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Fiction

Notes Analysis

Pip is introduced to a number of strange characters in this chapter but, more importantly, he
is given some more hints about Miss Havisham’s strange lifestyle. It is clear that the decay of
her and the house stem from her wedding day that none of her relatives dare to mention.
Miss. Havisham’s relationship with her relatives — Georgiana, Sarah Pocket, Cousin Raymond,
and Camilla — is even more loveless than her relationship with Pip. For her relatives, their
visit to Miss Havisham is based on greed, hoping to please her enough to be given some of
her money at her death. Miss Havisham is well aware of this, and a number of times refer to
her dead body laid out as a meal for her relatives on the same table where her decaying cake
now sits.
It is ironic that the loveless environment of the Satis House is representative of the higher
society that Pip would like to rise to. The relationships of the house are based on money and
power, while the relationship at the forge with Joe is based on mutual respect. Pip feels
unnatural with how he acts with this kind of society, as is the case when he feels guilty for
hitting the pale young gentleman. But he is rewarded for his violence by Estella’s kiss, symbolic
of society’s rewarding of violent behavior. Though unclear to young Pip, the narrator is making
clear that Pip’s desire to enter into higher society is a decision to choose empty relationships
where people are tools (or, as in Pip’s case, simple walking sticks). It is also a decision to
choose death and decay, as reflected in the Satis House setting. Lastly, it is an environment
where Pip instinctively feels he is going against his nature.

Chapter 12

Pip returns once again to Miss. Havisham’s, but he does not run into the boy again. He begins
pushing Miss. Havisham in a wheelchair from her room to the large banquet hall, and continues
to do so over the course of eight months. Sometimes they are joined by Estella and the three
sing little ditties together.
During this same time, Mr. Pumblechook makes a habit of visiting Mrs. Joe and discussing
Pip’s promising prospects, now that he is routinely seeing Miss Havisham.

But the prospects seem to fall away when one night Miss Havisham asks Pip to bring Joe to
visit her in order that Pip may start his indenture as a blacksmith.

Analysis

By this time it is clear that Miss. Havisham is bringing up Estella to “...break their hearts and
have no mercy.” That is, to break the hearts of men, like Pip, in revenge for what they have
done to Miss Havisham. Although what they have done to Miss Havisham is not completely
clear, we can assume that the reason for her unchanged state and the decaying state of the
house is that she was jilted on her wedding day by a man. Estella, then, is to revenge this sin
for Miss Havisham by causing men to fall in love with her and then breaking their hearts.
With Pip, she is obviously succeeding, who is continuing to be abused and insulted by her
while admitting that she grows prettier and more a part of his thoughts everyday.

Chapter 13

Joe accompanies Pip to the Satis House the next day. Miss Havisham gives Joe twenty five
guineas for Pip’s service to her and thus buys Pip’s indenture as a blacksmith. Returning to
Mr. Pumblechook’s house, where Mrs. Joe is also anxiously waiting, Joe produces the twenty
five pounds much to everyone’s — except Pip’s — joy. Caught up in the excitement,

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