Pip Quotes

“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.

“Miss Havisham gives you to him, as the greatest slight and injury that could be done to the many far better men who admire you, and to the few who truly love you. Among those few there may be one who loves you even as dearly, though he has not loved you as long, as I. Take him, and I can bear it better, for your sake!”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 44. When Pip hears from Estella that she is engaged to Bentley Drummle, he passionately pleads with her not to marry him. While expressing his own deep love for her, he accepts that he will not be the one to marry her. He points out that there are other worthy men who truly care for her. In an act of selflessness and generosity, he begs her to marry one of them instead. This is an indicator that Pip is improving as a character and reforming his selfish ways. Miss Havisham’s own cruel actions as a parent in raising Estella to be heartless and unfeeling are criticized by Pip.

“You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 44. In an emotional speech in which Pip bares his soul to Estella, he tells her how she is embedded in every thought, perception and view of his world. We see the agony and ecstasy of unrequited romantic love as Pip tells her what she means to him. His powerful declaration of love following Estella’s announcement that she is to marry Bentley Drummle speaks to Pip’s self-delusion and self-deceit. After his livelong pursuit of the unattainable Estella, Pip has to live with the fact that she has chosen another.

“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.

It was a sort of vault on the ground floor at the back, with a despotic monster of a four-post bedstead in it, straddling over the whole place, putting one of his arbitrary legs into the fireplace and another into the doorway, and squeezing the wretched little washing-stand in quite a Divinely Righteous manner.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 45. Pip describes his surroundings in the hotel room at Covent Garden, where he spends an anxious and sleepless night. This follows Wemmick’s note warning him not to go home, suggesting that he may be in danger. Pip’s feeling of dread is emphasized by the metaphor of a “despotic monster” for the bedstead and its personification as straddling the room, putting its legs into the fireplace and doorway and squeezing the washing stand.

When I had lain awake a little while, those extraordinary voices with which silence teems began to make themselves audible. The closet whispered, the fireplace sighed, the little washing-stand ticked, and one guitar-string played occasionally in the chest of drawers.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 45. A worried Pip spends a night in a dingy hotel after the warning from Wemmick not to go home. His sense of unease is reflected in personification of the objects in the room whispering, sighing and ticking.

Looking back at him, I thought of the first night of his return, when our positions were reversed, and when I little supposed my heart could ever be as heavy and anxious at parting from him as it was now.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 46. This shows Pip’s growth as a character, as his relationship with Magwitch improves and he begins to care for him. Earlier when he first learned that the criminal was his benefactor, he compared him to a snake. But now on hearing from Wemmick that Magwitch has come under suspicion and is being watched by the authorities, he is concerned for Magwitch’s safety. So Pip and Herbert plan to row him down river so that he can escape London and travel abroad to safety.

Herbert had sometimes said to me that he found it pleasant to stand at one of our windows after dark, when the tide was running down, and to think that it was flowing, with everything it bore, towards Clara. But I thought with dread that it was flowing towards Magwitch, and that any black mark on its surface might be his pursuers, going swiftly, silently, and surely, to take him.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 46. Pip is fearful for the safety of Magwitch the convict who is in hiding in Clara’s house and is being pursued by Compeyson. Having spent time with the convict, Pip has grown close to him but realizes the risk he has taken to return to London to see Pip. In the symbolism of the tide, Herbert sees it flowing towards his love Clara, but to Pip it is ominously moving towards Magwitch and his capture.

I had quite determined that it would be a heartless fraud to take more money from my patron in the existing state of my uncertain thoughts and plans. Therefore, I had sent him the unopened pocket-book by Herbert, to hold in his own keeping, and I felt a kind of satisfaction – whether it was a false kind or a true, I hardly know – in not having profited by his generosity since his revelation of himself.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 47. This quote reflects Pip’s internal moral conflict about taking money from a convict, having learned that Magwitch is his benefactor. Planning to help Magwitch escape from England, Pip decides that he can no longer profit from Magwitch’s generosity. Once Magwitch is safely out of London and abroad, Pip will end their relationship. The theme of integrity is found here, as Pip prioritizes his principles over exploiting Magwitch’s kindness for personal gain.

