While Uncle Pumblechook tends to business matters, Pip is left to entertain himself. He comes across a young girl named Estella, who treats him coldly and contemptuously, but still Pip falls in love with her. He dreams of one day becoming a wealthy gentleman so that he can be worthy of her, here is where Dickens begins to introduce the idea of the benefits and differences between upper and lower social classes. When regular visits to Miss Havisham being to take place, Pip dreams of her paying for him to become a real gentleman so he can wed Estella. However, his hopes are dashed when Miss Havisham puts in to place plans for him to become a common labourer in the family business. Pip works there unhappily, improving his education with Biddy, and meeting Orlick the day labourer. After a particularly bad run-in with Orlick, Mrs Gargery is attacked and becomes a mute invalid, although Pip suspects from her hand signals and gestures that Orlick was the culprit.
Pip continued with his monotonous work and imagined wistfully the life of a gentleman. Out of the blue, a lawyer called Jaggers appears at the Gargery residence claming that a secret benefactor has left Pip a large amount of money with the instructions that Pip learns to be a gentleman. Jaggers says that Pip must leave for London immediately to begin his education and Pip believes that his hopes have come true; Miss Havisham is paying to make him a gentleman and allow him to marry Estella. Upon arrival in London, Pip befriends Herbert Pocket who is the son of Pip’s tutor Matthew Pocket. Pip and Herbert lead an ordinary upper class life with Herbert helping Pip with the finer points of being a gentleman.
When Pip turns twenty-one and begins to receive an income from his fortune, he plans to secretly help Herbert buy his way into the business he has chosen for himself. Pip leads a fairly undisciplined life in London running up debts. Orlick reappears in Pip’s life, employed as Miss Havisham’s porter, but is promptly fired by Jaggers after Pip reveals Orlick’s unsavoury past. Mrs. Joe dies, and Pip goes home for the funeral, feeling tremendous grief and remorse. Several years go by, until one night a familiar figure barges into Pip’s room—the convict, Magwitch, who stuns Pip by announcing that he, not Miss Havisham, is the source of Pip’s fortune. He tells Pip that he was so moved by Pip’s boyhood kindness that he dedicated his life to making Pip a gentleman, and he made a fortune in Australia for that very purpose.
Although Pip is disgusted to find that his mystery benefactor is in fact a criminal, Pip feels bound to help Magwitch escape from London and the pursuit of the police, as well as Compeyson, Magwitch’s old partner. Mysteries unravel as we find that Compeyson was the one who left Miss Havisham at the altar and Estella turns out to be Magwitch’s daughter.
During the time Pip spends with Magwitch, Pip sees the good in him and begins to care for him deeply. During this time Pip finds out that his childhood sweetheart Estella has married Bentley Drummle, an oafish, unpleasant young man who attended tutoring sessions with Pip at the Pockets’ house. Pip visits Satis House, where Miss Havisham begs his forgiveness for the way she has treated him in the past, and he forgives her. Whilst Pip is still there, she falls near to the fire and her dress catches alight. She survives but becomes an invalid. She continues to beg for forgiveness from Pip.
Eventually, the time comes for Pip and his friends to help Magwitch escape from London. Before the plan can be put into action, Pip is called to a meeting in the marshes, where he encounters Orlick, the man from his childhood. Orlick is on the verge of killing Pip when Herbert arrives with a group of friends and saves Pip’s life. Pip and Herbert return to the plan and try to sneak Magwitch down the river on a rowboat, but the police, who were informed by Compeyson, discover them. Magwitch and Compeyson fight in the river, and Compeyson is drowned. Magwitch is sentenced to death, and Pip loses his fortune. Magwitch feels that his sentence is God’s forgiveness and dies at peace. Pip falls ill; Joe comes to London to care for him, and they are reconciled. Joe gives him the news from home: Orlick, after robbing Pumblechook, is now in jail; Miss Havisham has died and left most of her fortune to the Pockets; Biddy has taught Joe how to read and write. After Joe leaves, Pip decides to rush home after him and marry Biddy, but when he arrives there he discovers that she and Joe have already married.
Pip decides to go abroad with Herbert to work in the mercantile trade. Returning many years later, he encounters Estella in the ruined garden at Satis House. Her husband is dead and Pip finds that Estella’s coldness and cruelty have been replaced by a sad kindness. The two leave the garden hand in hand, Pip believing that they will never part again.
In Chapter one, Pip is only a young orphaned boy living in the care of his sisterMrs Joe Gargery and her husband the blacksmith.
Brianna Haberman-Lawson 11.6
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