vants (G.E. 176).Dickens uses this first person narrative to show how people with money and position can become so complacent that they dont know how to control their personal lives. Mr. Jaggers is another example of how Dickens uses hand imagery to show that position can corrupt a person. Peter Brooks notes that, Bringing up by hand in turn suggests Jaggerss hands, representation of accusation and the Law, which in turn suggest all the instances of censorship in the name of high authorities evoked from the first scene of the novel onward: censorship is repression in the name of the Law (130).Jaggers uses his position as a lawyer to make financial gains for himself. Through Jaggers, Dickens shows how people can buy their way out of legal trouble. Jaggers is outwardly happy to take money in order to help people regardless of their innocence or guilt. Yet Dickens shows how these actions corrupt Jaggerss soul using hand imagery, [Jaggers] would wash his hands, and wipe them and dry them all over this towel, whenever he came in from a police court or dismissed a client from his room (G.E. 196). Jaggers is constantly washing his hands because he knows that his practices are morally wrong. Although Jaggers is helpful to his clients, Dickens wants the reader to recognize that the price Jaggers pays for his moral indiscretions is a spiritual one. Dickens uses Pip as the final example of how money will corrupt the human soul. Pip has been given a fortune, yet he falls into debt. It isnt until Pip learns that the money has come from Magwitch that he recognizes the error of his ways. Elizabeth Mac Andrews states that, Pip shudders at the thought that Magwitchs hands might be stained with blood (69-70). The knowledge that the money has come from a known criminal instead of Miss Havisham forces Pip to admit that he should have never taken the money at all. Pip learns from his mistakes. He goes to Miss Havisham and unselfishly asks h...
