This the end, My only friend, the end.

Matilda’s Two Saviors

In Lloyd Jones’s novel, “Mister Pip”, he presents two characters that, at the outset, could not appear more different. Matilda’s mum is Delores Lamio, a realistic woman who does not have a place for fiction or nonsense. Mr. Watts is Matilda’s teacher and a dreamer with a grand imagination, who has little use for the truth other than as it relates to a good story. Matilda is presented with these two worldviews at the formative period in her life when she is internalizing adult influences. She thus becomes the protagonist in a classic bildungsroman. She is Pip from “Great Expectations”, or any other hero in a coming of age story. The story of Matilda’s two savior figures is stunning; they give their lives to save her and are literally torn to shreds in order to bring about Matilda’s salvation. The savior is necessary in coming-of-age stories. Their death is a right-of-passage, or breaking point for old thinking. After this death the hero is fully responsible for her own actions and has no one to lean on to get answers. It takes several things to satisfy the role of savior in literature: the first is to impart some knowledge to a pupil or community. The second is to take upon them the sins of an individual or community (Scapegoat). The third is to be sacrificed (literally or figuratively) in some manner that allows for the sins of the individual or community to be redeemed. In the story of “Mister Pip” both Mr. Watts and Matilda’s mum function as savior figures.

            It is clear that Matilda learns a great deal from Mr. Watts. For instance, he shows her how to listen for the voice that only she can speak in (p. 124). He shows Matilda the power imagination has to reshape reality and the power of story to function as a weapon for survival (p. 256) He also says:

“It is hard to be a perfect human being, Matilda, … Pip is only human. He has been given the opportunity to turn himself into whomever he chooses. He is free to choose. He is even free to make bad choices.” (p. 71)

 

 In his role as a Mister Pip, his story of the spare room and the battle for the contents of its walls becomes a set of proverbs for the community (p.185). His six-night “Sermon on the Mount” to the gathered townspeople and Rambos also provides several parables regarding the importance and power of dream, most acutely the story of the mayfly (p. 192). In these revelations Mr. Watts imparts wisdom onto both Matilda and the community. He even has his own scriptures in the form of “Great Expectations”, which he both rewrites for the children in class and wholly reworks and inhabits for the Rambos.

            Less obvious than Mr. Watts’ proverbs are Matilda’s mum’s teachings. She passes on her practical wisdom in the classroom also in the form of a stories “which have a job to do (p. 86): regarding the behavior of crabs as it relates to weather      (p. 44), a parable of the devil trying to tempt her with the offering plate at church (p.86), and a story about how God and the Devil are intertwined like the pleats of a braid (p. 80). She instills the value of tradition, faith and family. Her lessons focus on the practical side of life in the world of here and now. Abstract thought is potentially ruinous (p. 42). But, in spite of how they are negatively cast in Matilda’s mind, her mother’s lessons are heartfelt and genuine. She also has a set of scriptures to which she adheres, “ The Good Book”.

If both Matilda’s Mum and Mr. Watts have her best interests at heart why must they come into conflict? Matilda states:

“I knew that orphaned white kid and that small, fragile, place he squeezed into between his awful sister and lovable Joe Gargery, because the same space came to exist between Mr. Watts and my mum. And I knew I would have to choose between the two.” (p. 47)

 

Some conflict between their ideologies seems inevitable, and comes in the form of Mrs. Lamio stealing Mr. Watts’ copy of “Great Expectations” and hiding it in a bedroll in the rafters of her house (p. 108). She believes she is protecting Matilda from the unsavory influence of the fictitious Pip.  This is the sin that sets the stage for all future woe.  When Matilda discovers the theft and stays quite she becomes a co-conspirator, thus sinning herself and requiring redemption (p. 109).

            Mr. Watts becomes the scapegoat in the community in several ways. The town burns all his belongings in a fit of mob-rule (p. 115). But, more subtly, by assuming the name Pip to the Rambos he makes himself the target of the Red Skin captain’s wrath. He has essentially assumed the guilt of the entire community’s deception. Mrs. Lamio knows he is guiltless of this deception, but no longer posses the evidence necessary to exonerate him.  She takes responsibility for her and Matilda’s sins and declares herself “God’s Witness”. After her rape, Matilda’s mum offers her life in order to save Matilda’s. Now both Mr. Watts and Matilda’s mum have taken on someone else’s guilt.

            Having acquired the sins of both the community and Matilda and having paid for their own sins, the scapegoats are led away and ignobly dismembered and fed to pigs. Matilda, whose new life is bought and paid for by the bloody sacrifices of her two saviors, is then baptized by the flood in the river, and clutching to “Mr. Jaggers”, is reborn into her new world as a young woman of “Great Expectations”, ready for her anagnosis.

“But at this point I am always reminded of what Mr. Watts once told us kids about what it is to be a gentleman. It is an old fashioned view. Others, and these days I include myself, will want to substitute gentleman with moral person. He said that to be a human is to be moral, and you cannot have a day off when it suits. My brave mum knew this when she stepped forward to proclaim herself God’s witness to the cold blooded butchery of her old enemy, Mr. Watts.” (p. 210)