Great Expectations

Index

Page 2……………………Chapter 1…………………………………Page 17

Page 18…………………..Chapter 2…………………………..Page

Summary: Chapter 1

As an infant, Philip Pirrip was unable to pronounce either his first name or his last; doing his best, he
called himself “Pip,” and the name stuck. Now Pip, a young boy, is an orphan living in his sister’s
house in the marsh country in southeast England.

One evening, Pip sits in the isolated village churchyard, staring at his parents’ tombstones. Suddenly,
a horrific man, growling, dressed in rags, and with his leg in chains, springs out from behind the
gravestones and seizes Pip. This escaped convict questions Pip harshly and demands that Pip bring
him food and a file with which he can saw off his leg irons.

Summary: Chapter 2

Frightened into obedience, Pip runs to the house he shares with his overbearing sister and her kindly
husband, the blacksmith Joe Gargery. The boy stashes some bread and butter in one leg of his pants,
but he is unable to get away quickly. It is Christmas Eve, and Pip is forced to stir the holiday pudding
all evening. His sister, whom Pip calls Mrs. Joe, thunders about. She threatens Pip and Joe with her
cane, which she has named Tickler, and with a foul-tasting concoction called tar-water. Very early
the next morning, Pip sneaks down to the pantry, where he steals some brandy (mistakenly refilling
the bottle with tar-water, though we do not learn this until Chapter 4) and a pork pie for the convict.
He then sneaks to Joe’s smithy, where he steals a file. Stealthily, he heads back into the marshes to
meet the convict.

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Summary: Chapter 3

Unfortunately, the first man he finds hiding in the marshes is actually a second, different convict,
who tries to strike Pip and then flees. When Pip finally comes upon his original tormentor, he finds
him suffering, cold, wet, and hungry. Pip is kind to the man, but the convict becomes violent again
when Pip mentions the other escapee he encountered in the marsh, as though the news troubles
him greatly. As the convict scrapes at his leg irons with the file, Pip slips away through the mists and
returns home.

Analysis: Chapters 1–3

The first chapters of Great Expectations set the plot in motion while introducing Pip and his world.
As both narrator and protagonist, Pip is naturally the most important character in Great
Expectations: the novel is his story, told in his words, and his perceptions utterly define the events
and characters of the book. As a result, Dickens’s most important task as a writer in Great
Expectations is the creation of Pip’s character. Because Pip’s is the voice with which he tells his story,
Dickens must make his voice believably human while also ensuring that it conveys all the information
necessary to the plot. In this first section, Pip is a young child, and Dickens masterfully uses Pip’s
narration to evoke the feelings and problems of childhood. At the beginning of the novel, for
instance, Pip is looking at his parents’ gravestones, a solemn scene which Dickens renders comical by
having Pip ponder the exact inscriptions on the tombstones. When the convict questions him about
his parents’ names, Pip recites them exactly as they appear on the tombstones, indicating his
youthful innocence while simultaneously allowing Dickens to lessen the dramatic tension of the
novel’s opening.

Read more about the first-person point of view.

As befits a well-meaning child whose moral reasoning is unsophisticated, Pip is horrified by the
convict. But despite his horror, he treats him with compassion and kindness. It would have been
easy for Pip to run to Joe or to the police for help rather than stealing the food and the file, but Pip
honors his promise to the suffering man—and when he learns that the police are searching for him,
he even worries for his safety. Still, throughout this section, Pip’s self-commentary mostly
emphasizes his negative qualities: his dishonesty and his guilt. This is characteristic of Pip as a
narrator throughout Great Expectations. Despite his many admirable qualities—the strongest of
which are compassion, loyalty, and conscience—Pip constantly focuses on his failures and
shortcomings. To understand him as a character, it is necessary to look beyond his self-descriptions
and consider his actions. In fact, it may be his powerful sense of his own moral shortcomings that
motivates Pip to act so morally. As the novel progresses, the theme of self-improvement, particularly
economic and social self-improvement, will become central to the story. In that sense, Pip’s deep-
seated sense of moral obligation, which is first exhibited in this section, works as a kind of
psychological counterpart to the novel’s theme of social advancement.

Read more about ambition and self-improvement as themes.

