Pip's Disillusionment
The Return of Magwitch: Chapter 39
Chapter 39 is the novel’s most devastating turning point. On a dark, stormy night, a stranger climbs the stairs to Pip’s London rooms. Pip does not recognise him at first — but the man holds out his hands and Pip sees the old convict from the marshes. Abel Magwitch has returned from Australia, risking execution, to reveal that he — not Miss Havisham — is Pip’s benefactor.
Pip’s reaction is horror, not gratitude. His entire identity collapses. He is not Miss Havisham’s chosen heir, groomed for Estella. He is a convict’s creation — built with money earned through hard labour in the penal colonies. The wealth Pip was so proud of was earned by the very kind of man he had been taught to despise. Dickens uses this moment to shatter not just Pip’s expectations, but the reader’s.
Magwitch’s return destroys every assumption Pip has made. His wealth comes from a convict, not a lady; his expectations were never about Estella; and his snobbery towards Joe was built on a lie. Dickens forces the reader to share Pip’s shock, because we were misled too.
Pip’s Revulsion and Guilt
Pip’s initial reaction to Magwitch is revulsion. He recoils from the old man, horrified that this rough, weather-beaten convict is the source of his gentlemanly life. Dickens presents Pip’s disgust as a form of class prejudice — Pip has absorbed the Victorian belief that criminals are beneath contempt, and he cannot reconcile this with the gratitude he should feel.
But guilt quickly follows. Pip realises that he abandoned Joe — the person who actually loved him — in pursuit of expectations that were never what he thought. He has been snobbish, ungrateful, and dishonest, and it was all for nothing. The irony cuts deep: Pip rejected the honest working-class world of the forge in order to become a gentleman funded by a convict’s money. Dickens is saying that the entire class system is built on hypocrisy.
Magwitch’s reasons for making Pip a gentleman are complex. He was deeply moved by Pip’s childhood kindness — the stolen food and file on the marshes. But his motivation goes beyond gratitude. Magwitch wanted to prove that a convict’s money could create a gentleman just as fine as any produced by inherited wealth. He tells Pip: “I lived rough, that you should live smooth; I worked hard, that you should be above work.”
There is something both noble and troubling about this. Magwitch genuinely loves Pip, but he also treats Pip as a kind of experiment — proof that class is a matter of money, not birth. Dickens suggests that even Magwitch has internalised the class system: rather than challenging it, he tries to beat it at its own game. The tragedy is that Pip’s gentlemanly status is as hollow as the society that values it.
Compeyson: The True Villain
As Magwitch reveals his history, a second villain emerges: Compeyson. He is the man who jilted Miss Havisham on her wedding morning, by letter, after taking her money. He is also the man who led Magwitch into crime and then, at their joint trial, received a much lighter sentence because he was a gentleman and Magwitch was not.
This is one of Dickens’ sharpest social criticisms. Compeyson and Magwitch committed the same crimes, but the class bias of the Victorian justice system meant that a well-spoken, well-dressed man received leniency while a rough, poor man was punished severely. Compeyson connects the novel’s two major plotlines — he is both Miss Havisham’s betrayer and Magwitch’s nemesis, proving that the true criminal is the gentleman, not the convict.
Compeyson received a lighter sentence than Magwitch despite committing the same crimes, because the court treated him more favourably as a gentleman. Dickens uses this to expose the hypocrisy of a justice system that judges character by class rather than conduct.
Miss Havisham’s Fire: Guilt and Destruction
When Pip confronts Miss Havisham about her role in his suffering, she is genuinely remorseful. She admits she allowed Pip to believe she was his benefactor, and she recognises the damage she has done to Estella. Her repeated cry of “What have I done!” shows that she is, for the first time, confronting the consequences of her revenge.
But Dickens does not allow her an easy redemption. As Pip leaves Satis House, Miss Havisham’s dress catches fire from the hearth. Pip rushes back and smothers the flames with the rotting tablecloth from the wedding feast — a powerful symbolic moment. The fire is the physical manifestation of the emotional destruction she has caused. Pip beats the flames out and she lives on, badly hurt; she never recovers, and Joe brings Pip the news of her death much later.
The fire scene is rich with symbolism. Miss Havisham has spent decades surrounded by decay — the rotting feast, the cobwebbed cake, the mouldering dress. All of this material is highly flammable, and when the fire starts, it consumes everything. Dickens is suggesting that a life built on bitterness and revenge is inherently destructive. The wedding dress that symbolised Miss Havisham’s frozen grief burns away to tinder around her.
Pip’s attempt to save her, using the old tablecloth, mirrors his earlier compassion for Magwitch. Despite everything Miss Havisham has done, Pip acts instinctively to help. This moment marks a turning point in his moral development — he is beginning to show the compassion that was always part of his true nature.
Pip’s Disillusionment: Stripping Away False Expectations
By the end of this stage of the novel, Pip has lost everything he thought he wanted. His benefactor is a convict, not a lady. His hopes of marrying Estella are based on a fantasy. His gentlemanly status is funded by criminal money. His treatment of Joe was cruel and unnecessary. Dickens strips away every false expectation to leave Pip with nothing but the truth — and it is only from this painful honesty that genuine growth can begin.