Great Expectations (Grades 9–1) York Notes

The relationship between Pip and Magwitch is very important to the novel and it links to the themes of parents and children as well as rich and poor. This extract tells us a lot about the relationship between Pip and Magwitch and is a dramatic plot twist.

The news that Magwitch is Pip’s benefactor makes Pip feel physically ill; he feels heis ‘suffocating’ and the room around him begins to ‘surge and turn’. This ensures that the reader is clear that Pip had no idea that the source of his money would be Magwitch; in fact, Pip was led to believe that Miss Havisham had given him the money. Dickens says that he ‘shuddered’ as he looked closely into Magwitch’s face, which has the effect of reminding the reader of the fear Pip felt for Magwitch as they first met in the churchyard.

Magwitch says he has ‘made a gentleman’ of Pip. The idea of being a ‘gentleman’ is central to Pip’s life. Everything Pip has done in London has been to try to make himself a gentleman – this includes changing his clothes and learning gentlemanly behaviour from Herbert Pocket. Consequently, the fact that Magwitch – a violent and terrifying convict – has actually given Pip the means to be a ‘gentleman’ is a terrible shock. Dickens uses a rule of three when Pip describes his feelings as a mixture of ‘abhorrence’, ‘dread’ and ‘repugnance’, employing a rhetorical device that adds power and emphasis.

Dickens’s depiction of Magwitch’s time in Australia is surprisingly moving; Dickens wrote this novel in part as a comment on the use of such inhumane punishments. Magwitch, for example, lives in a ‘solitary’ hut seeing no one else for many years. It almost seems that Magwitch has been driven mad with his obsession with Pip.

This chapter shows the beginning of Pip’s development into a more honest and kind man. It may be the lowest point of his fear and hatred of Magwitch, but as Pip comes to accept Magwitch as a father he also learns to appreciate the convict’s genuine love and kindness. Knowing that Magwitch has risked his own life by coming to London to see him leads Pip to acknowledge his genuine devotion.

Although Magwitch is caught and sentenced to death for returning to Britain, Pip does all that he can to make Magwitch’s final days good. In the extract Pip is upset by the way that Magwitch always calls him ‘dear boy’ but when Magwitch calls him ‘dear boy’ in the chapter called One Finds Peace (in which Magwitch dies) it feels more like a friendly term showing how their relationship develops. Pip spends many hours holding Magwitch’s hand and is Magwitch’s only visitor.

The last thing that Pip says to Magwitch is to tell him about Estella. This is very kind of Pip and allows Magwitch to die happily. This also shows the structure of the novel in which relationships are generally resolved in some way. It also links to the way that Miss Havisham dies with Pip being able to say ‘I forgive her’ as she lays dead.