Pip, a young boy of about seven, meets a convict in the churchyard near his home on the Kent marshes, near London. We later find out that this convict is Magwitch. Pip lives with his sister, Mrs. Joe, and her husband, Joe Gargery, who is the local blacksmith. The convict makes Pip bring him a file, to cut the irons off his leg, and some food. Pip steals the items and takes them to the convict who then disappears. As the food is missed from the house, soldiers looking for two escaped convicts arrive and seek the help of Joe to make new chains and leg irons. Pip does not betray the convict but he is found by the soldiers on the marshes, fighting with another escaped prisoner (who we later learn is called Compeyson). Magwitch is so determined not to let the other prisoner go that both men end up being caught. Sometime later Pip is invited to play at the large and intimidating Satis House with its strange inhabitant, Miss Havisham. She spends her days dressed in a faded wedding dress, surrounded by decaying wedding items such as a rotting cake, having been jilted at the altar. The rooms she occupies have not seen daylight for many years and neither has she. She has an adopted daughter, Estella, who is about Pip’s age. Miss Havisham makes Pip play cards with Estella. Estella delights in humiliating him, but he finds her beautiful anyway and his love for her grows even as he becomes an adult. A strange visitor to town gives Pip two pound notes and the man clearly has some connection with Pip’s convict because he stirs his drink with the file that Pip stole. Pip meets the Pockets at Miss Havisham’s and a strange boy makes Pip fight with him (later named as Herbert).
Miss Havisham pays Joe to take Pip on as his apprentice and he is sworn to the trade of blacksmith. Pip is not satisfied with his position in life and feels that he should be destined for greater things than being a blacksmith. To better himself, Pip attends a poorly run night class in the town where he meets Biddy, a bright girl of a similar age to himself. Mrs. Joe is attacked and injured so severely that she can no longer speak. Pip suspects Orlick, Joe’s assistant, who argued with his sister earlier the same day. A stranger arrives from London and announces himself as Mr Jaggers, a lawyer. Pip has seen him before at Satis House. He tells Pip that he will inherit a large property and that he must go to London immediately to begin his training in life as a gentleman. As a condition, Pip is not to seek to discover who his mysterious benefactor is, though he assumes that it is Miss Havisham. Pip goes to London, leaving Joe and Biddy behind.
In London, Pip begins his education with Matthew Pocket, Miss Havisham’s cousin, and becomes friends with his son Herbert. Jaggers is a cautious and clever lawyer who is always on his guard and Pip becomes friendly with his clerk, Wemmick. Pip gets into debt but arranges for Herbert to be helped in his career. Pip is asked to accompany Estella in London. This strengthens his belief that Miss Havisham is paying for him to be educated as a gentleman so that he will be suitable to marry Estella. Estella tries to warn him that she has no feelings for him. Mrs Joe eventually dies from the injuries inflicted by Orlick, and Pip attends her funeral. Joe’s subsequent visit to Pip in London is embarrassing for them both.
One night Pip has a surprise visitor: the convict from the beginning of the novel, Abel Magwitch. He is Pip’s secret benefactor and has returned illegally from Australia to see Pip. Pip is shocked because this destroys his dream that he and Estella will marry, and he is unnerved by the convict but feels he should shelter him. Pip decides to get Magwitch out of the country. Pip learns that the convict Magwitch fought with on the marshes, and whom Magwitch blames for most of his troubles, is called Compeyson. This is the man who tricked Miss Havisham and failed to turn up to marry her.
Pip learns that Estella will marry a brutal man called Bentley Drummle. Wemmick warns Pip that he and Magwitch are being watched. They hope to help Magwitch catch a foreign steamer and escape. Gradually Pip pieces together the information that Magwitch is Estella’s father and that Jaggers’s housekeeper, Molly, is her mother. Estella was placed in the care of Miss Havisham who adopted her.
After regretting her past mistakes and helping Pip to finance Herbert in business, Miss Havisham is injured when her wedding dress accidentally catches fire; she later dies from her injuries and Pip is badly burnt. Orlick plans to murder Pip having confessed to attacking Mrs Joe, but Herbert Pocket comes to the rescue. As Pip and Magwitch attempt to catch the ship, they are caught by the police. In the struggle, Compeyson is drowned. Magwitch is sentenced to death for returning to England but dies in prison. Pip tells him that his daughter is a beautiful lady and that he, Pip, loves her. Pip falls ill and is nursed by Joe. When he is well, he decides to go home and ask Biddy to marry him. He arrives to find she is marrying Joe. Pip accepts Herbert’s offer of a job with his firm in Cairo. He returns after eleven years and accidentally meets Estella on the grounds of Satis House. She is now a widow. Pip feels sure that he and Estella will never part again.
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