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Unit 12: Great Expectations: Detailed Study of Text-I

Pip knows this instinctively, can’t help himself and says as much, amidst tears in front of Notes
Biddy. He tells Biddy that he wishes he were more easily satisfied, he wishes he could fall in
love with her, Biddy. “But you never will, you see,” Biddy replies.

Analysis

This chapter lays out what has remained unspoken for some time to a somewhat relieving
affect: Pip comes right out and says he loves Estella and that, foolish even to himself, he wants
to become a gentleman to win her over. The discussion, symbolically, takes place among the
marshes, which have, throughout the novel, represented Pip’s past as well as his social position
as a blacksmith’s apprentice. The pastoral peacefulness that accompanies Pip’s walk with
Biddy is contrasted with the ships in the river, that Pip has always associated with some far
away, expected future. Pip himself states his frustrated state when he says he wishes he were
happy in his current position, including having Biddy close, but he is forever looking toward
some impossible future.

Chapter 18

It is the fourth year of Pip’s apprenticeship and he is sitting with Joe and Mr. Wopsle at the
pub when they are approached by a stranger who wants to talk to Joe and Pip alone. Pip
recognizes him, and his “smell of soap,” as a man he had once run into at Miss Havisham’s
house years before.
Back at the forge, the man, Jaggers, explains that Pip now has “great expectations.” He has
been given a large amount of money, to be administered by Jaggers, by an anonymous sponsor
whom Pip is never to try to discover. Fulfilling Pip’s dreams, Jaggers explains that Pip is to
be “brought up a gentleman” and will be tutored by Matthew Pocket — the same “Matthew”
that had been mentioned at Miss Havisham’s. Jaggers give him money enough for new clothes
and leaves, expecting to meet him in London within a week.
Pip spends an uncomfortable evening with Biddy and Joe, then retires to bed. There, despite
having all his dreams come true, he finds himself feeling very lonely.

Analysis
The implication to Pip, and to the readers, is that Miss Havisham is the sponsor who is going
to make all of Pip’s dreams come true including, Pip imagines, training him as a gentleman
so that he may be an appropriate mate for Estella.
Immediately after this dramatic change in fortune, however, Pip finds himself feeling lonely
and isolated. The reason is clear: From the moments of Jagger’s announcement, the relationship
between he and Joe and Biddy has changed. In essence, Jagger’s news fulfills the vanity that
had been creeping up in Pip since he first worked at Miss Havisham’s. That is, he thinks
himself better, more intelligent, more qualified than the life which he was leading with Biddy
and Joe. As the end of the chapter makes clear, however, Pip has marginalized himself with
this vanity and made himself lonely.

Chapter 19
The word has spread through town that Pip has come into fortune and people are treating him
distinctively different. Pip goes into town to buy clothes for his London trip and stores them
at Pumblechook’s house because he thinks it would be common of him to wear them in his
own neighborhood. Even Pumblechook is treating him as if he is a king, and Pip, joining into
the arena that he viewed as hypocrisy only a few chapters before, starts to enjoy it and even
starts to like Pumblechook.

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