Free Study Guide for Great Expectations by Charles Dickens-Book Summary

FREE BOOKNOTES-GREAT EXPECTATIONS

CHAPTER 29

Summary

When Pip arrives at Miss Havisham’s, he discovers that Joe’s employee Orlick, is now the old lady’s watchman. Estella is even more beautiful than she was and greets Pip with a pronouncement that he has changed much for the better. She warns him that his choice of company must necessarily change from what it once was, and Pip is convinced this means he must not associate with Joe. Estella recollects the day she watched Pip fight. Pip reminds her that she used to make him cry. She then turns to him and warns him that she has no heart. Pip tries to argue, but she is gravely serious. She warns him again that she has no tenderness or sympathy, and she never has.

Later, in the house, Miss Havisham implores Pip to love Estella, which he already does. Then she faints into his arms. Jaggers comes for dinner. Pip resolves in his heart to love Estella as the old lady has commanded, no matter what.

He closes the chapter with a retrospective lament that he felt no shame or sorrow over his decision to abandon Joe. At the time, he was so caught up with Estella he did not even question his choice.

Notes

This chapter reveals how deeply mired Pip has become in Miss Havisham’s “trap.” Estella is lovely and even more appealing, and Pip fawns over her like a puppy. Even though she warns him that she can never love him, he proceeds to finalize his plan to abandon Joe because he thinks it will please Estella. Pip as narrator is able to step outside these events for a moment and wonder how it was he could make such a choice without regret.

CHAPTER 30

Summary

Pip approaches Jaggers with his concern over the employment of Orlick at Satis House. He tells the lawyer of Orlick’s past and reputation, and Jaggers fires the man. When Pip returns to London, he sends a generous amount of food to Joe to assuage his own guilt. Then he proceeds to tell Herbert about Estella. Herbert already knows, however, and tries to persuade Pip to give up that foolishness. Herbert tells Pip about his girlfriend, Clara.

Notes

This chapter has a significant plot twist in that Pip is responsible for the firing of Orlick. Out of revenge, Orlick will eventually pose a threat to Pip’s life. For the most part, the rest of the chapter serves mainly to establish a pattern of denial and stubbornness on the part of Pip, leading to his continued downward fall. Even Herbert tries to warn Pip against loving Estella, but the boy with great expectations is resolute. The futility of loving Estella is obvious to all but Pip; that tragic love story is contrasted to the simple and sweet love between Herbert and Clara.

CHAPTER 31

Summary

Pip and Herbert go to the theater to see Wopsle’s performance in Hamlet. The play is amusing mostly for its lack of sophistication. Still, Herbert and Pip have a good time and after the play, they take Wopsle home for dinner.

Notes

Wopsle’s ascent to the theater is a comic parallel to the story of Pip’s ascent to high society. Joe had referred to Wopsle’s decision to leave the church as taking a “fall,” since the old man’s dream of being a famous actor seemed an aspiration destined to fail. And Wopsle made it to the big city, which could have been a sign of his success. Nevertheless, the audience reception of the play was exactly as Joe had predicted. The dreamer’s illusion of greatness is shattered by the reality of comic mediocrity. Like Wopsle, Pip’s dreams will never come true exactly as he had imagined. But his “fall” will be tragic where the older man’s is comic.

CHAPTER 32

Summary

Pip receives a letter from Estella saying that she is arriving in London very soon and would like him to meet her. Pip is so excited he can hardly contain himself. He arrives early, so to kill time he visits the Newgate Prison with Wemmick. He is horrified to see filthy conditions of the prison. Wemmick, strangely, is completely at ease. He even introduces Pip to a prisoner who is to be hanged.

Pip greets Estella hours later, and takes her to the house where she will be staying. Estella tells him she will be staying with a lady of good report, but that Pip is allowed to visit as liberally as he would like.

Notes

Aside from the dramatic endeavor of portraying Pip’s anxiety, this chapter also serves to comment in part on the conditions of London’s prisons. The Newgate Prison in London was actually known as one of the worst prisons in all of Europe, at the time the novel was written. Pip is horrified by what he sees, and also moved but the plight of the prisoners.

Pip returns to his world of ambitions and expectations as soon as he steps out of the prison and literally shakes off all the dust of crime and criminals that has collected on his clothes. He sees his great hope Estella waving at him from a coach and is filled with urgency to hide his visit from her. The irony is that prison will later be revealed as an important part of Estella’s past, as well as Pip’s.

Great Expectations Study Guide-Free BookNotes Plot Summary

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