Throughout the novel Great Expectations, many meals that have symbolic resonance take place several times. This essay will demonstrate that the meal in the novel is a recurring motif with three main functions. Firstly, these are indeed ceremonies of love or dark manifestations of the absence of love. Then, the meal motif also symbolizes power, which is acquired through social relationships. Finally, the meal is a rite of passage which marks a new beginning, or an important stage in the lives of Dickens's characters. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Meals and food are indeed “love ceremonies”. When functioning as a ceremony of love, the motif of the meal comes to represent the extension of grace to those who do not deserve it. This is evident in the meal that Pip brings to the escaped convict Magwitch. Although Magwitch never asked for it, Pip presents him with a "nice, round, compact pork pie" stolen from Mrs. Joe's pantry, which becomes the centerpiece of the meal. This pie is far more than Magwitch had required for basic sustenance, and is therefore a symbol of grace or the extension of undeserved love. The “round” image of the pie also suggests wholeness and therefore attributes a restorative quality to the meal as a whole. Additionally, the pie is prepared for Mrs. Joe's Christmas meal, which symbolically includes Magwitch in Pip's family's Christmas meal. The biblical allusion to Christmas, marking the birth of Jesus Christ, further suggests the extension of undeserved grace to the condemned Magwitch. Therefore, the meal that saves Magwitch's life and symbolically grants him more than he deserves cements the role of a meal as a ceremony of love. However, the meal motif also comes to represent the opposite of love, or lack of love. This is particularly evident in the decaying remains of Miss Havisham's wedding feast, which represent the denial or reversal of the ideal of perfect love. The “long table with a tablecloth spread on it, as if a feast were being prepared” repels rather than attracts all living creatures, for even spiders that “run” upon it instantly “come out.” Such anthropomorphism demonstrates that even animals most comfortable with rot, such as spiders, cannot tolerate the presence of the long table. This in turn transforms the table into a symbol of denied love, subverting the traditional symbolism of a meal into an event that attracts life and companionship. Thus, the meal motif represents both the presence and absence of love in Great Expectations. The meal is also used to highlight the power disparities apparent in Victorian society. Since the meal is a social event, the characters' interactions during the meal easily show which characters are capable of exerting power over others. This is evident during the meal Pip shares with Mr. Wopsle and the Gargery family. Here, Wopsle conjectures about Pip's moral worth if he had been born a "four-legged squeaker" or a pig. This is juxtaposed with the “pork” that the guests eat. The result is a zoomorphism that metaphorically transforms Pip into an eaten pig, reducing him to total helplessness in the face of all-powerful adults. In this way, the meal symbolically resonates with the social humiliation that children experience at the hands of more powerful adults. The theme of power is even clearer during dinner at Jaggers. In this meal, the social interaction at dinner is entirely under the control of Jaggers, who can manipulate the social world a lot.