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Book 2, Chapter 27
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Great Expectations, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Social Class
Ambition and Self-Improvement
Integrity and Reputation
Parents
Justice
Generosity
Summary
Analysis
Pip arranges to return to the village the next day but makes excuses to himself to justify staying at the Blue Boar instead of at the forge. The adult Pip narrator calls himself a "self-swindler."
Pip is a self-swindler because he acts disloyally and without personal integrity, making excuses to trick himself into thinking otherwise and stealing from himself the love and friendship he should share with Joe and Biddy..
Themes
Quiz
Test Yourself
On the coach to his town, Pip rides with two convicts, one of which Pip recognizes as the man he met at the Three Jolly Bargeman. Pip is grateful that the man doesn't recognize him. During the ride, Pip overhears the man recounting how another convict had asked him to find "the boy that had fed him and kep' his secret" and give him two one-pound notes.
This confirms Pip's suspicion that the stranger who showed him the metal file and gave him the two pounds was sent by the convict he'd helped.
Themes
Quiz
Test Yourself
At the Blue Boar, Pip reads Mr. Pumblechook's thinly disguised article in the local newspaper crediting himself as Pip's mentor, friend, and first patron.
Mr. Pumblechook continues to tell lies about his generosity towards Pip in order to enhance his reputation around town.
Themes
Quiz
Test Yourself
