Summary and Analysis
Chapters 43-45 - (Volume III, Chapters 4-6)
Summary
Pip visits Estella and Miss Havisham one last time before leaving to get Magwitch out of the country. He meets Drummle at the Blue Boar, and is angered by Drummle's boasting that he is having dinner with Estella. Pip is received with surprise at Satis House and he gets right to the point. Telling them he knows his benefactor and that it will do him no good in enriching his station, reputation, or wealth, he admonishes Miss Havisham for hurting him by leading him to believe she was the source of his expectations. While he was treated fairly with the apprenticeship he knows he served her purpose in antagonizing her toady relatives. She flashes an angry response telling him he made his own snare, but continues to listen. Pip tells her how honorable Herbert and Matthew Pocket have been in contrast to the other relatives. Explaining that he can no longer accept his inheritance he would appreciate Miss Havisham providing the rest of the payment for Herbert's business and to keep this a secret.
Pip then tells Estella that he knows he will never have her and does not blame Miss Havisham, as he does not believe she realized what she was doing. When Estella tells him she is going to marry Drummle, Pip passionately pleads with her to marry anyone else, at least someone worthy of her. Estella is unmoved, but Miss Havisham's distraught face is suddenly filled with shock, pity, and remorse. Pip leaves and decides to walk back to London. Reaching the Temple about midnight, he is given a note from Wemmick telling him not to go home.
He spends a sleepless night at Hummums in Covent Garden, where a bed is always available to travelers. Early in the morning he heads for Wemmick's house. The clerk tells him that an unnamed person is in danger and being watched. He tells Pip that he and Herbert moved that certain person to the house where Herbert's fiancée boards. He advises Pip to use the big city to lay low until things quiet down, and then get the person out of town. Telling Pip to make tonight Pip's only visit there, he advises Pip to get hold of the portable property tonight. Pip succeeds in pushing the Walworth Wemmick a bit further to confirm that Compeyson is still alive and living in London.
Analysis
Dickens has some fun with his characters when he has Drummle and Pip acting like two children vying for power in front of the Blue Boar's fireplace. He also foreshadows the type of death Drummle will have by showing his brutal treatment of his horse in this chapter.
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