Pip is troubled by the thought of an unexpected visitor lurking outside on the stairs, and the task of keeping his benefactor away from the prying eyes of his old neighbor woman and her niece seems arduous. He informs the watchman that the man who asked for him was his uncle and inquires after other unknown visitors. The watchman says that he thought another person was with his uncle—a working person, wearing dust- colored clothes. As the clock strikes six in the morning Pip lights the fire; shortly thereafter, he tells the old woman and her niece to modify breakfast, as his uncle had arrived during the night. When the convict awakens, he tells Pip that his real name is Abel Magwitch, but that he came to call himself Provis during his travels. He said that he hopes he is not known in London, though he was tried there most recently, and that he would not advertise the fact that he had returned from Australia. Pip concludes that he must offer the man lodging and that he’ll have to confide in Herbert, although Provis insists upon studying Herbert’s physiognomy before disclosure. Pip secures a lodging house for his so-called uncle, and then goes to see Jaggers, who, after confirming that his benefactor was indeed Abel Magwitch of New South Wales, says that he
doesn’t want to hear any more about the situation. Jaggers says that when Magwitch gave a distant hint of wanting to return to England, he was discouraged and told that he would unlikely be granted a pardon. Then he allows that Wemmick received a letter from a colonist named Provis interested in Pip’s address. After that disclosure, the conversation is terminated. This admission, says Morgenthaler, is the revelation of the fairy tale turns inside out—the happy ending is provided by a member of low society, proving, perhaps, Darwin’s idea of interdependence of all things. With Pip’s revelation and Jaggers’s confirmation, moral distinctions between categories are forever blurred.
Since Wemmick is out, Pip returns home to find Magwitch drinking rum. Even after his clothes are replaced, the convict still seems untamed and mysterious, and Pip is haunted by the fact that the man can be hanged on his account. Herbert returns and is halted by the sight of Magwitch; the three men sit by the fire as Pip explains the entire situation. Magwitch assures the two young men that he’ll always have a “gen-teel muzzle on.” (341) Herbert and Pip discuss the situation, and Herbert says that although he understands Pip’s impulse to separate himself from Magwitch’s funding and friendship, he sees danger in Pip’s renunciation of this stubborn and passionate man who for so long has had such a fixed idea to help him. They decide that the only thing to do is to convince Magwitch to leave England.
Magwitch sits down to tell the boys the story of his life, including mention of the other convict Pip encountered in the marshes, a man named Compeyson. This man, whom Magwitch met twenty years earlier, was good-looking and educated, and he soon took in Magwitch to be his partner in swindling. Compeyson’s other partner was a dying man named Arthur who lived upstairs; one evening Arthur, who was perpetually haunted by the image of a mad woman dressed all in white, saw the woman coming toward him with a shroud, and promptly died. During his employment with Compeyson Magwitch was tried and convicted of misdemeanor; soon after the two men were together tried for felony. At the trial, Compeyson’s character was celebrated, while Magwitch was
implicated. For this, after a series of trials and escapes, the two men became mortal enemies. As Magwitch stands smoking by the fire, Herbert pencils in the cover of a book, “ ‘ Young Havisham’s name was Arthur. Compeyson is the man who professed to be Miss Havisham’s lover.’ ” Fearful and vowing not to mention Estella to Provis, Pip sets off to find Estella the next day. He is told he can find her at Satis house, and as he passes the Blue Boar for breakfast and to clean up, he sees Bentley Drummle. They meet and exchange tense pleasantries until a waiter informs Drummle that the lady will not ride. Before Pip leaves he thinks he spots Orlick.
Miss Havisham and Estella are surprised to greet Pip, and he tells them that he’s discovered the secret of his patronage. In response to Pip’s query, Miss Havisham says that she brought him to Satis house as she might have any other chance boy, and that her association with Jaggers has nothing to do with Pip’s expectations. Pip expresses disdain that she has misled Herbert and Matthew Pocket as well as himself, and begs Miss Havisham do the lasting service for Herbert that he himself began. He then professes his love for Estella, who replies in kind that she doesn’t understand such a thing. She admits that she is to be married to Bentley Drummle. Pip begs her to bestow herself at the very least on someone more worthy, and explains that she will never leave his heart. He moves through the gate and toward London and finds a note from Wemmick awaiting him at the Temple, urging him not to go home.
After spending the night at a rooming house in Covent Garden, Pip sets off for Walworth. Wemmick tells Pip that Compeyson is living in London. Herbert, instructed by Wemmick to hide Magwitch until a plan can be constructed for his safe escape, has brought the convict to live with the father of his intended, Clara. Pip leaves Wemmick—noting from the tea service the imminent arrival of Miss Skiffins—and finds Herbert at the house Wemmick indicated. Herbert says that the housekeeper is happy to have the company of Magwitch upstairs from Clara’s father, the surly, noisy, drunk Mr. Barley. Herbert, Pip, and Magwitch construct a plan—they will take Magwitch down the river by boat, when the time is right.
