Because of a recent book meme, I thought about writing how Charles Dickens has had an impact on the way I read scripture. My favorite Dickens novel is Great Expectations. I try to read it once a semester, and am greatly moved by each reading. This impact is probably most evident in my understanding of Proverbs 1-9.
Originally Great Expectations was written as a serial novel, which appeared as weekly installments in a magazine, All Year Round. Each week a reader was treated to two chapters of Dickens’ story, until the story finally came to completion. The closest parallel is two think of serial novels as a Victorian soap opera in print form. In order to hook readers, these chapters had to provide something an audience had to look forward to; this was accomplished by a series of cliff-hangers. This type of writing also makes putting down this story, in a singularly bound volume, difficult.
In Great Expectations, we meet a young boy by the name of Pip. The story begins with Pip as a poor, but content boy; who would eventually be apprenticed to the town’s blacksmith. His station in life is to be “common” in every way. As the story progresses, Pip has an encounter with a beautiful young girl, Estella. Her life is the antithesis of Pip’s life. Estella is wealthy, well educated, and is meant to be a part of high society. This girl becomes a mirror to Pip, in which he sees in her all of his commonness on display. She despises Pip’s commonness, and the once content child begins to also see his boots, his family, his education, and his future as something that should be loathed. For Estella’s sake, Pip begins a quest to improve himself. Informally, Estella and her reproof becomes Pip’s earliest teacher.
The following is a quote that illustrates the informal pedagogy that has molded Pip. In this quote a distraught Pip confronts the object of his love:
`Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of my- self. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since — on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with. The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made, are not more real, or more impossible to be displaced by your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, pad of the little good in me, part of the evil. But, in this separation I associate you only with the good, and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp distress I may. O God bless you, God forgive you!’ (Great Expectation, Chapter 44)
The reoccurring character, Lady Wisdom, is everywhere within Proverbs 1-9, and her presence, as a metaphorical instructor is something that needs to be considered. If Proverbs 1-9 is concerned with character formation, than Lady Wisdom is but one tool at the sage’s disposal to accomplish this goal. The literary son is told to call wisdom his sister[1] (Prov. 7:4) and he is told to seek her as silver and as hidden treasures (Prov.2:4). The father wants there to be a preoccupation with this feminine figure. She is to be an indivisible part of the son’s character.
The author of Proverbs 1-9 is creating a literary drama where wisdom is personified, not as any woman, but as woman that is supposed to captivate his son, and effect every decision that this young man will make. In Lady Wisdom, I see Estella and the effect that she had on each and every one of Pip’s decisions.
[1] As Garrett has correctly noted, the word “Sister” is a term of endearment. Duane A Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of songs (vol. 14, electronic ed.; Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001), 102
