11. Great Expectations (pg.112)

11. Great Expectations (pg.112): “Now, Joe kept a journeyman at weekly wages whose name was Orlick…This morose journeyman had no liking for me”:
Pip was now an apprentice to Joe. He was to learn the trade of blacksmithing. Usually people had to pay a fee to become apprenticed to learn a trade, and they would work for several years learning the trade. After the term of the contract was up, the apprentice was eligible to work for money. When they began work for money, they were a journeyman. Dickens’ writing sets the correct setting for Great Expectations. The reader has a clear idea where Pip came from and what his upbringing was like. Dickens’ attention to imagery and details in the writing develop the story.

“Discovering Dickens. A Community Reading Project.” Stanford University 2005. 27 December 2009.
http://dickens.stanford.edu/dickens/archive/great/great_issue1gloss.html

“journeyman.” The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 27 December 2009.. Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/journeyman.