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Unit 14: Great Expectations: Detailed Study of Text-III

witness to two beautifully caring love matches — the romantic Herbert and Clara and the Notes
rather comical Wemmick and Miss Skiffins — Pip is starting to learn what is important.

Part III: Chapter 17

Pip attends to the ailing Magwitch daily in prison. “The kind of... resignation that he (Magwitch)
showed, was that of a man who was tired out.”
Magwitch is condemned to die and the sentencing is carried out with thirty two other convicts
also condemned to die. Within ten days of the sentencing, Magwitch dies in prison. Before he
does, Pip whispers to him that the daughter he thought was dead is quite alive. “She is a lady
and very beautiful,” Pip says. “And I love her.” Magwitch kisses Pip’s hand in response and
passes away.

Analysis

Pip’s transformation is made graphically clear during the trial and sentencing of Magwitch.
Throughout the trial, Pip holds Magwitch’s hand. At the sentencing, Pip assists Magwitch out
of the chambers while onlookers point their fingers at them. Pip is no longer the proud boy
afraid of what people will think of his associates and his past. He is, literally, embracing his
past. He honestly loves Magwitch and therefore does not fear showing this love in public. This
Pip is a much different Pip from the one who would not visit Joe and Biddy in the privacy
of the forge for fear that people would talk.

Part III: Chapter 18

Pip, weakened by his burns, the fight with Orlick, and the general psychological stress, falls
into a fever for nearly a month. Creditors and Joe fall in and out of his dreams and his reality.
Finally, he regains his senses and sees that, indeed, Joe has been there the whole time, nursing
him back to health.
Joe tells him that Miss Havisham died during his illness, that she left Estella nearly all, and
Matthew Pocket a great deal. The rest of the relatives were given very little. Orlick has been
put in jail because he broke into Pumblechook’s house.
Pip slowly regains his strength. Seeing this, Joe slips away one morning leaving only a note.
Pip discovers that Joe has paid off all his debtors.
Pip is committed to returning to the forge and to ask for forgiveness for everything he has
done. He also wants to ask Biddy to marry him.

Analysis

As in his childhood, Pip is assisted by the irreplaceable help of Joe. Through this action, Joe
has already forgiven Pip.
Joe is most comfortable when Pip is at his weakest. As Pip grows stronger, Joe begins to
distance himself. Finally, he leaves. Joe has proved his friendship; it is now Pip’s turn to show
his true colors.
Other endings are wrapped up. Miss. Havisham makes good in the end by giving money to
the one relative that she didn’t allow to visit her. All the other relatives are given rather
humorous inheritances to help with their faulty characters.

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