Please note that this is merely a guideline of evil, and can by no means be considered all-inclusive.
For still more, see the villains section.
Commandments Broken: 4
Other Social Deviants:
- Thou shalt not kill: Orlick kills Mrs. Joe.
- Thou shalt not steal: Magwich and Compeyson are career criminals. And Pip steals a pork pie.
- Thou shalt not lie: Pip lies quite a bit, especially about Magwich.
- Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, nor thy neighbor's wife, nor anything that is thy neighbor's: Is there anything that Pip didn't covet?
- Mrs. Joe is something of a bitch. She obviously hates children. We see her wielding "The Tickler" quite a bit in the first few chapters of the novel. She gets props for having Joe so completely and utterly whipped, though. Ahead of her time, that Mrs. Joe.
- Mrs. Pocket, the wife of Matthew Pocket, also seems to have it in for children. Witness the scene in which Pip meets the family: she gives her youngest child a nutcracker to play with, and then becomes irate when another daughter takes the nutcracker. This is a woman with issues.
- Miss Havisham. I think that we all know what's going on there.
In Addition,
We have Pip stuffing food down his pants, Miss Havisham's money-grubbing relations waiting for her to die, Herbert nearly overspending himself right into debtor's prision, and one crazy old lady on fire. Which brings us to:
Total Body Count: 5.
On the Dickens Evil Meter, Great Expectations is an 8.
Commandments Broken:
- Thou shalt not steal: When The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge his future, a group of people have looted the Scrooge's house after he has died. I don't know if this counts, however, since it occurs in the Bizarro world.
- It seems doubtful that Scrooge remembers the Sabbath day and keeps it holy.
Other Social Deviants: Sadly, not many. Everyone besides Scrooge is a jolly pain in the ass. Although Bob Crachit, being humble, hard-working, uncomplaining, and grateful to work for a mere pittance is about as socially deviant as they come. (Although, as an aside, he does have about 500 kids, so he must be up to something.) And Tiny Tim really is a mawkish little moppet. However, we do have Fezziwig, the jolly dancing fat man. He's pretty entertaining.
Total Body Count: Well, if you count Scrooge and Tiny Tim in the Bizarro world, 2. Marley is already dead when the book begins, so other than that, we get 0.
On the Dickens Evil-O-Meter, A Christmas Carol is a disappointing 4. And that's only because Scrooge is a right bastard at the beginning of the book. Bah Humbug.
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