Great Expectations: Book 3, Chapter 44 Summary & Analysis

Pip goes to Satis House and explains to Miss Havisham and Estella that he has met his patron but doesn't say who it is. He asks Miss Havisham to confirm four things. 1. When Pip first began visiting her, she considered him a servant and had no larger designs for him. 2. It was simply a coincidence that Mr. Jaggers worked both for her and for Pip's patron. 3. When Pip assumed Miss Havisham was his patron, she led him on. 4. When Sarah Pocket, Georgiana, Camilla, and Raymond likewise assumed she was Pip's patron and resented Pip for it, she led them on in order to torment them. Miss Havisham confirms everything.

Pip tells Miss Havisham that Matthew and Herbert Pocket, unlike her other relations, are upright and kind. Pip asks her to believe in them. He also asks her to carry on the anonymous investments in Herbert's career that Pip can no longer afford to make. Miss Havisham does not respond.

Pip professes his love for Estella and explains he has long refrained from courting her directly because he assumed they were secretly betrothed. Estella replies that she is incapable of love, that warning Pip against loving her was the most she could do for him.

When Pip confronts Estella about Drummle, she tells Pip she is going to marry Drummle. In despair, Pip begs her to marry someone worthier, someone who actually loves her—even though that person will not be himself, Pip says he would bear it for her sake. Estella is bewildered by Pip's plea, but calmly insists she will marry Drummle and assures Pip he'll get over her. Pip cries that he will never get over her, that she has always been and will always be a part of his very "existence." Miss Havisham watches Pip's outburst with her hand over her heart and a "ghastly stare of pity and remorse."

Utterly dejected, Pip walks all the way back to London to be alone. At the gate to his home, the porter gives him a note written in Wemmick's hand that tells him not to go home.