“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.

I had a double-caped great-coat on, and over my arm another thick coat. That I got them off, closed with her, threw her down, and got them over her; that I dragged the great cloth from the table for the same purpose, and with it dragged down the heap of rottenness in the midst, and all the ugly things that sheltered there; that we were on the ground struggling like desperate enemies, and that the closer I covered her, the more wildly she shrieked and tried to free herself, – that this occurred I knew through the result, but not through anything I felt, or thought, or knew I did. I knew nothing until I knew that we were on the floor by the great table, and that patches of tinder yet alight were floating in the smoky air, which, a moment ago, had been her faded bridal dress.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 49. When the decaying wedding dress Miss Havisham is wearing goes up in flames, Pip makes desperate efforts to save her. As the fire engulfs her, he uses his overcoat and the tablecloth to smother the flames. While dragging the cloth from Miss Havisham’s wedding feast table, her rotted wedding cake and the spiders that live in it are pulled down. The simile “struggling like desperate enemies” describes how Pip forcibly holds Miss Havisham down in his attempt to rescue her. In the fire Miss Havisham’s wedding gown is destroyed, symbolizing that she has been freed from her traumatic past and years of bitterness over her betrayal by Compeyson.

I was astonished to see that both my hands were burnt; for, I had no knowledge of it through the sense of feeling.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 49. Pip’s hands are badly burned from his rescue of Miss Havisham when her dress caught fire. His burns symbolize his moral growth and development as a character. Despite being cruelly treated by Miss Havisham, Pip put himself at great risk to save her life. Without a thought for his own safety, he covered the flaming woman in his coat and a tablecloth and injured himself in the process. His show of compassion for a bitter woman who wronged him marks an important step on his journey to being a better person.

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.

The death close before me was terrible, but far more terrible than death was the dread of being misremembered after death. And so quick were my thoughts, that I saw myself despised by unborn generations, – Estella’s children, and their children.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 53. When Orlick ambushes Pip on the marshes in order to murder him, Pip worries more about how he will be remembered afterwards than he does about dying. Among his concerns are that Estella’s father Magwitch will believe he has deserted him, Herbert will doubt him and Joe and Biddy will never know how sorry he was for the way he treated them.

Where I might go, what I might do, or when I might return, were questions utterly unknown to me; nor did I vex my mind with them, for it was wholly set on Provis’s safety.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 54. Pip is no longer the selfish person whose main purpose in life is acquiring wealth, desperately climbing the social ladder and marrying the cold and aloof Estella. His thoughts are concentrated, not on himself anymore, but on aiding the convict Magwitch to escape London and reach a place of safety away from England. This marks an improvement in Pip’s previous self-centered character, as he puts others before himself. He has learned to value true friendship over social status and superficiality.

For now my repugnance to him had all melted away, and in the hunted, wounded, shackled creature who held my hand in his, I only saw a man who had meant to be my benefactor, and who had felt affectionately, gratefully, and generously, towards me with great constancy through a series of years. I only saw in him a much better man than I had been to Joe.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 54. Pip’s attitudes towards Magwitch have gone through a significant transformation, reflecting Pip’s own personal growth and development. Initially disgusted that the convict was his benefactor, Pip now recognizes the generosity, affection and loyalty he has shown Pip through the years. The admission when Magwitch is arrested that he is a better man than Pip has been to Joe is significant. Pip is able to recognize his own failures and lack of kindness. We are looking at a more mature Pip than when, blinkered by an obsession with social class and superficiality, he felt superior to Magwitch and Joe. This passage follows Magwitch’s arrest when Pip’s escape plan to spirit Magwitch out of England is foiled by the law.

