Mister Watts of Great Expectations

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Recommended: Great expectation written by Charles Dickens

“He was whatever he needed to be, what we asked him to be... a teacher, a magician, a savior, a life.” (245) Mister Watts is one of the central focuses of the story along with Dolores, Matilda’s mother. The two characters are polar opposites in the way they make their decisions and view the world. With growth comes decisiveness in which comes greater changes, the motif of choice is entwined all through the novel of Mister Pip, whether its Dolores deciding to hide the novel, “Great Expectations” from the villagers causing greater occurrences or Mister Watts becoming a shape shifter; taking the form of what is needed, including his life.

Mister Watts is a bizarre looking fellow with his eyes bulged “like they wanted to leave the surface of his face” (1) and his skin being a sickly pale color. He does not believe nor follows the same teaching methods of Christians, instead he would rather discover the world through his eyes “while we may not know the whole world, we can, if we are clever enough, make it new.” (60) For instance, this being the basis of his teaching, this theory is put to the test by him Charles Dickens novel “Great Expectations” to the children which they now to be a better place to escape to, away from reality. To the complete surprise of the reader, he chooses to stand up when nobody else had the courage or education to do so; suddenly becoming a teacher, a friend and finally a savior as the story progresses. Mister Watts felt the need to shield the children from the crazed world and so he transitions from a teacher to a magician and transports them to a world called Victorian London (England). This shows he values the innocence of the children as well as their imagination and life’s that could be tak...

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...g cycle of choices which has to be made regardless of the preceding outcome. After the murder of the protagonist’s teacher and mother, there is nothing else to live for, but her judgment to survive is what made the difference. “At last I knew what to do. I had to survive. This is something we all take for granted, but no matter how bad things get, the moment you are denied air you fight for it. You know at last what you need. You need air.” (215) Her survival is essential because it leads to her reuniting with her father which is a joyful moment, finding the reason behind Mr. Watts and Graces’ behavior on the island and last, she carries on the legacy of Mr. Dickens teaching that, “our voice [is] special, and we should remember this whenever we use it, and remember that whatever else happen[s] to us in our lives our voice could never be taken away from us.” (256)

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