Pip’s surroundings—in this section, the “shrouded” marshes of Kent and the oppressive bustle of
Mrs. Joe’s house—are also important to the novel. Throughout Great Expectations, Dickens uses
setting to create a dramatic atmosphere: the setting of the book always sets the tone for the action
and reinforces Pip’s perception of his situation. When the weather is dark and stormy, trouble is
usually brewing, and when Pip goes alone into the mist-shrouded marsh, danger and ambiguity
usually await. In this section, Pip’s story shifts rapidly between dramatic scenes with the convict on
the marshes and comical scenes under Mrs. Joe’s thumb at home. Despite Mrs. Joe’s rough
treatment of Pip, which she calls bringing him up “by hand,” the comedy that pervades her
household in Chapter 2 shows that it is a safe haven for Pip, steeped in Joe’s quiet goodness despite
Mrs. Joe’s bombast. When Pip ventures out alone onto the marshes, he leaves the sanctuary of
home for vague, murky churchyards and the danger of a different world. This sense of embarking
alone into the unknown will become a recurrent motif throughout the novel, as Pip grows up and
leaves his childhood home behind.

Read more about the marshes as a symbol.

In terms of narrative, the introduction of the convict is the most important occurrence in the plot of
the first section. Though Pip believes that the convict’s appearance in his life is an isolated incident,
he will feel this character’s influence in many ways throughout the novel. The convict will later
reappear as the grim Magwitch, Pip’s secret benefactor and the chief architect of his “great
expectations.” Though Dickens gives us no indication of the man’s future in Pip’s life, he does create
the sense that the convict will return, largely by building a sense of mystery around the man’s
situation and around his relationship to the second convict Pip encounters in the marsh.

Read more about Dickens’s use of foreshadowing.

SummaryAnalysis

Pip, the narrator of the novel, explains that his full name is Philip Pirrip, but that as a young child he
could only pronounce his name as Pip, which is what everyone now calls him. Pip is an orphan, who
never knew his parents or any of his five brothers who never lived out of infancy. He lives with his
older sister, and her husband, Joe Gargery, the town blacksmith. They live in southeast England, in
"marsh country," near the sea.

As an orphaned boy living with his sister and town blacksmith, Pip is established as belonging to a
low social class. The deaths of his parents and siblings make clear how tough life can be for that
class. Even the name "Pip," which means spot or seed, signifies something small. Yet a seed can
grow, hinting that Pip will develop into more than he is.

ACTIVE THEMES

Ambition and Self-Improvement Theme Icon Integrity and Reputation Theme Icon Parents Theme
Icon

On the dreary afternoon of Christmas Eve, 1860, Pip sits sadly in the churchyard outside town where
his parents and siblings are buried. Suddenly a terrifying man, dressed in rags and shackled in a leg-
iron, jumps out from a hiding spot behind a grave and grabs Pip. When the man learns that Pip lives
with Joe Gargery the blacksmith, he warns Pip that he has a friend, the young man, who will kill Pip
unless he returns in secret the next morning with food and a metal file. Pip, terrified, swears that he
will, and the man lets him go.

Pip is terrified and alone, completely vulnerable. The man's behavior and chains mark him as an
escaped criminal, which begins to introduce the theme of justice. Yet despite the man's cruel
comments, the reader can see how desperate he is—after all, he's dependent on Pip helping him!
Although Pip doesn't realize that "the young man" is a fake, Pip's adult narration looking back on the
event allows the reader to see the truth.

We kick things right off with … a lecture about our narrator's name.

His first name is Philip, and his last name is Pirrip. Philip Pirrip. When we try to say that name ten
times fast, we end up saying "filapeera," and we have multiple advanced degrees.

Our narrator is only six years old, so he calls himself "Pip." Fine by us. This is a 500-page novel, so the
shorter the better.

Pip is an orphan who lives in the marsh country along the river Thames, twenty miles from the sea to
be exact. He lives with his meanie sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, and her blacksmith husband, Joe Gargery.

Pip can't remember his parents, so he likes to chill in the cemetery with their gravestones and decide
what they were like based on their inscriptions.

Dum dee dum. We continue to hang out with Pip in the cemetery in the late afternoon, chilling with
the family graves when, suddenly, a scary-looking someone jumps out of a hiding place and grabs Pip
by the throat.

Stranger Danger tells Pip to be quiet or else. Then he demands that Pip bring him some wittles (a.k.a.
vittles; a.k.a. victuals, a.k.a. food) and a file (a sharp metal instrument, not something you save on
your computer). Then he shakes Pip a little, turns him upside down, tells him he'll cut out his heart
and liver if he doesn't obey, and disappears into the marshes.

