Great Expectations
(Charles Dickens)
Pip, an orphan living in Kent, visits his parents? tombstone in a cemetery. Suddenly, an escaped convict emerges from behind the tombstone and orders Pip to fetch some food and a pile for his leg irons. Pip obeys, but the police captures the convict soon. The convict protects Pip claiming to have stolen the items himself. One day, Pip is taken by his Uncle Pumblechook to play at Satis House, where he meets a wealthy dowger Miss Havisham and a gorgeous young girl named Estella. Unfortunately Estella treats him contemptuously, but in spite of it he falls for her and starts dreaming of becoming a wealthy gentleman so that he might be worthy of her. He even hopes that Miss Havisham intends to make him a gentleman and marry him to Estella. Alas, his dreams are blown up when Miss Havisham helps him to fill out the necessary papers for him to work in his family business as a common laborer. With Miss Havisham?s guidance, Pip begins to work in his brother-in-law?s care, Joe who is a village blacksmith. Pip is not satisfied with the work in the forge. He meets a kind Biddy, who is helping him, and malicious Orlick. One night, Joe?s sister is viciously attacked and becomes a mute invalid. Form her signals, Pip suspects that Orlick was responsible for the attack. One day, Pip receives the news from Jaggers, a lawyer, about a secret benefactor who has given Pip a large fortune, and Pip must come to London to start his education as a gentleman. Pip believes that Miss Havisham is his secret benefactor, and she wants him to marry Estella. In London, Pip learns how to become a gentleman under the Pockets? supervision. Therefore, Pip receives his education on a good level. When Pip is twenty-one he obtains an income from his fortune and helps Herbert Pocket buy the way into business he has chosen. Herbert and Pip begin to lead an undisciplined life in London, running up debts. Orlick appears in Pip?s life, employed as Miss Havisham?s porter, but is fired by Jaggers after Pip reveals his unsavory past. Meanwhile, Miss Joe dies, and Pip is in despair. Several years go by, until one night a familiar figure barges into Pip?s room. It?s the convict, Magwitch, who tells Pip that he is his secret benefactor. He tells Pip that his boyhood kindness in the cemetery made an impression on him, and he decided to dedicate his life to make Pip a gentleman. Appalled Pip feels morally bound to help Magwitch escape London, as the convict is pursued by the police and by Compeyson, his former partner in crime. A complicated mystery begins when Pip discovers that Compeyson abandoned Miss Havisham at the alter and the young Estella is Magwitch daughter. As the weeks pass, Pip sees the good in Magwitch and begins to care for him deeply. Before the Magwitch?s attempt escape, Estella marries an upper-class lout named Bently Drummle. During the visit in Satis House, Miss Havisham begs Pip for forgiveness, for she feels sorry for the way she treated him in the past. Later that day, there is an accident in which Miss Havisham goes up in flames. She survives but becomes an invalid. The time comes to help Magwitch. Before the escape attempt, Pip is on the shadowy meeting where he encounters Orlick, who is on the verge of killing Pip. Luckily, Herbert comes with his friends and saves Pip?s life. Pip and Herbert hurry back to effect Magwitch?s escape. They try to sneak him down the river on a rowboat, but they are discovered by the police who Compeyson tipped off. During the fight between Magwitch and Compeyson, Compeyson is drown. Magwitch is sentenced to death and Pip loses his fortune. Magwitch feels that his sentence is God?s forgiveness and dies at peace. Pip falls ill, Joe comes to London to care for him. He also gives the news from home. Orlick, after robbing Pumblechook, in now in jail, Miss Havisham has died and left most of her fortune to Pockets, Biddy has taught Joe how to reaad and write. After Joe leaves, Pip decides to return home and marry Biddy, but when he arrives he discovers that she and Joe have already married. Pips goes abroad with Herbert to work in the mercantile trade. Returning home many years later, Pip encounters Estella, who is a widow now, in a ruined garden at Satis house. She was treated badly by her husband. Pip discovers that Estella?s coldness has been replaced by sad kindness. Leaving the garden hand in hand, Pip believes that they will never part again.
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