Great expectations - Summary

Little Pip was left an orphan when he was a small boy, and his much older sister grudgingly
rears him in her cottage. Pips brother-in-law, Joe Gargery, on the other hand, is kind and loving
to the boy. Pip often wanders alone in the marsh country where he lives with his sister and Joe.
One day, he is accosted by a wild-looking stranger who is an escaped prisoner. He frightens Pip
and demands that the boy secretly bring him food and a file to cut the iron chain that binds his
leg. When Pip brings him a pork pie and file, he sees another mysterious figure on the marsh.
This man engages in a desperate struggle with the escaped prisoner, then escapes into the fog.
The man Pip aids promises that he will somehow repay the boy for helping him. He is later
apprehended.
Mrs. Joe sends Pip to the large mansion of strange Miss Havisham upon that ladys request.
Miss Havisham lives in a gloomy, locked house where all the clocks were stopped on the day her
bridegroom failed to appear for the wedding ceremony. She often dresses in her bridal robes; a
wedding breakfast molds on the table in an unused room. Pip goes there every day to visit the old
lady and a beautiful young girl, named Estella, who delights in tormenting the shy boy. Miss
Havisham enjoys watching the two children together, and she encourages Estella in her haughty
teasing of Pip.
Living in the grim atmosphere of Joes blacksmith shop and the uneducated poverty of his
sisters home, Pip is eager to learn. One day, a London solicitor named Jaggers presents him with
the opportunity to go to London and become a gentleman. Both Pip and Joe accept the proposal.
Pip imagines that his kind backer is Miss Havisham and that perhaps she wants to make a
gentleman out of him so that he will be fit someday to marry Estella.
In London, Pip finds a small apartment set up for him. Herbert Pocket, a young relative of
Miss Havisham, is his living companion. When Pip needs money, he is instructed to go to Mr.
Jaggers. Although Pip pleads with the lawyer to disclose the name of his benefactor, Jaggers
advises the eager young man not to make inquiries; when the proper time arrives, Pips
benefactor will be made known.
Soon Pip becomes one of a small group of London dandies, among them a disagreeable chap
named Bentley Drummle. To Pips dismay, Joe comes to visit; Pip, who has outgrown his rural
background, is ashamed of Joes simple manners, but Herbert cheerfully helps Pip to entertain
Joe in their apartment. After he leaves for the evening, Pip feels ashamed of himself. Joe had
brought word that Miss Havisham wants to see the young man, so Pip returns to his old home
with his brother-in-law. Miss Havisham and Estella note the changes in Pip, and when Estella
leaves Pip alone with the old lady, she tells him he must fall in love with the beautiful girl. She
also says it is time for Estella to come to London, and that she wishes Pip to meet her adopted
daughter when she arrives. This request makes Pip feel even more certain that he was sent to
London by Miss Havisham to be groomed to marry Estella.
Estella is not in London long before she has many suitors. Of all the men who court her, she
seems to favor Bentley. Pip sees Estella frequently. Although she treats him kindly and with
friendship, he knows she does not return his love.

On his twenty-first birthday, Pip receives a caller. It is Abel Magwitch, the man whom Pip
helped in the marsh many years earlier. He tells Pip that it is he who has been financing him ever
since he came to London. At first, the boy is horrified to discover he owes so much to this crude,
coarse man, a former criminal. Magwitch tells Pip that he was sent to the Colonies, where he
grew rich. Now he wants Pip to enjoy all the privileges that he himself had been denied in life.
He returned to England to see the boy to whom he has tried to be a second father. He warns Pip
that he is in danger should his presence be discovered, for it is certain death for a prisoner to
return to England once he has been sent to a convict colony. Pip detests his plight. He realizes
that Miss Havisham had nothing to do with his great expectations in life, but he is too conscious
of his debt to consider abandoning the man whose person he dislikes. He determines to do all in
his power to please his benefactor. Magwitch, who is using the name Provis to hide his identity,
tells Pip that the man with whom Pip saw him struggling long ago in the marsh is his enemy,
Compeyson, who has vowed to destroy him. Herbert, a distant cousin of Miss Havisham, informs
Pip that the lover who betrayed her on her wedding day was named Arthur Compeyson.
Pip goes to see Miss Havisham to denounce her for having allowed him to believe that she is
helping him. On his arrival, he is informed that Estella is to marry Bentley. Since Miss Havisham
suffered at the hands of one faithless man, she reared Estella to inflict as much hurt as possible
upon the many men who would fall in love with her. Estella reminds Pip that she warned him not
to fall in love with her, since she has no compassion for any human being. Pip returns once more
to visit Miss Havisham after Estella is married. An accident starts a fire in the old, dust-filled
mansion; although Pip tries to save the old woman, she dies in the blaze, which also badly
damages the gloomy house.
From Proviss story of his association with Compeyson and from other evidence, Pip learns
that Provis is Estellas father; he does not reveal his discovery to anyone but Jaggers, whose
housekeeper is Estellas mother. Pip also learns that Compeyson is in London and plotting to kill
Provis. In order to protect the man who tried to befriend him, Pip arranges to smuggle Provis
across the channel to France with the help of Herbert. Pip intends to join the old man there.
Elaborate and secretive as their plans are, Compeyson manages to overtake them as they are
putting Provis on the boat. The two enemies fight one last battle in the water, and Provis kills his
enemy. He is then taken to jail, where he dies before he can be brought to trial.
When Pip falls ill shortly afterward, it is Joe who comes to nurse him. Older and wiser from
his many experiences, Pip realizes that he no longer needs to be ashamed of the kind man who
gave so much love to him when he was a boy. His sister, Mrs. Joe, had died and Joe had married
again, this time very happily. Pip, still desolate and unhappy because of his lost Estella, returns
to the blacksmiths home to recuperate. Later, Herbert and Pip set up business together in
London.
Eleven years pass before Pip goes to see Joe again. Curiosity leads him to the site of Miss
Havishams former mansion. There he finds Estella, now a widow, wandering over the grounds.
During the intervening years, she lost her cool aloofness and softened a great deal. She tells Pip
she has thought of him often. Pip is able to foresee that perhaps he and Estella will never have to
part again. The childhood friends walk hand in hand from the place that had once played such an
enormous part in both of their lives.