Pip is thoroughly freaked out.

Summary and Analysis Chapters 1-3

Summary

Seven-year-old Pip walks through a churchyard on a cold, gray day before Christmas, visiting the
graves of his parents. He lives in the marsh area of Kent where the River Thames meets the sea.
Orphaned as a baby, he lives with his sister, Georgiana, who is twenty years older than he, and her
husband, Joe Gargery, the village blacksmith. Suddenly a convict "with a great iron on his leg"
confronts him. The convict has escaped from the nearby prison ships called the Hulks. After turning
Pip upside down and finding only a piece of bread, the starving man threatens to eat his fat cheeks.
Learning that Pip lives with a blacksmith, he agrees to let Pip live as long as he returns the next
morning with some "wittles" and a file from Joe's forge. To further ensure Pip's help, the convict tells
him there is a young man with him who will eat his heart and liver if he fails to return. Pip agrees to
help and then watches the man stumble away.

Pip returns to his home and is warned by Joe that his sister is on a ram-page [rampage] looking for
him. She returns a short time later and lets him have it on the backside with the "Tickler," a wax-
tipped cane. She has "brought him up by hand," something that gains her respect from all the
neighbors, and Pip notices she is quick to use the hand on him and Joe. At supper, Pip slips his bread
in his pants leg to save it for the convict. Joe, concerned that Pip has swallowed the bread whole and
might choke, expresses his worry. Mrs. Joe responds by pounding Joe's head against the wall and
calling him a great stuck pig, then pouring Tar-water down both Pip's and Joe's throats. Later that
night, they hear guns from the prison ship firing, announcing the escape of another convict.

Unable to sleep, Pip gets up early to steal the food and file, and then sets out to deliver them. He
runs into a second convict and assumes him to be the young man who eats boys' livers. Running in
terror, Pip finds "his" convict. While watching the man devour the food, Pip expresses concern about
not leaving enough food for the young man who is waiting. The convict realizes he is not alone on
the marshes, and suspecting it is an enemy of his, starts madly filing his leg iron while Pip escapes.

Analysis

Dickens gets right to the action. Within the first few paragraphs, he has introduced the main
character, Pip, conveyed that the story is being told in first person by Pip when he is older, given the
location of the story, revealed that Pip is an orphan with five dead brothers, and introduced the
conflict: a convict in need of help. The choice of the retrospective first-person narrator is effective
because the reader immediately feels part of an intimate and confessional conversation.

Description is one of Dickens' strengths and weaknesses, as seen in the quote describing the convict:
" . . . a man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by
flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared, and growled;
and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin." It is rich with detail, creating a
crisp vision of the man, and it is overloaded with detail, making the reader wonder if Dickens will
ever stop. Yet there is no question he has a gift for bringing the reader right into the place, in this
case " . . . a bleak place overgrown with nettles . . . dark flat wilderness . . . intersected with dykes
and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it."

Summary and Analysis Chapters 1-3

Dickens establishes unique characters immediately, as well. Pip is "the small bundle of shivers." The
convict's feelings as he stumbles through the graveyard, come across clearly: " . . . he looked in my
young eyes as if he were eluding the hands of the dead people, stretching up cautiously out of their
graves, to get a twist upon his ankle and pull him in." With the convict's use of w's in his words —
(wittles instead of vittles) and the convict's eating style (similar to that of a large dog snapping up
mouthfuls and watching for danger), Dickens defines the convict's social class, education level,
current life situation, as well as his feelings about that. The description of Mrs. Gargery (Mrs. Joe) as
having a heavy hand that she uses much on Pip and her husband, as well as Pip's description of his
sister's method of buttering his bread and getting pins from her bib stuck in the bread, tell a great
deal about her nature, how her marriage works, and what Pip thinks of her, too.
In these first three chapters, the reader also sees reoccurring character tags and repeating elements
that further cement the characters in the readers' heads: Mrs. Joe constantly tells Pip about "being
brought up by hand"; Joe refers to Pip as "old chap," and uses w's in words like "conwict"; the
convict has an unusual clicking in his throat, and there is the recurring image of the iron shackle on
his leg. (These repetitions were necessary because the story was published in weekly installments
and readers may not have remembered the characters without such clues.)

