Whittles?

Question

In Charles Dickens' story "Great Expectations" the protagonist (Pip) is told to go and steal a file and some "whittles". What exactly are whittles?

Khoff · Accepted Answer

I think this is a dialect form of "vittles," which is an old-fashioned word for food.

Vorpar · Answer

Possibly a knife (dictionary says that's an archaic usage) or some material to whittle (carve)  with.

Optic · Answer

I agree with Vopar
To make something from a piece of wood (carve) by cutting off small thin pieces.
An old sailor sat on the dockside whittling a toy boat.

Khoff · Answer

How about actually looking at "Great Expectations"? (By the way, it's "wittles," not "whittles." It's a mispronunciation of "vittles," which is a corrupted form of "victuals," which means "food.")

Now lookee here," he said, "the question being whether you're to be let to live. You know what a file is?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you know what wittles is?"

"Yes, sir."

After each question he tilted me over a little more, so as to give me a greater sense of helplessness and danger. . . .

"You get me a file." He tilted me again. "And you get me wittles." He tilted me again. "You bring 'em both to me." He tilted me again. "Or I'll have your heart and liver out." He tilted me again.

I said that I would get him the file, and I would get him what broken bits of food I could, and I would come to him at the Battery, early in the morning. . . .

I stole some bread, some rind of cheese, about half a jar of mincemeat (which I tied up in my pocket-handkerchief with my last night's slice), some brandy from a stone bottle . . . a meat bone with very little on it, and a beautiful round compact pork pie. I was nearly going away without the pie, but I was tempted to mount upon a shelf, to look what it was that was put away so carefully in a covered earthen ware dish in a corner, and I found it was the pie, and I took it, in the hope that it was not intended for early use, and would not be missed for some time.

. . . His eyes looked so awfully hungry, too, that when I handed him the file and he laid it down on the grass, it occurred to me he would have tried to eat it, if he had not seen my bundle. He did not turn me upside down, this time, to get at what I had, but left me right side upwards while I opened the bundle and emptied my pockets.

"What's in the bottle, boy?" said he.

"Brandy," said I.

He was already handing mincemeat down his throat in the most curious manner - more like a man who was putting it away somewhere in a violent hurry, than a man who was eating it - but he left off to take some of the liquor.

These are excerpts from Chapters 1 and 2.

My2sense · Answer

Such a wonderful book to read!

MrPedantic · Answer

Apparently W for V was common in Cockney English, in the 19th century. (Cf. Sam and Mr Weller, in Pickwick Papers.)

MrP

Anonymous · Answer

what is a file?

pip is also asked to get it.

please reply asap because i need to know the answer with in 15 minutes!!!!

also is wittles a food or something to carve with?

MrPernickety · Answer

A file is a tool with a grainy surface, used to sharpen/sever metal structures
Pip used a file to break the prisoner free of the shakles that he was bound in.
As far as wittles goes, Khoff expatiated on it above.

Anonymous · Answer

whittle: food
file: something to make something sharper

Anonymous · Answer

I would not think pronouncing 'victuals' as "wittles" would suggest a lower-class person. In fact, I believe it would suggest his great education, since he is pronouncing the V as a W -- which is how you pronounce V in Latin. He must have had a proper British education if he knows Latin! Besides, later he turns out to be a very shrewd businessman, further supporting the claim of a good education.

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