Weeks pass without change and Pip begins to realize that Estella is married. He begins rowing regularly, so as to establish himself and his boat as a presence on the river. He keeps a nervous and distanced watch over Magwitch. One evening Pip dines alone and then takes in a Christmas pantomime in which Wopsle is featured. When he greets his former neighbor afterwards, he is shocked when Wopsle indicates that he recognized a man to have been sitting behind Pip, describing him as one of the two convicts they found in the ditch many years earlier. Pip is shocked that Compeyson was behind him, “like a ghost.” (386) Pip returns home and holds council with Herbert by the fire. One day soon after, Pip runs into Jaggers, who invites him to lunch with Wemmick. Jaggers says over lunch that Miss Havisham wishes to settle a matter of business with Pip; he then gleefully mentions that “our friend the Spider” has won the contest of Estella’s heart. When Jaggers summons his housekeeper, Molly, Pip is surprised to notice that the hands and eyes of the housekeeper were so familiar; that, in fact, she is doubtlessly Estella’s mother. After the meal Pip asks Wemmick if he has ever seen Miss Havisham’s adopted daughter. When Wemmick says no, Pip reminds him of the time he was instructed to take notice of Jaggers’s housekeeper. Wemmick says that many years earlier, the housekeeper was tried and acquitted for murder. It was a case of jealously, Wemmick says, as both Molly and the murder victim were tramps. He says that the woman was also under strong suspicion of having destroyed her three-year-old child as revenge upon the man, but Jaggers argued against that, insisting that the marks on her hands were not those of fingernails but brambles. The sex of the child, Wemmick says, was female.
Pip returns to Satis house, and Miss Havisham begs Pip to explain the history behind his secret partnership with Herbert. She says that if she gives him the money—900 pounds—Pip must agree to keep her secret as she has kept his own. He agrees, and she asks if there is nothing she might do to serve Pip as she has his friend. They sign papers on their agreement and Miss Havisham begs him to write under her name, “I
forgive her.” (398) Pip insists that he has forgiven her, and Miss Havisham cries despairingly and repeatedly, “What have I done!” Pip asks after Estella, and Miss Havisham says that she doesn’t know whose child she was but that Jaggers brought her when she was two or three. They part, and Pip walks through the brewery, taking stock of the places where he felt such childish hope and pain. As he looks into the window, he seems Miss Havisham throw herself onto the fire. He rushes in and attempting to smother the flames with his coat and his hands, he burns himself. A surgeon arrives and pronounces her wounds serious and her shock potentially more fatal. The surgeon promises to write to Estella, who is in Paris. Pip sets off to notify the family personally.
Back at Barley’s house, Herbert dresses Pip’s wounds and speaks of a discussion he had with Magwitch in which Magwitch mentions a woman with whom he had a child and many struggles. Magwitch told Herbert that the woman was vengeful to the point of murder, and that though she was acquitted, the woman swore that she would destroy the child. Fearful that he would be the cause of the child’s death, Magwitch hid himself. Herbert says that when Pip was seven and ran into Magwitch in the churchyard, Magwitch was reminded of the little girl. Pip asks Herbert to confirm that he has no fever—that he is in the right frame of mind—and then explains patiently that the man they have in hiding is Estella’s father.
Pip goes to Little Britain and makes the arrangements with Jaggers and Wemmick for Herbert’s future. Pip mentions that he engaged Miss Havisham in a discussion of Estella’s origins, saying later that he, unlike Miss Havisham, knew Estella’s mother. Jaggers is startled, and Pip says he has seen Estella’s mother in the past three days, and that he knows her father: Provis, from New South Wales. Then Pip discloses all that he knows, leaving Jaggers to infer that some information was imparted by Miss Havisham rather than by Wemmick. Jaggers abruptly changes the subject, and Pip implores Wemmick— invoking his pleasant home and aging father—to urge his superior to be more forthright. Jaggers maps out the story for
Pip and asks for whose benefit the secret should be revealed. When Pip fails to provide an answer, Jaggers returns once again to his work. When a client appears, sniveling, shortly thereafter, Jaggers dismisses him, insisting “I’ll have no feelings here.” (415)
Pip settles Herbert’s affairs, and Herbert tells Pip that his career is progressing such that he might establish a branch- house in Cairo, where he and Clara hope to live. A few days later, they receive a post from Walworth which tells them the escape should be plotted for Wednesday. Herbert suggests they engage Startop in the plan, and they begin to construct a detailed scheme which provides for Pip’s injured hands. Pip receives an anonymous note which summons him to the old marshes in order to receive information about his uncle Provis. Pip leaves immediately, stopping at Satis house to inquire after Miss Havisham, and then taking dinner in an inn. He engages the landlord in a unwitting conversation about his own history, with Pumblechook cited as his earliest benefactor. As Pip listens, he realizes how much of an impostor Pumblechook was, and how good, honest, and uncomplaining Joe was.