The relationships are quickly established: Pip's sister rules the house, beats both her husband and
brother, and is insecure and wants to be thought of as irreplaceable; while Pip views Joe, his
brother-in-law, as a best friend, fellow-sufferer, and a larger species of child. The two males survive
by having fun rituals such as comparing who has eaten more of his bread first and using silent signals
to communicate with each other when Mrs. Joe rampages.

Pip's relationship with the convict is noteworthy. In spite of being terrorized, Pip also feels a
fascination and bond with the man. He is attracted and repulsed at the same time. Instead of
running away the moment the convict first turns to leave him in the graveyard, Pip stays and
watches the man struggle away. This foreshadows the similar struggle in Chapter 39, when the
convict returns to his life and Pip is both repulsed and concerned for his safety. There is a bond
between these two. They are both — child and convict — at the mercy and control of others and as
such, are both victims in life. Pip naturally responds to another "victim" and helps him, and this is the
element to which the convict responds when he later rewards Pip for his kindness.

These chapters introduce several themes: right and wrong, good and evil, justice and guilt. Pip
struggles with the wrong of stealing for a convict and the good of caring for a suffering human being.
He also feels guilty for just being alive. From infancy, his sister has never let him forget he owes his
existence to her; he is saturated with this guilt.

Dickens is careful to tie up his details, such as the threat of the young man who eats boys' livers. By
having Pip discover the second convict and then remind the first one to leave enough food for the
young man, Dickens introduces the conflict between the two convicts. The problem of the second
convict is foreshadowed even before Pip finds him, when the guns go off the night before,
announcing the second escape from the ships.

Humor and satire are important tools in these chapters, as well. Pip, for example, always calls his
parents by the only names he knows: "Philip Pirrip, late of this parish" and "also Georgiana, wife of
the above." His deceased brothers are described as "the five little stone lozenges." Even Pip's
politeness to the convict, requesting to be held right-side up and expressing delight that the convict
enjoys the stolen food, are funny. A bit of satire shows up when the stick used to beat Pip is referred
to as the "Tickler."

Glossary

Franks and Frisians Germanic tribes united in opposition to the Geats.

Hugas a Frisian subgroup or family.

Hetware joined with the Franks against Hygelac.

Merovingian pertaining to the Franks.

Ravenswood site (in Sweden) of major battle between Geats and Swedes.

swathe to wrap with bandages.

Eofor and Wulf fought Swedes' King Ongentheow to his death. For a chronology of the Geats' feuds,
see Chickering, pp. 361-62.

Great Expectations Summary and Analysis of Part I, Chapters 1-10 (1-10)

Chapter 1:

The story opens with the narrator, Pip, who introduces himself and describes an image of himself as
a boy, standing alone and crying in a churchyard near some marshes. Young Pip is staring at the
gravestones of his parents, who died soon after his birth. This tiny, shivering bundle of a boy is
suddenly terrified by the voice of large, bedraggled man who threatens to cut Pip's throat if he
doesn't stop crying.

The man, dressed in a prison uniform with a great iron shackle around his leg, grabs the boy and
shakes him upside down, emptying his pockets. The man devours a piece of bread which falls from
the boy, then barks questions at him. Pip tells him that yes, he is an orphan and that he lives with his
sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, the wife of a blacksmith, about a mile from the church. The man tells Pip
that if he wants to live, he'll go down to his house and bring him back some food and a file for the
shackle on his leg. Pip agrees to meet him early the next morning and the man walks back into the
marshes.
Analysis:

Dickens introduces us immediately to Pip, who serves as both the young protagonist of Great
Expectations and the story's narrator looking back on his own story as an adult. With this two-level
approach, Dickens leads the reader through young Pip's life with the immediacy and surprise of a
first person narration while at the same time guiding with an omnipotent narrator who knows how it
will all turn out. The adult narrator Pip will foreshadow future events throughout the story by using
signs and symbols.

Dickens uses this duality to great effect in the first chapter, where we are personally introduced to
Pip as if we were in a pleasant conversation with him: "I give Pirrip as my father's family name..."
Immediately after this, however, we are thrown into the point of view of a terrified young child
being mauled by an escaped convict.

