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Fiction

Notes Part II: Chapter 19

Pip dedicates a chapter, thin as it is, to his relationship with Estella while he lives in the city
and she lives in Hammersmith. “I suffered every kind and degree of torture that Estella could
cause me,” he says.
On a number of occasions, he accompanies Estella on her frequent visits to Miss. Havisham.
In his presence, Miss. Havisham demands to hear of all the hearts that Estella has broken,
complete with names and details.
Pip blindly interprets this as meaning that after Estella has wreaked appropriate revenge on
the male gender, the two of them will be given to each other by Miss. Havisham as a reward.
Miss. Havisham’s concentrated effort to raise a child who can feel no love comes back to work
against her, however, as Pip witnesses an argument between them. Miss. Havisham, an older
woman from when Pip first met her, has moments when she needs to be loved and appreciated.
Unfortunately, Estella is incapable of love and cannot, therefore, give affection to even her
adoptive mother. Miss. Havisham did her job too well.
While fraternizing with his men’s club, “the Finches of the Grove,” Pip finds out that Drummle
has begun courting Estella. Despite knowing how Estella treats men, Pip is miserably upset
that Estella has begun seeing the most repulsive of Pip’s acquaintances.

Analysis

Though Pip continues to dream of Miss. Havisham revealing herself as his benefactor and, as
well, revealing her plan of bringing he and Estella to live together in perfect domestic bliss,
he admits that he “...never had one hour of happiness in her (Estella’s) society...”
The torture that Pip feels, however, may in a great part be the torture that he brings on
himself. Estella tells him that of all the men that she toys with, and of all the hearts that she
breaks, she has never deceived or entrapped Pip.

Part II: Chapter 20

Pip has his twenty-third birthday and seems to be doing very little with his life. He no longer
is tutored by Mr. Pocket, though they remain on good terms. He tries a few occupations, but
doesn’t stick to any of them. Instead, he finds that he is spending a lot of time reading.
A rough sea-worn man of sixty comes to Pip’s home on a stormy night. Pip invites him in,
treats him with courteous disdain, but then begins to recognize him as the convict that he fed
in the marshes when he was a child.

The man reveals that he is Pip’s benefactor. He has been living in Australia all these years and
making money as a sheep herder. But since the day that Pip helped him, he swore to himself
that every cent he earned would go to Pip.
“I’ve made a gentleman out of you,” the man exclaims. Pip is horrified. All of his expectations
are demolished. He has been living his life off the hard workings of a convict. There is no
grand design by Miss. Havisham to make Pip happy and rich, living in harmonious marriage
to Estella.
The convict tells Pip that he has come back to see him under threat of his life, since the law
will execute him if they find him in England. Pip gives the convict Herbert’s empty bed, then
sits by the fire by himself, pondering his miserable position.

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