured "society. For homework due Weds: vocabulary quiz, read chapters 36-38 and complete study guide questions.Locate web article about Newgate Prison in Victorian England.