Pip walks through the marshes and seeing a light in the old sluice house, walks in. He calls out to see if anyone is nearby, and is captured, he realizes, by Orlick. Orlick says that he is going to kill Pip—as he did his sister—and that he knows about Provis and Pip’s plans to smuggle him away. Stopping first to drink, he picks up a hammer. Pip shouts and struggles with all his might, hears voices, and sees Orlick emerge from the struggle and run into the night. It is Herbert and Startop come to his rescue, and they assure Pip that he has the next day to rest before the journey. They say that in Pip’s haste he dropped the letter, and so they tried to find him at Miss Havisham’s. Finding Pip nowhere they retired to the Blue Boar, which Pip had often mentioned, and heard from Trabb’s boy that Pip had been seen going in the direction of the sluice house. It is Orlick, Moynahan argues, not Magwitch, who represents the true criminal in Great Expectations, for his origins are mysterious and he has no regret for any of his actions. They work side by side, and in some ways, Orlick represents the
shadow of Pip—they are both ambitious, and in many ways, they want the same things. When he confronts him in the sluice-house, he wants to take his life both literally and figuratively. But with this parallel drawn, Moynahan says, the reader may be compelled to see Pip more harshly than Pip might ever see himself.
The next morning a bright sunrise inspires the men to begin their journey. They set off and stop at Clara’s house for Magwitch, who seems grateful and relaxed. As they begin to row, he mentions the delights of freedom and compares life’s fleetingness and fluidity to the river’s. They stop that night at a rundown inn, dragging the boat up, and the landlord mentions a seeing a four-oared galley. That night Pip notices two men looking into their boat, and the next morning it is decided that Pip and Magwitch will set off early. They see a Rotterdam steamer that will take them away, but then, in the early afternoon, Pip notices the galley. Soon they hear a policeman call for the arrest of Abel Magwitch. Noticing the face of Compeyson onboard, Magwitch dives into the river to attack him. After a struggle, only Magwitch surfaces, injured badly, and he is immediately placed in shackles. He claims that there had been a struggle underwater, but that he didn’t drown Compeyson—he simply disengaged and swam away. Pip promises to stand by his benefactor. Brooks argues that the fact that Magwitch’s return is played out on a Thames estuary draws a line back to Pip’s childhood and his first encounter with Magwitch on the marshes. “It was like my own marsh country,” Pip thinks, “flat and monotonous, and with a dim horizon.” (438) Ghent argues that the river is one of the most prominent demonic symbols in Dickens—it unites classes, reveals evidence, unites victim and criminal, and swallows people whole.
At Police Court the next day, Jaggers is convinced Magwitch will be found guilty. Pip is not bothered by news that his inheritance shall be appropriated by the state. At this time Herbert explains that he and Clara must leave for Cairo. Herbert offers Pip a clerkship, and Pip says that he must leave the question open for a little while. On Saturday Pip returns to
his lonely home and finds Wemmick on the stairs, looking for him. He asks if Pip will meet him at the Castle on Monday morning, and when he does, the two take a little walk and find, inside a church, Miss Skiffins and a wedding party. The two are married, and Pip promises not to mention a word of the festivities in Little Britain.
Pip goes to visits the ailing Magwitch in prison. Though Jaggers put in an application for a trial postponement given the state of his client, Magwitch is found guilty and sentenced to death. In response, Magwitch says, “I have received my sentence of Death from the Almighty, but I bow to yours.” (458) As the days wear on, Pip knows the end is near. When words fail his benefactor, Pip tells him, immediately before death, that he knows of Magwitch’s child, that she was still alive, and that he loves her. Brooks argues that Magwitch’s statement before the court is Dickens way of contrasting human plots, such as the law, with the laws of the universe, which render futile both actions and attempts at interpretation. The shaft of light that falls onto all the court’s attendants eliminates the distinction between the judge and the judged and the guilty and the innocent. Pip’s evolution is apparent in his observation of “the broad shaft of light ... linking both together, and perhaps reminding some among the audience, how both were passing on, with absolute equality, to the greater Judgment that knoweth all things and cannot err.” (458)
Pip falls ill himself after Magwitch’s death, and his debt is so great that he is arrested and carried off to prison. In his abject state he begins hallucinating, seeing Miss Havisham and Orlick and finally Joe. Pip finally snaps out of his feverish haze and realizes that Joe actually is sitting at his bedside, having come to nurse him back to health. When Joe composes a note to Biddy, telling of Pip’s recovery, Pip realizes that Biddy has taught Joe to write. Joe says that Miss Havisham died about a week after Pip took ill, and that she distributed her wealth among the Pockets, including four thousand pounds to Matthew. He also tells Pip Orlick was arrested and thrown into the county jail for robbing Pumblechook. One Sunday, the
still-weak Pip and Joe go for an outing, and Pip tries to tell Joe the story of Magwitch—Joe, however, is not interested in revisiting painful memories. Upon rising the next morning, Pip realizes that Joe is gone. He has left only a note and a receipt indicating that he had paid all of Pip’s debt.
In some ways, Pip’s emergence from brainfever finds him a child again—in the care of Joe, absolved of all his mistakes. Still, innocence is lost, and Pip must address his lost innocence head on. He returns to find Satis House in a state of disarray, readying for an auction. Stopping at the Blue Boar, Pip encounters Pumblechook, who is very rude to him. Finally, he