Mr Wopsle In Great Expectations

Mr Wopsle provides the most comedic relief throughout the grim setting of Great Expectations. When Mr. Wopsle is first introduced in the novel, he is delineated as a brazen and supercilious person. His physical description makes him seem like a punchinello, with clown-like characteristics such as a large nose, bald head, particularly perceptible voice, and silly, outgoing personality. Even his name was made to be eccentric and ludicrous, like the sound of something falling over. Although Mr Wopsle is a minor character, his humorous traits offset the somber story.

His “voice which he was uncommonly proud of” (Dickens, 23) is, from Pip’s perspective, unappealing. Nonetheless, Mr Wopsle doesn’t seem to care. He loves the sound of his voice so much that he relinquishes his job as a church clerk to work as something he believed to be more suitable for himself: acting. He changes his name from Wopsle to Waldengarver and moves to London.

The only problem is, he is a terrible actor. When Pip and Herbert go to the Three Jolly Bargemen to see Hamlet, they see the Prince of Denmark being depicted by fifty-year-old Mr Wopsle. It is then that they discover Mr Wopsle’s poor theatrical skills. His elocution was notably “dreary and… unlike any natural circumstances” (Dickson, 271), especially while demonstrating a story full of sorrow and grief. Mr Wopsle’s acting was so ridiculously bad, Pip couldn’t keep himself from “laughing…from ear to ear” (Dickson, 271). As a result of his subpar performance, the audience retorts by heckling and throwing rotten vegetables at