“Her face looked to me as if it were all disturbed by fiery air, like the faces I had seen rise out of the Witches’ cauldron” (201). Through Pip’s narrative, Dickens alludes to Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Shakespeare’s works are reference a handful of times in the novel--the reader notices Dickens’ respect for the Bard. This passage assumes the events in Macbeth to be common knowledge, and that any reader would recognize and relate to this narrative. The themes in Macbeth, mainly crime and guilt, are also heavily explored in Great Expectations. In Macbeth, Macbeth and the Queen both commit crimes and experience the guilt afterwards. In Dickens’ novel the convicts, along with Mr. Jaggers, distinguish this theme.
"Macbeth: Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article." AbsoluteAstronomy.com. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Macbeth.
look at the other comments on your concordance -- what will I say about this entry?
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