By Danielle Pham

In chapter 39, the identity of Pip’s benefactor is revealed, and as it is around this person that the mystery of his ‘expectations’ revolve, it is a pivotal chapter in terms of plot-development. Yet, the chapter is also important in that finally, Pip the protagonist, and not only Pip the narrator, realises the moral wrongs of his conduct in London, and his pointless pursuit of Estella. The importance and drama of this chapter are apparent from its very beginning, and Dickens communicates this to the reader in various ways, such as the build-up of atmosphere, the dramatic and mysterious presentation of Magwitch, and Pip’s heightened state of emotion.

      The opening of the chapter reads : "I was three-and-twenty years of age. Not another word had I heard to enlighten me on the subject of my expectations, and my twenty-third birthday was a week gone." This reminds the reader of the mystery surrounding the source of Pip’s wealth, therefore ‘feeding’ the reader’s curiosity, and also possibly providing a clue that something relating to the mystery may soon be revealed. Pip describes the absence of Herbert as leaving him "dispirited and anxious, and long disappointed", and "the day just closed as I sat down to read had been the worst of all." Nothing has happened as yet, but there is the distinct feeling that all is not quite right, which is then enhanced by dickens’ description of the atmosphere of London:
      "It was wretched weather; stormy and wet, stormy and wet: and mud, mud, mud, deep in all the streets. Day after day, a vast heavy veil had been driving over London from the East, and it drove still, as if in the East there were an eternity of cloud and wind."
This is a very discouraging and sombre description, and it is almost as if nature herself knows of the "veil" that it soon to be ‘drawn’ over Pip’s entire happiness and again, is possibly a clue that a startling revelation is soon to be made to Pip, thus heightening the reader’s curiosity, as well as the drama of the chapter.
      The following two paragraphs are full of startling and turbulent images, metaphors and similes - "the wind rushing up the river shook the house that night, like discharges of cannon, or breakings of a sea"; "I might have fancied myself in a storm-beaten lighthouse" - as well as very long and elaborate sentences. Dickens’ dramatic images and his acute attention to detail maintain the drama and sombreness of the atmosphere, but the mood of the chapter is now also more thunderous and violent. However, it is then, quite abruptly, that amongst all of this ‘din’ and darkness that "I heard a footstep on the stair". The sudden insertion that Pip is not alone has a shocking effect upon the reader, and the reader cannot help but be intrigued as to who it is that is there. The reader’s intrigue (and therefore the drama) remains, due to the mysterious and sudden presentation of this as yet unknown character, but the ‘tenderness’ of a man "looking up at me with an incomprehensible air of being touched and pleased by the sight of me" is a contrast to the previous turbulence of the atmosphere, and has a calming effect upon the novel’s mood.
      With the ‘storm’ now aside, the plot begins to unfold. After having reluctantly invited the stranger into his home, Pip recognises him as the convict whom he had met on the marshes as a child - a shock to both him and the reader, which increases the drama of the chapter. The convict (Magwitch) then toys with Pip, asking apparently ‘innocent’ questions and making ‘random’ guesses about Pip’s "great expectations". However, Magwitch’s ‘guesses’ become more and more accurate, and as they do so, Pip’s emotions become increasingly frantic as "All the truth of my position came flashing on me; and its disappointments, dangers, disgraces, consequences of all kinds, rushed in in such a multitude that I was borne down by them and had to struggle for every breath I drew." Magwitch is Pip’s benefactor, and Pip’s heightened state of emotion as he realises this (his "heart beating like a heavy hammer of disordered action" and his "suffocating"), climaxes with Pip collapsing as "the room began to surge and turn". This revelation, which is key to the development of the plot-line, is made in a ‘torrent’ of emotion and drama, with the reader just as astonished and breathless as Pip.
      Pip’s reaction to Magwitch is not one of gratitude, but one of disgust and unbearable disappointment - in his circumstances and himself. Pip is disgusted by Magwitch’s appearance and his disruption of Pip’s life, and he is also ‘crushed’ by the fact that "Miss Havisham’s intentions towards me, all a mere dream; Estella not designed for me." The initial reason Pip wanted to become a ‘gentleman’ was so he could ‘ascend’ to Estella’s and Mrs Havisham’s social status, and therefore eventually marry Estella, and when his wishes are suddenly and mysteriously granted as a boy, both Pip and the reader become convinced that Mrs Havisham is his benefactor, for everything seems to assert this belief. Yet now, Pip has learned that the belief upon which he has based his whole life’s happiness is false, and this pain is subordinate to nothing ... except his shame when he finally admits his desertion of, and "worthless conduct" to, Joe and Biddy.
      Pip has finally made the important but painful realisation that he has been, until now, deluded by his own (not entirely unreasonable) assumptions and fantasies of the hardly-present Estella, and has shamefully abandoned the "simplicity and fidelity" and unwavering love of those who were always there. It is no longer Pip the narrator, telling his story with hindsight, who stresses the wrongness of his actions. It is the young London Pip who makes the shameful realisation that "I could never, never, never, undo what I had done", and the reader is now aware of the two voices starting to merge into one, forming the voice of a now more conscious, penitent and likeable Pip.
      The chapter ends with Pip imagining that there had been signs, foretelling Magwitch’s coming, but which had gone unnoticed by him. Before falling asleep, he locks Magwitch in Herbert’s room, fearing his own safety, and when he awakes the next day, he does so in "thick black darkness". The chapter’s ending is a cliff-hanger, where Dickens’ creation of intense drama leaves the reader in the same "thick black darkness" as Pip, not knowing what to expect next.

Indeed chapter 39 is a pivotal one - highly-charged with drama and emotion. After having been forced to face the dreary reality of his "great expectations" and his behaviour, Pip is never the same. From this point onwards, Pip finds redemption in trying to help Magwitch escape, and also, incidentally begins to grow quite fond if him. Soon, the separate voices of the narrator and the protagonist are almost indistinguishable, and Pip eventually realises that truly "great expectations" involve not wealth, London or even Estella, but living simply, honestly and wholly.

This essay was found at www.englishresources.co.uk