Great Expectations Forgiveness Quotes

“God knows you’re welcome to it, – so far as it was ever mine,” returned Joe, with a saving remembrance of Mrs. Joe. “We don’t know what you have done, but we wouldn’t have you starved to death for it, poor miserable fellow-creatur. – Would us, Pip?”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 5. Joe Gargery’s kind and forgiving nature is very evident when the recaptured convict Magwitch tells him he is sorry for stealing his food. Instead of responding with anger and a demand for punishment, Joe’s reaction is full of forgiveness and compassion for a starving man.

“I cautioned him that I must hear no more of that; that he was not at all likely to obtain a pardon; that he was expatriated for the term of his natural life; and that his presenting himself in this country would be an act of felony, rendering him liable to the extreme penalty of the law.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 40. Legal expert Mr. Jaggers sets out very clear to Pip why the criminal Magwitch should not return to England. After Magwitch hinted in a letter that he wanted to come to see Pip, Jaggers warned him of the severe legal consequences and not to expect forgiveness or pardon. This foreshadows Magwitch’s return to England where he is sentenced to be executed. However, while awaiting execution in Newgate Prison he dies peacefully in prison, thus escaping the hangman’s noose.

“It would have been cruel in Miss Havisham, horribly cruel, to practice on the susceptibility of a poor boy, and to torture me through all these years with a vain hope and an idle pursuit, if she had reflected on the gravity of what she did. But I think she did not. But I think she did not. I think that, in the endurance of her own trial, she forgot mine, Estella.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 44. In this scene Pip appears at the point of verbally attacking Miss Havisham for leading him on in his belief that she was his patron and he was destined to marry Estella. But instead he shows understanding and forgiveness towards Miss Havisham.

“Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil. But, in this separation, I associate you only with the good; and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp distress I may. O God bless you, God forgive you!”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 44. Even after Estella announces her plans to marry the unworthy Drummle, Pip declares his unswerving love for her. Pip has a highly romanticized view of Estella, even when she tells him that he will quickly forget her. In this passionate speech he blesses and forgives her and expresses the depth of his desperate love and despair. He resolves to remember her only for the good parts of their relationship, not the painful ones.

“My name is on the first leaf. If you can ever write under my name, ‘I forgive her,’ though ever so long after my broken heart is dust pray do it!” “O Miss Havisham,” said I, “I can do it now. There have been sore mistakes; and my life has been a blind and thankless one; and I want forgiveness and direction far too much, to be bitter with you.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 49. Miss Havisham is racked with guilt over her cruelty towards Pip. Having seen his heartbreak on learning that Estella is to marry Bentley Drummle, she sees in Pip the shadow of herself and her own marital heartbreak. Here she begs Pip for his forgiveness. She hands him a pad with her name on it and asks him to write “I forgive her,” even if this happens long after her death. Magnanimously Pip forgives her there and then.

She…to my amazement…dropped on her knees at my feet; with her folded hands raised to me in the manner in which, when her poor heart was young and fresh and whole, they must often have been raised to heaven from her mother’s side.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 49. Miss Havisham is profoundly remorseful for her cruelty to Pip as a boy. Here she dramatically drops to her knees sobbing and clinging to his feet, pleading for forgiveness. The religious-type imagery of her kneeling with hands raised towards heaven underlines the depth of her remorse and need for redemption.

And could I look upon her without compassion, seeing her punishment in the ruin she was, in her profound unfitness for this earth on which she was placed, in the vanity of sorrow which had become a master mania, like the vanity of penitence, the vanity of remorse, the vanity of unworthiness, and other monstrous vanities that have been curses in this world?

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 49. Despite the harm she has caused him, Pip looks with sympathy at the profoundly remorseful Miss Havisham. He sees her as having been punished by fate and has only compassion for the woman who has been ruined by the curse of the vanities of the world. Recognizing that she has suffered for her sins, he is able to forgive her.

I reasoned as I had reasoned already without knowing it, – if that be reasoning, – in case any harm should befall him through my not going, how could I ever forgive myself!

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 52. Pip has received an anonymous, threatening letter instructing him to go to the marshes alone and tell no one. The letter mentions Provis, or Magwitch, whom Pip and Herbert are preparing to transport out of London. As Pip is greatly concerned about Magwitch and his safety he decides to comply with the letter’s instructions. He couldn’t forgive himself if any harm came to the convict. This demonstrates Pip’s loyalty towards Magwitch.

If you can take me with all my faults and disappointments on my head, if you can receive me like a forgiven child (and indeed I am as sorry, Biddy, and have as much need of a hushing voice and a soothing hand), I hope I am a little worthier of you than I was.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 57. Pip has become more self-aware regarding his past mistakes and shows humility in this passage. He rehearses what he will say to Biddy when he asks for her forgiveness on his return to the forge.

“But you said to me,” returned Estella, very earnestly, “‘God bless you, God forgive you!’ And if you could say that to me then, you will not hesitate to say that to me now, – now, when suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 59. In the novel’s final scene, Estella recalls what Pip said to her when they parted after announcing her engagement to Bentley Drummle. She tells him how her own suffering has taught her to sympathize with the sufferings of others, like Pip. Using hyperbole and metaphor, she speaks of how life has broken and reshaped her and made her into a better person. After a loveless and failed marriage to the cruel Drummle, she now appreciates the importance of love and what was in Pip’s heart. She sees what a special person Pip is and recalls how even as she broke his heart he forgave her. Among the themes explored in this passage are guilt and shame.
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