Editing Great Expectations (section)

=== Orlick as Pip's double ===
Julian Moynahan argues that the reader can better understand Pip's personality through analysing his relationship with Orlick, the criminal laborer who works at Joe Gargery's forge, than by looking at his relationship with Magwitch.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Julian |last=Moynahan |title=The Hero's Guilt: The Case of ''Great Expectations'' |location=London |publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul |journal=Essays in Criticism |year=1960 |volume=10 |pages=73–87 }}</ref>

[[File:Ch. 34 Pip, Biddy, followed by Orlick.jpeg|thumb|Pip and Biddy followed by Orlick (chapter 17), by [[John McLenan]]]]
Following Moynahan, [[David Trotter (academic)|David Trotter]]<ref name="Dickens_ix-x">{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1996|p=ix–x}}</ref> notes that Orlick is Pip's shadow. Co-workers in the forge, both find themselves at Miss Havisham's, where Pip enters and joins the company, while Orlick, attending the door, stays out. Pip considers Biddy a sister; Orlick has other plans for her; Pip is connected to Magwitch, Orlick to Magwitch's nemesis, Compeyson. Orlick also aspires to "great expectations" and resents Pip's ascension from the forge and the swamp to the glamour of Satis House, from which Orlick is excluded, along with London's dazzling society. Orlick is the cumbersome shadow Pip cannot remove.<ref name="Dickens_ix-x"/>

Then comes Pip's punishment, with Orlick's savage attack on Mrs Gargery. Thereafter Orlick vanishes, only to reappear in chapter 53 in a symbolic act, when he lures Pip into a locked, abandoned building in the marshes. Orlick has a score to settle before going on to the ultimate act, murder. However, Pip hampers Orlick, because of his privileged status, while Orlick remains a slave of his condition, solely responsible for Mrs Gargery's fate.<ref name="Dickens_ix-x"/><ref name="Dickens_x">{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1996|p=x}}</ref>

Dickens also uses Pip's upper class counterpart, Bentley Drummle, "the double of a double", according to Trotter, in a similar way.<ref name="Dickens_x"/> Like Orlick, Drummle is powerful, swarthy, unintelligible, hot-blooded, and lounges and lurks, biding his time. Estella rejects Pip for this rude, uncouth but well-born man, and ends Pip's hope. Finally the lives of both Orlick and Drummle end violently.<ref name="Dickens_x"/>