Jaggers, the peremptory lawyer, who carries into ordinary conduct and conversation the habits of the criminal bar, and bullies and cross-examines even his dinner and his wine,Joe, the husband of "the hand" by which Pip was brought up,Wopsle, Wemmick, Orlick, the family of the Pockets, the mysterious Miss Havisham, and the disdainful Estella, are not repetitions, but personages that the author introduces to his readers for the first time.

It is observed by Bacon, that "reading makes a full man, conversation a ready man, and writing an exact man.