The narrator Pip then presents an interesting, and prophetic, relationship between the boy and the
bullying man. At first, the relationship appears to be based solely on power and fear. The man yells
at the boy only to get what he wants, a file and some food, and the boy only responds for fear of his
life. And yet, after they part, the young Pip keeps looking back at the man as he walks alone into the
marshes. The image of the man holding his arms around him, alone on the horizon save a pole
associated with the death of criminals, is strikingly familiar to the initial image of young Pip, holding
himself in the cold, alone in the churchyard with the stones of his dead parents. For a moment, then,
the relationship seems to warm. They share a common loneliness and a common marginalization
from society, the orphan and the escaped convict. Even while he is afraid, Pip instinctively displays a
sympathetic reaction.

This initial meeting, between a small boy and a convict, will develop into the central relationship in
the book. It is the relationship which will cause Pip's great expectations for himself to rise and fall.

Chapter 2:

Pip runs home to his sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, and his adoptive father, Joe Gargery. Mrs. Joe is a loud,
angry, nagging woman who constantly reminds Pip and her husband Joe of the difficulties she has
gone through to raise Pip and take care of the house. Pip finds solace from these rages in Joe, who is
more his equal than a paternal figure, and they are united under a common oppression.

During the dinner, Pip nervously steals a piece of bread. Early the next morning, Pip steals food and a
pork pie from the pantry shelf and a file from Joe's forge and runs back to the marshes.

Analysis:
The reader's sympathy once again is directed at Pip who not only lost his parents but is being raised
by a raging, bitter woman. A common criticism inherent in many of Dickens' novels is the abuse of
children in society at large. Although he paints Mrs. Joe in a rather humorous light at times, the
reader is still keenly aware of the fear in which this poor child grew up.

Character names in Dickens' works are often codes which reflect a characteristic of the person or
their station. Mrs. Joe's name can be decoded to reflect humorous irony on Dicken's part. Although
the wife of Joe has taken both his names in the classic patriarchal manner (usually connoting that
the wife is the property of the man) the Gragery household is anything but patriarchal. In fact, her
husband is treated as little more than a child and Pip and he are the submissive ones.

Chapter 3:

The next morning, Pip sneaks out of the house and back to the marshes. He finds a man, wet and
cold and dressed like a convict, but he turns out to be a different convict from the man who had
threatened him the night before. This man has a badly bruised face and wears a broad-brimmed hat.
He runs away from Pip without speaking to him. Pip finally finds his man and gives him the food. The
man reacts with anger when Pip tells him about the other convict. Pip leaves him filing at his shackle
and returns home.

Analysis:

The second meeting of Pip and the convict is much more civil and sympathetic than the first. Pip
even puts away his fear to say, "I am glad you enjoy it," as the convict eats. Since he stole the food
and file, Pip is now the convict's partner in crime and feels closer to the man.

Great Expectations is sometimes called, among other things, a mystery or suspense novel, and in this
chapter we see elements of that genre. Dickens uses secrets as a way of heightening suspense
throughout the novel. Someone is always hiding something from someone else. Sometimes these
secrets are clear to the reader and makes the reader a partner in crime with the characters, as we
are with Pip last as he sneaks around his house, terrified of getting caught, stealing food. Other times
the reader is left out of the secret but we are given the impression that it is an important thing that
we need to find out, as in the case of the two convicts. We know that there is some connection
between the two that is important to the story but we are given very few clues to help us.

Chapter 4:

Pip returns home to find Mrs. Joe preparing the house for Christmas dinner. She has invited Mr.
Wopsle, the church clerk, Mr. Hubble the wheelwright and Mrs. Hubble and Uncle Pumblechook
who was a "well to do corn-chandler" who "drove his own chaise-cart." The discussion over dinner
was how fortunate Pip should feel about being raised "by hand" by Mrs. Joe and how much trouble
she has gone through in that endeavor, though Pip's opinion was never requested. Mr. Pumblechook
nearly chokes on some brandy after the meal and Pip realizes that he poured tar water in the brandy
bottle when he stole some for the convict. Mrs. Joe becomes too busy in the kitchen to afford a full
investigation, but then announces that she is going to present the pork pie. Sure that he is going to
get caught, Pip jumps up from the table and runs to the door, only to meet face to face with a group
of soldiers who appear to be there to arrest him.

