Summary: Chapter 33
When Pip meets Estella, he is again troubled by her resemblance
to someone he can’t place. She treats Pip arrogantly, but sends
him into ecstatic joy when she refers to their “instructions,” which
makes him feel as though they are destined to be married. After
he escorts her through the gaslit London night to the house at which
she is staying, he returns to the Pockets’ home.
Summary: Chapter 34
Pip feels terribly guilty for his snobbish treatment of
Joe and Biddy, and he feels as though his degenerate lifestyle has
been a bad influence on Herbert. The two young men catalog their
debts, but they are interrupted by a letter carrying the news that
Mrs. Joe has died.
Summary: Chapter 35
Pip is surprised by the intensity
of his sadness about his sister’s death. He returns home at once
for the funeral. He meets Pumblechook, who continues to fawn over
him irritatingly. He tries to mend his relations with Joe and Biddy;
Biddy is skeptical of his pledges to visit more often. Pip says
goodbye to them the next morning, truly intending to visit more
often, and walks away into the mist.
Analysis: Chapters 27–35
These chapters cover a dark and humiliating time for Pip.
Ironically, Pip’s dizzying rise in social status is accompanied
by a sharp decline in his confidence and happiness. He is humiliated
in no fewer than four important scenes in this section. First, Joe’s
visit to London reintroduces the theme of social contrast, showing
just how awkward Pip’s position between the social classes has become;
he worries both that Joe will disapprove of his new life and that
the figures in his new life will disapprove of Joe. Second, he is
frightened by the convicts in the coach, who remind him of his childhood
encounter on the marsh. Third, even his return home is keenly embarrassing, as
he learns of Pumblechook’s false boast and finds himself mocked by
the tailor’s apprentice in Chapter 30. And,
fourth, most painful of all, what he hopes will be a triumphant
return to Satis House as a gentleman is a complete failure: Estella
treats him just as cruelly as ever, reminding him coldly that she
has “no heart.”
Pip’s behavior throughout this period is not admirable:
he treats Joe with barely disguised hostility during Joe’s visit
to London, and he behaves haughtily and coldly throughout this section.
The difference between Pip the character and Pip the narrator becomes
clear here. When he visits Satis House, Pip the character feels
irritated and unhappy at the thought of visiting Joe, but Pip the
narrator judges himself harshly for having felt that way, writing
“God forgive me!” in Chapter 29. As a character,
Pip is in the grip of his immediate emotions, but as a narrator,
he has the capacity to look at his life from a broader perspective
and to judge himself. Dickens uses that contrast well, giving Pip
the wisdom of hindsight without sacrificing the immediacy of his
story.
Pip’s guilt over his behavior toward Joe and Biddy reaches
a high point at Mrs. Joe’s funeral. He is stunned by the news of
his sister’s death. More than anyone else except for Joe, Mrs. Joe
raised Pip, and her death marks an important point in his maturation
toward adulthood and the development of his character. He tries
to rectify his behavior toward his lower-class loved ones, but they
are skeptical of his promises to improve, and with good reason.
Pip really does mean to visit them more, as he promises Biddy in
Chapter 35, but when he leaves, he walks
into the rising mists, which symbolize ambiguity and confusion throughout Great
Expectations; even he knows he is unlikely to honor his
promise.