“I will never stir from your side,” said I, “when I am suffered to be near you. Please God, I will be as true to you as you have been to me!”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 54. Pip says this to Magwitch after he urges Pip to leave him because it is better for a gentleman not to be publicly seen with a convict. Promising never to leave him, Pip pledges to be true to Magwitch like he has been true to Pip. Pip shows how he has improved and grown from being a shallow, superficial and selfish individual to honoring those who are true and loyal.

I imparted to Mr. Jaggers my design of keeping him in ignorance of the fate of his wealth. Mr. Jaggers was querulous and angry with me for having “let it slip through my fingers,” and said we must memorialize by and by, and try at all events for some of it…I had no claim, and I finally resolved, and ever afterwards abided by the resolution, that my heart should never be sickened with the hopeless task of attempting to establish one.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 55. Jaggers is angry at Pip for failing to make a claim on Magwitch’s wealth and property which will be forfeited to the Crown. However, Pip is not interested in the money and believes that with no legal ties to Magwitch a claim would not succeed.

“Dear Magwitch, I must tell you now, at last. You understand what I say?” A gentle pressure on my hand. “You had a child once, whom you loved and lost.” A stronger pressure on my hand. “She lived, and found powerful friends. She is living now. She is a lady and very beautiful. And I love her!”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 56. As Magwitch is dying, Pip offers him closure with the revelation that his “lost” child is now grown to a beautiful woman whom Pip loves. Magwitch’s daughter Estella was adopted and he has not seen her since she was a young girl. Pip’s consoling of the dying criminal is an act of love and loyalty towards his benefactor, who risked all by coming to London to see him. This shows the degree to which Pip has grown and matured from the time he was a hopeless snob and looked at Magwitch with a mixture of disgust and horror.

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.

Biddy, it shall rest with you to say whether I shall work at the forge with Joe, or whether I shall try for any different occupation down in this country, or whether we shall go away to a distant place where an opportunity awaits me…And now, dear Biddy, if you can tell me that you will go through the world with me, you will surely make it a better world for me, and me a better man for it, and I will try hard to make it a better world for you.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 57. Pip decides to return to Joe’s forge and ask Biddy to marry him so she may guide him with her goodness. He eventually realizes that he and Biddy are a better match than he and Estella ever were. In this passage the reader is told what Pip plans to say to Biddy when they meet. Pip’s conversion is rather ironic, since earlier in the novel he spurned life with Joe in the forge to pursue being a “gentleman” and he abandoned his loving friend Biddy for Estella. There is also a further hidden irony, as we discover in the next chapter. When Pip returns to his village roots three days later he is shocked to find that Biddy and Joe were married that morning. He saw Biddy’s true value too late.

“Dear Biddy,” said I, “you have the best husband in the whole world, and if you could have seen him by my bed you would have – But no, you couldn’t love him better than you do…And, dear Joe, you have the best wife in the whole world, and she will make you as happy as even you deserve to be, you dear, good, noble Joe!”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 58. When Pip visits his home village with the intention of proposing to Biddy and working with Joe, he ironically walks in on them on their wedding day. Instead of showing anger or resentment, he responds with generosity, congratulating and speaking in high praise of them. He tells them that they make the perfect loving partners for each other. In referring to the “good, noble Joe,” Pip recognizes the inherent goodness and integrity in the man who has been his true friend. This shows how much Pip has developed as a character and how he has grown in maturity, since the days he felt superior to his two truest friends.

“And Joe and Biddy both, as you have been to church to-day, and are in charity and love with all mankind, receive my humble thanks for all you have done for me, and all I have so ill repaid!”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 58. Pip’s shame and regret over his treatment of Joe and Biddy is expressed in this speech. He regrets the ingratitude he has shown in response to their love and kindness. A more humble Pip finally sees the error of his ways when he lived a life built on superficial values and forgot who his true friends were. Pip’s apology for the way he treated them shows an awakening of a sense of integrity on his self-improvement journey.
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