Great Expectations

Pip feels guilty and personally responsible upon seeing his sister in physical distress. He feels this way, in part, because he’s still thinking of George Barnwell, a character from The London Merchant. In the play, Barnwell repeatedly feels responsible for situations where someone else framed him.

Someone has beaten Pip’s sister with a heavy object. The group finds a convict’s leg iron beside her, and Joe observes that it looks like someone filed the iron off long ago. Pip suspects that the leg iron belongs to the convict he met earlier in the book, and he feels guilty that he may have provided the perpetrator with a weapon. 

Mrs. Joe is now an invalid. Her vision, speech, and memory are badly damaged, but Pip finds her temper is better. Biddy serves as a nurse for Mrs. Joe and as a confidant for Joe. Mrs. Joe draws a “T” symbol on a slate, that Biddy recognizes as Orlick’s T-shaped hammer. Despite this, Mrs. Joe remains on good terms with Orlick.

On Pip’s birthday, he goes to visit Miss Havisham. She speaks of Estella the same way, gives him a guinea, and tells him to come back on his next birthday. When Pip attempts to decline the guinea, she angrily asks if he expected more.

Pip also notices that Biddy is becoming an attractive woman. While he notes that she’s common and will never be radiant like Estella, she is a nice girl: “pleasant and wholesome and sweet-tempered” (284). One evening, Pip feels overwhelmed as he attempts to transcribe passages from a book. He marvels that while he constantly struggles with the process of learning from books, Biddy never seems to struggle. Biddy replies modestly, but she adds that she was Pip’s first teacher. Pip believes he catches a glimpse of a tear falling from her eye as she says this.

On a Sunday afternoon, Pip and Biddy walk together by the river. He confides that he wants to become a gentleman to win over Estella. Biddy says Estella’s not worth the trouble and that he should be happy as he is. Pip wonders what his life would be like if he hadn’t gone to Miss Havisham’s and wishes that he could fall in love with Biddy instead of Estella. When he voices this, Biddy tells him that he will never fall in love with her. On the way home, the pair run into Orlick, who insists on going home with them. Biddy doesn’t like Orlick, as she fears that he likes her.

As the days go by, Pip feels torn between his desire to accept life with Joe and Biddy or continue longing for a life with Estella. He begins to fantasize that someday Miss Havisham will help him become a gentleman so he can marry Estella.

One night—during the fourth year of Pip’s apprenticeship—he gathers with a group of men at a local bar. They listen to Mr. Wopsle read the newspaper out loud. Wopsle delivers an account of a violent murder that has recently occurred. As Wopsle reads, Pip becomes aware of a strange man observing this performance with contempt. As Wopsle delivers the guilty verdict, the stranger declares that all men are legally innocent until proven guilty. The strange gentleman asks for Joe Gargery and his apprentice. When Joe and Pip present themselves, Pip recognizes him as the man he saw on Miss Havisham’s stairs. Back at the Gargery house, the gentleman introduces himself as Jaggers, a well-known London lawyer. He bears a generous offer to release Pip from his apprenticeship so he can study to become a gentleman, proclaiming, “he has great expectations” (312).

Jaggers explains that the first condition of Pip’s new “gentleman” status is that he always retain the name of “Pip.” Secondly, the identity of his benefactor should remain a secret. He explains that Matthew Pocket will tutor him. Pip immediately connects the name to Miss Havisham, as “Matthew” was the man who Camilla had criticized for not visiting Miss Havisham. 

Jaggers explains that Pip should take a coach to his new London address that week. He gives Pip 20 guineas to purchase new clothes, then tells Joe he is to pay him for the loss of his apprentice. Joe solemnly replies that Pip has his full blessing and that no amount of money makes up for the loss of Pip, the “little child” and his best friend. While Pip is excited and eager to become a gentleman, he is also sad to abandon his lifelong friend. His sadness worsens when he sees that Jaggers looks condescendingly looks on Joe.

Pip and Joe rush to tell Biddy the news of his departure. Biddy and Joe embrace Pip and congratulate him, but Pip notes that his friends are sad, and he resents it. Biddy tries to explain Pip’s change in status to his sister—who significantly repeats Biddy’s words “Pip” and “Property”—though Pip believes Mrs. Joe does not really comprehend what’s happening. Pip plans to have his new clothes tailored in town, then sent to Mr. Pumblechook’s because he doesn’t want the townsfolk to stare at him. Joe suggests that his friends might like seeing him dressed as a gentleman, but Pip couldn’t bear such a “course and common business”(327). That night, Pip contemplates his room, his former life, and how much everything is about to change.

The next day, Pip wakes feeling free and happy. He daydreams about Estella, wondering if Miss Havisham is training him as gentleman so he can marry her.

Pip reflects that it’s a shame Joe didn’t learn more in his lessons. He decides to send money to Joe when he is able, as he wants Joe to become less common. Pip shares these thoughts with Biddy, who considers Joe’s pride: “He may be too proud to let any one take him out of a place that he is competent to fill, and fills well and with respect” (338).

Pip goes to town the next morning. When he tells the town tailor, Mr. Trabb, the situation, Mr. Trabb is gracious and congratulatory. He brings out his finest material and makes a show of re-measuring Pip, even though he already has Pip’s measurements. Pip then visits the hatter's, the bootmaker's, and the hosier’s. He visits Mr. Pumblechook to manage his clothes, and Mr. Pumblechook praises Pip’s good fortune and his own (imagined) role in said fortune. He waxes about the comparative misfortune of his sister who brought Pip “up by hand” (349).

Before leaving for London, Pip stops by Miss Havisham’s in his new suit, where Sarah Pocket greets him at the door. Miss Havisham deems him a “gay figure” and is delighted that he has a benefactor. Pip notes that Sarah Pocket seems dismayed, and Miss Havisham appears to be gloating.

When Pip’s coach arrives, he manages to suppress his sadness as he says goodbye to Joe and Biddy. When his coach pulls away, he begins to cry and contemplates going back. Instead, he passively watches as the streets become unfamiliar.