Analysis:

The suspense grows in this chapter as the reader and Pip fearfully await the discovery by Mrs. Joe of
the things which are missing from the kitchen. The apprehension is kept light, however, with a
foolish dialogue between the adults over how much trouble Pip is to raise for Mrs. Joe. Mr.
Pumblechook is presented as a loud mouth idiot, full of himself. The only sympathetic character is
Joe, who continues to make gestures of support toward Pip. Dicken's little social commentary here is
clear: It is often the dim witted and poor (Joe) who act with more grace and charity than wealthy
loud mouths (Mr. Pumblechook and Mr. Wopsle) who claim that they do.

Chapter 5:

The soldiers do not want to arrest Pip but they do need a pair of handcuffs fixed by Joe. They are
invited in, Mr. Pumblechook offers up Mrs. Joe's sherry and port, and Joe gets to work on the
handcuffs in the forge. They are, in fact, hunting two convicts who were seen recently in the
marshes. After Joe fixes the handcuffs, he, Pip, and Mr. Wopsle are allowed to follow the soldiers
into the marshes. They soon find the two convicts wrestling each other in the mud. The one with the
hat accuses the other, Pip's convict, of trying to kill him, but the other replies that he would have
done it if he really wanted to. Instead, he had been the one who had called for the soldiers and was
willing to sacrifice himself just so the one with the hat would get caught again.

The bring the two back to a boathouse where Pip's convict, eyeing Pip, admits to stealing Mrs. Joe's
pork pie by himself, thus getting Pip off the hook.

Joe and Pip watch as the two convicts are brought back to the prison ship.

Analysis:

The reader is presented with the question of why the two convcts are fightng each other. Pip's
convict goes so far as to say that he deliberately got himself caught, just so he could make sure the
man with the hat would go back to prison. What hatred did this man have that would make him go
back to prison just to see another suffer as well?

The relationship between the convict and Pip continues to grow as well, even though they do not
speak and the convict hardly looks at him. The convict obviously wants to protect the boy and,
suspecting Pip may be threatened, takes the blame for stealing the pork pie. The two are, once
again, united in secrecy.
Chapter 6:

Joe, Pip, and Mr. Wopsle walk back home. Pop decides not to tell Joe the truth about his file and the
pork pie -- he is afraid of losing his respect. When they return, the topic of discussion is the question
of how the convict managed to get into the locked house. Through his bombastic overbearance, Mr.
Pumblechook's argument wins: the convict crawled down the chimney. Mrs. Joe sends Pip to bed.

Analysis:

Pip's fear that Joe would "think worse of me than I was" if Pip told him about the file and pork pie is
a fear that Pip will revisit throughout his young life. Joe is the only friend in the world for Pip, he is
his entire society. Pip fears to lose this companionship by telling the truth. In the future, Pip will
struggle with telling the truth because of the fear that society will think less of him.

Chapter 7:

Pip describes a little of his education with Mr. Wopsle's great aunt, a "ridiculous old lady" who had
started a small school in her cottage. The education, as Pip describes it, is less than satisfactory, but
Pip does learn some basics from Biddy, an orphan girl who works for Mrs. Wopsle.

While doing his homework one night, Pip discovers that Joe is illiterate. Joe explains that he never
stayed in school long because his father, a drunk and physically abusive to him and his mother, kept
him out. Joe goes on to explain to Pip that, because of his father, Joe stays humble to Mrs. Joe. "I'm
dead afeerd of going wrong in the way of not doing what's right by a woman," he says. He let's Mrs.
Joe "Ram-page" over him because he sees how difficult it is to be a woman, remembering his
mother, and he wants to do the right thing as a man. Pip has new understanding and respect for Joe.

Mrs. Joe comes home, quite excited, and proclaims that Pip is going to "play" for Miss Havisham, "a
rich and grim lady who lived in a large and dismal house." Uncle Pumblechook suggested Pip to Miss
Havisham when she asked if he knew any small boys. Pip was to go tomorrow and spend the evening
at Uncle Pumblechook's in town.

Analysis:

Chapter Seven and Chapter Eight mark a key turning point in the novel, separating Pip's young
childhood in the humble company of Joe from the beginnings of greater expectations in the
company of higher society.

