In this chapter we can see that Pumblechook, is taking Pip, to see Miss Havisham and her young girl, Estella. Pumblechook is trying to make the best impression he can on Miss Havisham as she is the highest member of society in the town, and her asking him for a boy, is a great opportunity and responsibility for him and he lets everybody else the town know it.
Pip contemplates the injustice of life, since he has no choice in his upbringing. First Mrs Joe and now Estella seem to blame him for his lowly position. The injustice overwhelms him at first, and then simply makes him angry. This injustice also comes from Pumblechook. The chapter ends with his determination to make of himself something strong enough to combat the injustice. Pips sense of injustice leads him to strive to be better and he tries hard at school. Pip is the sort of boy who eventually becomes a gentleman who never goes for revenge just like Joe, Mr Pocket and Herbert.
Pip becomes familiar with guilt and injustice at a very young age, and these issues become central to his motivations throughout his life as a young man. Ironically it is Orlick, the most contemptible character in the novel, who is Mrs. Joe's unwitting agent of justice. Orlick, who contains selfishness and violence, is never brought to justice for his behaviour.
Magwitch is another example of a failed justice character. This is to, judged by appearances. Magwitch cares for Pip when he is captured. Supposedly, he appears to characterize evil and moral dishonesty. Pip finds him horrifying upon their first encounter and equally revolting when he returns to London as Provis. Despite all this, we learn that he is a loving, generous, sympathetic man who risks his life to see Pip and spends his fortune to repay Pip for an act of kindness. While he is a criminal, and deserving of punishment from the law, he is at the same time deserving of mercy and forgiveness from God. Magwitch’s character improves throughout the novel and ends up valued by Pip and has a good impact of Pip’s final character.
In this chapter there is a big connection between Estella and Pip, and this is that they are both being used as tools, against something, by Miss Havisham and Magwitch correspondingly. Magwitch wants to get his own back on society and so makes a poor working class boy into gentlemen, to prove society wrong, because he feels the court treated him badly, as he was poor. Miss Havisham on the other hand has a completely different reason for using Estella as a tool. She wants to get her own back on all men by breaking their hearts using Estella as Miss Havisham is to old to do this!
Bullying also arises in this chapter and in other events of the novel. Pumblechook is a bully in his specific own way as well as others that include Miss Havisham, Estella and Jaggers. They bully not in a physical way but in a metal way i.e. Jaggers bullies his clients and Orlick to Mrs Joe. These bullies adopt the other hand and are the perpetrators of abuse who are often victims themselves and they have their own sense of injustice to which they try to avoid.
As Pip gets older in the novel, there are more forms of bullying and abuse. Miss Havisham uses financial and social powers to punish the innocent boy. Magwitch wants revenge against the society. He does this by putting Pip on the path to being a ‘gentleman’ and by doing this, this humiliates the whole society. In order to do this he works hard to create a creature. Obsession with revenge is self destructive and people who cause injustice will end up causing self destruction. This happens in the novel throughout. For example Miss Havisham wants Estella to hurt men but not Miss Havisham however Estella turns against her so Miss Havisham therefore brings a life of decay upon herself. Estella however is like a dog. She is trained by Miss Havisham to hurt Pip’s feelings but she in this case gains pleasure from this. This is obviously unpleasant to Pip because he is not selfish but is a pure gentleman.
In the beginning of the chapter, Dickens explores the characters and relationships through meals. This theme meals, illustrates the true characters in this novel. The breakfasts and Christmas dinner gave adult over indulgence and control. The breakfast meal was very uncomfortable for Pip and so was the Christmas dinner but these events should be a central celebration. As well as meals, the theme ‘contrast’ is also present in the chapter and the rest of the novel. As Estella earlier on in the chapter is disappointed, Pip has high hopes. Pip is also envious but Joe is never jealous. These contrasts link within the novel. There is the wedding feast, which is left to decay. This seems to sum up all of Miss Havisham’s ways and her life. It can also be seen that the house, is decaying, which is ironic, seeing as the name of the house, means that it should be always pleasant but this isn’t the case.
The main themes of this novel are evident. These include appearances, Gentlemen or Gentle men, and lastly Crime and who are the true criminals. Dickens attacks manners as a mask for snobbery and illness. The real gentlemen in the whole novel are Joe, Mr Pocket and Herbert. Pip becomes more mature at the end of the novel though.
Throughout the novel, Pip always tries to escape from the crime that is present. He meets crime right at the beginning of the novel when he meets Magwitch in the marshes, also when he meets Estella and Jaggers. The real criminals though are Compryson, Molly and the person who is not a kind of criminal is Herbet. However there are characters in the novel that are in between the Non-criminals and the criminals. These are Miss Havisham and Estella. These characters fit into this category successfully.