Think you realize so much about Dickens? Then who’s this Herbert persona? | Zoe Williams

It’s unwise to drill too deeply into the precise questions that arise in a GCSE paper. You can’t get a correct sense of percentage when: you almost certainly don’t know the solution the examiners are on the lookout for, or anything else concerning the topic; your child can’t keep in mind what they wrote anyway; and somebody on TikTok has the mark scheme. But do they actually? Or is it extra TikTok nonsense? You’ll both get sucked into the catastrophe-vortex, otherwise you fall into the lure of minimising, having a look over your metaphorical half-moon glasses and going, “I’m sure it’ll be fine, darling,” like an Edwardian dad.

All oldsters and academics know this, which is what made final week so very ordinary. The English paper set via one of the vital major inspecting forums has a personality query that encourages pupils to interact deeply with somebody in the important thing textual content. It may not be the principle persona, however generally it’ll be one you’ve heard of.

In Great Expectations, then again, they selected Herbert. Maybe you’re accustomed to the tale – there’s a hero, there’s a love pastime, there’s an eccentric benefactor, and there’s a villain who handiest seems two times however could be very vibrant. None of those individuals are Herbert. There’s a kindly father determine, a mom determine, a random unhealthy man, a service provider and a gold-digger, and, once more, none of those are Herbert.

Herbert is a no one. He’s the man within the wedding ceremony photograph whose identify other people can’t keep in mind via the 10th anniversary. He is – within the fashionable parlance – no longer A Thing. Shoehorning the whole lot, and even anything else you realize about Great Expectations, in the course of the persona of Herbert is like making an attempt to provide an explanation for photosynthesis the usage of a fingernail and a few gravel. It’s been the controversy of town. I walked right into a Starbucks and overheard two other people of about my age going: “Who the hell is Herbert?” This is one of the vital talked-about Herbert has ever been.

So, an ideal day for him, however a crisis for everybody else.