The chapter presents a relationship between Joe and Pip which is growing in love and respect. Joe is
at the bottom of the social hierarchy, and, particularly, at the bottom of his household's hierarchy
but Pip finds new respect for his position. "I had a new sensation of feeling conscious that I was
looking up to Joe in my heart." The image is almost ideal: the young Pip and Joe sitting next to the
fire, Pip admiring him and teaching him the alphabet.
Dickens contrasts this humble setting with the opportunity presented at the end of the chapter by
the noisy entrance and rather insolent announcement by Mrs. Joe. She introduces the first of Pip's
"great expectations" in the form of the job given to Pip "to play" for Miss Havisham: "...this boy's
fortune may be made by his going to Miss Havisham's." Although little is known about the wealthy
woman, and less is known exactly how Pip is supposed to "play," the opportunity is one where Pip
will be in the company of a higher social and economic class of people.

Chapter 8:

Pip spends the evening at Mr. Pumblechook's and is brought to Miss Havisham's after a meager
breakfast. They are met at the gate by a young woman, Estella, "who was very pretty and seemed
very proud." Estella lets Pip in, but sends Mr. Pumblechook on his way. She leads him through a dark
house by candle and leaves him outside a door. He knocks and is let in. There he meets Miss
Havisham, a willowy, yellowed woman dressed in an old wedding gown. She calls for Estella and the
two play cards, despite Estella's objection that Pip was just a "common labouring-boy." "Well," says
Miss Havisham, "you can break his heart." Estella insults Pip's coarse hands and his thick boots as
they play.

Smarting from the insults, Pip later cries as he eats lunch in the great house's yard. He explores the
yard and the garden, always seeing Estella in the distance walking ahead of him. Finally, she lets him
out of the yard and he walks the four miles home, feeling low.

Analysis:

Dickens uses strong imagery to describe Miss Havisham's house ("The Manor House" or the "Satis
House") as barren of feelings or even life, even before we meet the bitter Miss Havisham and the
rude Estella: "The cold wind seemed to blow colder there, than outside the gate..." Again we have a
strange mystery: Why is this woman always in the dark, and dressed in a wedding gown? Who is the
young and pretty Estella and what is she doing in such a morbid place?

Pip's first taste of "higher society" is a bitter one, and it leaves him ashamed and embarrassed rather
than justifiably angry. Pip is, in fact, just a toy for both Miss Havisham, who wants him to "play," and
Estella, who treats him roughly while at the same time flirts. Pip, torn between being insulted and
his attraction to Estella, opts to feel ashamed of his upbringing -- so much so that he "wished Joe had
been rather more genteelly brought up." His new found respect and love for Joe was being spoiled
by his embarrassment of being brought up in a lower class family.

Chapter 9:

Pip is forced to talk about his day to Mrs. Joe and Mr. Pumblechook. Pip lies in a fantastical matter,
making up stories about dogs being fed veal and Miss Havisham lounging on a velvet couch. He lies,
partly in spite, but also because he is sure that the two would not understand the situation at the
Satis House even if he described it in detail..

Later, Pip tells Joe the truth, and also confesses that he is embarrassed about being a "commoner"
because of his attraction to Estella.

Joe reassures him that he is not common, he is uncommon small and an uncommon scholar.
Referring to Pip's lies, he adds, "If you can't get to be oncommon through going straight, you'll never
get to do it through going crooked."

Analysis:

Joe's analysis, though phrased in what Pip would call "common" language, is accurate: Pip is trying to
become "uncommon" by lying about his experiences. Pip made up lies about the Satis House with
the intention of glorifying it in front of the eager Mr. Pumblechook and Mrs. Joe, both of whom eat it
up. While Pip is naively honest in admitting to Joe that he wants to become uncommon, he is
intelligent enough to know that he can become uncommon by being dishonest, or, as Joe would
have it, "crooked."

One of the main themes of the book is spelled out in this chapter, specifically, the desire to rise
above one's social station. Dickens, writing this book toward the end of his life, is speaking directly of
his own youthful desires and those of his father as well. As the story of Pip unfolds and we witness
the different ways in which Pip tries to climb the social ladder -- by making up fantastical stories in
this case -- it will be interesting to listen to the running commentary made by the narrator, the older
Pip, who, like Dickens himself, is looking back on this theme and reflecting on how it affected his
happiness later on in life.

Chapter 10:

Pip states plainly that he wants to be uncommon and so, taking to heart Joe's advice that "you must
be a common scholar afore you can be a oncommon one," he asks Biddy at the small school to help
him get educated. Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt's school is little more than a play school and Pip
understands it will be hard to concentrate on some actual learning, but Biddy agrees and gives Pip
some books to start with.

