Joe is actually Pip's brother-in-law and the village blacksmith. Joe stays with his overbearing, abusive wifeknown as Mrs. Joesolely out of love for Pip. Joe's quiet goodness makes him one of the few completely sympathetic characters in Great Expectations. Although he is uneducated and unrefined, he consistently acts for the benefit of those he loves and suffers in silence when Pip treats him coldly.
From the start of Great Expectations you can tell that the relationship between Pip and Joe is ample strong but what you can't tell from the opening chapters is how there relationship turns out to be a meaningful theme throughout the novel with low points and high points which help define the moods and stages at which Pip and Joe are.
The first noticeable change in Pips and Joes relationship is in chapter 7 when Pip learns of Joe's illiteracy and why. This happens as Pip hands over a slate to Joe which reads,
" MI DEER JO I OPE U R KRWITE WELL I OPE "
To Pips obvious surprise, Joe can seemingly only decipher "J" and "O" from whole letter, saying things like this,
"Why, here's a J, and an O equal to anythink! Here's a J and a O, Pip, and a J-O, Joe."
Joe has an extremely unusual love for reading, despite him not being able to read, he simply reads just to see " a J-O, Joe." After Pip discovers this illiteracy he asks why and finds out that's its due to Joe's dad who unfortunately hit him when he was younger. The conversation in which these quotes are taken from bring Joe and Pips relationship to a much higher level, now they are much more like friends as Pip is starting to see Joe as an equal instead of someone to look up to, Pip has developed from Joe being his father figure to much more of a friend/equal now.
Strangely, despite having a poor up bringing, Joe refers to his dad as;
"But my father were that good in his hart that he couldn't abear to be