Pip's Great Expectations
The Announcement: Chapter 18
Pip’s life changes forever when the lawyer Jaggers arrives at Joe’s forge with extraordinary news: an anonymous benefactor has given Pip a large fortune and wishes him to be raised as a gentleman in London. There are two conditions — Pip must always keep the name “Pip” and must never seek to discover the identity of his patron.
Pip immediately assumes Miss Havisham is his benefactor. This assumption makes perfect sense to him: she is wealthy, she introduced him to Estella, and she seems to have been preparing him for something grander. Dickens encourages the reader to share this assumption, which makes the eventual revelation in Chapter 39 all the more devastating. Dickens keeps the truth back, so on a second reading every Satis House scene carries dramatic irony — Pip builds his entire identity on a false belief.
Pip’s assumption that Miss Havisham is his benefactor is a carefully constructed piece of dramatic irony. Dickens leads the reader into the same false belief, so that when Magwitch reveals himself in Chapter 39, the shock is shared between character and audience. Every scene at Satis House takes on a new, darker meaning.
Becoming a “Gentleman”: London Life
Pip arrives in London full of excitement and expectation, but Dickens immediately undercuts his romanticism. The city is described as dirty, crowded, and menacing — Jaggers’ office is near Newgate Prison, and Pip is horrified by the grime and squalor. London is not the elegant paradise Pip imagined; it is a place where wealth and crime exist side by side.
Pip is placed with the tutor Mr Matthew Pocket and quickly befriends his son Herbert Pocket — who, ironically, Pip had fought at Satis House as a boy. Herbert nicknames Pip “Handel” and teaches him the manners and social codes of a gentleman. He is everything Pip wants to be: well-bred, easy-going, and naturally kind. Yet Herbert himself has little money, while Pip has a fortune. Dickens uses this contrast to suggest that genuine gentility is a quality of character, not of bank balance.
Once in London, Pip begins spending recklessly. He joins a gentleman’s dining club called the Finches of the Grove, buys expensive clothes, hires a servant (the Avenger), and runs up debts. Dickens satirises Pip’s shallow version of gentlemanliness — he has learned how to spend like a gentleman but not how to live like one. His spending mirrors the superficiality of his transformation: it is all surface, no substance.
Herbert, who has far less money, is dragged into debt alongside Pip. The irony is that Pip, using Magwitch’s convict money, thinks he is climbing the social ladder, when in reality he is becoming less moral, less generous, and less honest with every passing month.
Growing Snobbery: Pip’s Changing Attitude
The most painful consequence of Pip’s transformation is how it changes his relationship with Joe. As Pip absorbs London manners, he begins to see Joe’s simplicity as embarrassing. He dreads the idea of Joe visiting him, and when Joe does come to London in Chapter 27, the scene is agonising.
Joe is hopelessly out of place in Pip’s London rooms. He calls Pip “Sir” instead of his name, struggles with his hat (which keeps falling off the mantelpiece), and cannot relax. Pip is embarrassed, condescending, and relieved when Joe leaves. Joe senses this and delivers one of the novel’s most moving speeches, telling Pip that they belong in different worlds now: “You and me is not two figures to be together in London.”
Joe’s visit to London in Chapter 27 is one of the novel’s most emotionally devastating scenes. Joe recognises that Pip is ashamed of him and quietly withdraws, saying they are “not two figures to be together in London.” Dickens makes the reader feel the injustice: Joe has done nothing wrong, yet he is the one who suffers.
The adult narrator Pip reflects on his younger self with clear-eyed shame. He admits: “In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.” This is a crucial quotation. Pip knows his behaviour is wrong — he knows he should treat Joe with love and respect — but he cannot bring himself to do it because his shame about his origins is too strong.
Dickens uses retrospective narration brilliantly here. The adult Pip condemns his younger self, which invites the reader to judge Pip’s behaviour while also understanding the pressures that caused it. Dickens is saying: class prejudice is so powerful that even a good person can be corrupted by it.
Pip and Estella: Love Against Reason
Throughout his time in London, Pip continues to visit Miss Havisham and Estella. His love for Estella is hopeless and obsessive. He knows she is cold, he knows she does not love him, and yet he cannot stop. He declares: “I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.” The repetition of “against” in this famous quotation emphasises that Pip’s love is self-destructive — he is choosing to love someone who will only cause him pain.
Dickens presents Pip’s love for Estella as another form of his misguided expectations. He believes that becoming a gentleman will make him worthy of Estella, just as he believes Miss Havisham is grooming them to be together. Both beliefs are wrong, and both cause immense suffering.