On the way home, Pip goes into a pub to pick up Joe. He finds Joe sitting with a stranger, a man with
one eye pulled closed and a worn hat on his head. The man asks Joe all kinds of personal questions,
some about Pip's relation to him, the whole time staring at Pip. At one point, the man stirs his drink
with Joe's file -- the file Pip stole to give to the convict! As Joe and Pip depart, the stranger hands Pip
a coin wrapped in paper.
When they get home, Pip realizes that the paper is actually a two pound note. Thinking it was a
mistake (though Pip knows somehow that it wasn't) Joe runs back to the pub to give it back but the
man is gone.

Analysis:

Pip, excited at the beginning of the chapter by the prospect of educating himself to become
uncommon, is reminded of his common, and somewhat illegitimate, past by the stranger in the pub.
As he goes to sleep, he is bothered by the fact that it is uncommon to be "on secret terms of
conspiracy with convicts."

The man clearly knew something about Pip assisting the convict and wanted Pip to know that he did.
How he knows remains a mystery, but Pip's immediate fear is how his past will "haunt" him as he
tries to climb out of his common background.

Synopsis of Chapter 1 (Volume 1 Chapter 1) (Instalment 1)

Photo by Jennicatpink available through Creative CommonsPip introduces himself and the sorrow
and loneliness of his life is revealed as he describes his name, and the tombstones, from which he
tries vainly to conjure up a picture of his lost family. The churchyard offers no comfort to the child
who gives way to tears as he looks at the graves. It provides a bleak setting for the frightening events
described in this chapter.

Pip is surprised and terrified by the convict who appears so suddenly. Helpless in the face of the
man's terrible threats, Pip agrees to bring him food, drink and a file to free him from his shackles.
Though Pip seems to be only seven or eight years old and is struggling to make sense of a very
threatening world with little knowledge to help him, his account still shows some sympathy for the
convict's own suffering.

Commentary on Chapter 1 (Volume 1 Chapter 1) (Instalment 1)

Christian name: now usually called a ‘given name' or a ‘first name'. In Dickens's time most people in
Britain would have been baptised in infancy and would have regarded themselves as Christian in one
form or another.

So, I called myself Pip: Pip is not just a young boy in grim family circumstances; he is someone who
christens or baptizes himself for the purposes of the story. Mrs. Joe does not call Pip by name.
Usually she says ‘the boy'. Pip's self-baptism is a device used by Dickens to emphasize his isolation;
he is not sufficiently part of a family to go by his Christian name.

My first most vivid impression of the identity of things Pip begins his long process of learning who he
is and where he stands in the world.
late of this parish: a parish is an area with its own Anglican church, served by a priest who has the
spiritual care of all those living within it.

At such a time I found out for certain that this bleak place … was the churchyard Even this Pip has to
find out for himself. His impressions of his family's graves are expressed in terms of a childish
perception. Note that the churchyard is remote, a mile away from where people live in the village.

and that the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip Pip's
account is distanced here: the older Pip, writer of this account, draws the reader's attention to the
boy's isolation and unhappiness. Pip is also developing a sense of his own identity.

Keep still, you little devil, or I'll cut your throat A common term of abuse, but deriving from a
genuine and terrible idea of a devil escaped from Hell. The threat is terrifying in its suddenness.

I saw the steeple under my feet … [and] … the church jumped over its own weather-cock Being held
upside down turns Pip's view of reality on its head. The steeple usually points to Heaven.

And you know what wittles is? It was a habit in non-Standard English in Dickens's day, especially in
London, to pronounce ‘v' as ‘w'. ‘Wittles' means ‘vittles', a common pronunciation of the word
‘victuals', or ‘food‘.

in comparison with which young man I am an Angel. Angels in Christianity are the messengers of
God, wholly good beings. The capital A makes clear Dickens' intention to make the connection. Later
in the novel, we find that the convict is right - compared to the young man, he is an angel of mercy.

and I would come to him at the Battery The battery was a old site where defensive guns had been
mounted to guard the estuary.

Say, Lord strike you dead if you don't! A fearsome oath, containing the threat of a vengeful God. This
forcing of a dreadful oath reappears later in the novel when the convict returns.

At the same time … limped towards the low church wall Pip's description suggests a man who is at
the end of his tether.
Investigating Chapter 1 (Volume 1 Chapter 1) (Insta
Chapter 2