 Let's look at the character of Herbert Pocket. Now, Herbert Pocket is a young boy when we first meet him who is of a similar age to Pip. And in fact, when they first meet, they do have a fight in the courtyard of Miss Havisham. Now, whilst he's of a similar age to Pip and also when Pip does move to London, he is basically one of the few genuine friends that Pip makes, and Pip recognizes the value of his friendship. He comes from a vastly different social background. So whilst Pip is working class and poor initially, Herbert Pocket is a relative of Miss Havisham, hence he is part of upper class Victorian society. Now whilst in contrast to Stella and Miss Havisham, he is presented as actually a very kind person and a kind gentleman, we can also see that he's able to see through pretence. He was able to recognize Kompison did not have good intentions for Miss Havisham in the run up to her wedding. However, even on her wedding day, he was banned from attending the wedding because Miss Havisham would not listen to him. However, he does of course reflect later on that he was right and he's a good judge of character. Now, Herbert Pocket also is a good judge of character in terms of who he ends up marrying. So he ends up marrying Clara, who in disposition and character is more of a very typical Victorian woman. She's very kind, very passive, very caring and this is in stark contrast to Stella who Pip in Herbert knows that Pip fell in love with but she misleads Pip and ends up marrying somebody else. Now, when it comes to writing about Herbert in great expectations, either for your course or career exams, of course, you do need to be very well versed in his character. Therefore, I have selected the most relevant quotations to remember when it comes to his characters or the word level analysis that you can do for his character. So let's begin with the first quotation and this is how he is described by Pip because remember that they share the lodgings also later on when he grows older and when he gets an inheritance in London so he shares lodgings with Herbert Pocket. In other words, he lives with him. And Pip states, Herbert was my intimate companion and friend. Now, the word level analysis you want to do here which emphasizes just how much of a positive influence Herbert Pocket was on Pip is words relating to the semantic field of friendship. So you've got companion and friend. So Herbert is, aside from Joe Gargery, Herbert is another person that really genuinely cares for Pip and really looks out for him and Pip really recognizes this and is grateful for it. Now, the second quotation to remind for Herbert Pocket is when Pip tells him what a hopeful disposition you have, said I and this is Pip speaking to Herbert Pocket. He's so amazed by just how happy, how positive Herbert Pocket is. Now, the word level analysis you want to do here is the adjective hopeful which shows how good, kind his nature is. And of course, also you want to make the structural point that this is an exclamatory sentence whereby we can see Pip really admires his honest and open nature. The third quotation to remind for Herbert Pocket is when Pip states, having already made his fortune in his own mind, he was so assuming with it that I felt quite grateful to him for not being puffed up. So here we can see that Herbert is described by Pip as being very ambitious. He wants to make a fortune and one of the reasons that he wants to make a fortune is so that he can be able to marry Clara and provide her with a very good life. Now, Pip basically really admires his work ethic. He admires his focus on making a fortune. Don't forget that Pip also does give him some money from the inheritance that he gets in order to set up his business abroad, okay? Now here we can see that Pip really admires and looks up to Herbert Pocket. And we can see also that Herbert has a very positive outlook. Now, the word level analysis you want to do is focusing on the pronouns and the repetition of the pronouns his where we can see that Pip really admires his character and his positive and really happy disposition. The other quotation for Herbert Pocket is when he reveals that he never trusted Kompison. He never trusted that he was a true gentleman and he was going to always betray Miss Havisham. He states, no man who was not a true gentleman at heart ellipsis, no varnish can hide the grain of wood. So here he's basically saying that he could tell by the fabric of Kompison's character even if Kompison tries to basically try to cover up that he's a good person. Of course, he learned that he jilted Miss Havisham at the altar. But Herbert Pocket states that he understood that this man was never a true gentleman. He only relied on deceptive appearances to deceive Miss Havisham which he did successfully. Now here we can see that he's a very good judge of character and this is illustrated when you're doing word level analysis in the repetition of the words no here as well as here. And also we can see that he understands as a judge of character and understand the fabric of Kompison's character. His internal traits was rotten. He was a bad person because he uses the metaphor grain of wood. He's basically saying no matter how much you varnish a grain of wood you can't hide what it really is. If it's oak wood, even if you put varnish you can never misguide somebody and say that this is oak wood. So of course what he's saying is that Kompison was never really a gentleman and he recognized that even before he jilted Miss Havisham at the altar. The other quotation for Herbert Pocket is when Pip states, Herbert Pocket had a frank and easy way ellipsis and natural incapacity to do anything secret and mean. And of course here we can see that he's actually a really kind person and this is a massive contrast to Miss Havisham and Estella who were very mean, who were very horrible. They were quite malicious. They plotted against Pip as well as other people. Herbert is a complete contrast. And of course here what Dickens is trying to show is that not all upper class people were bad but equally not all working class people were negative, okay? So we can see here Herbert comes from a more upper class background but he's actually a very good person. Now this is illustrated when you're doing word-level analysis in the juxtaposition of the terms frank which means honest, open versus mean. And also the word secret and mean belong to the semantic field of cruelty and what Pip is saying is that he was incapable of doing anything for all he was a good person. The final quotation to bear in mind with Herbert's pocket and this is when Pip realises that he's a genuine friend that really cared for him is when the story states and when Pip states, Herbert received me with open arms and I'd never felt before. So blessedly what it is to have a friend. So here we can see that Pip really values his friendship especially when he now realises just how hollow, how fake, how false upper class London society is. He realises that he was misguided and assuming that just because he became rich everything would be amazing. Everyone around him would be a good person and with good intentions but actually realises all those people were all very forced to him including Miss Havishem Nasella. However, he is really grateful that Herbert was good and kind to him. Now the word-level analysis you want to do here is the use of hyperbole by Pip to show that he's really great for his states. I had never felt before. So of course he talks about how Herbert was so kind. He received him with the kindness that Pip has really never experienced before, okay? And this is shown in the hyperbole. And of course also you want to focus on the abstract now in friend which shows just how much Pip values Herbert as a genuine friend and companion to him. Particularly in a society that is very duplicitous, is not honest and of course Pip then realises that he can't always rely on appearances to just believe that everybody who's upper class is a good person. However, Herbert is shown to be a very good person and a very kind and caring friend to Pip. So that's it when it comes to key quotes to remember and the word-level analysis you can do when writing about Herbert pocket's character in great expectations.