Pleasure Reading: Part 5

Time had passed, and Pip was twenty-three. One night, during a midnight thunderstorm, he heard heavy footsteps trudging up his stairs. An old sailor entered Pip’s apartment, and Pip treated him nervously and haughtily before recognizing him. It is Pip’s convict, the same man who terrorized him in the cemetery and on the marsh when he was a little boy. Horrified, Pip learned the truth of his situation: the convict went to Australia, where he worked in sheep ranching and earned a huge fortune. Moved by Pip’s kindness to him on the marsh, he arranged to use his wealth to make Pip a gentleman. The convict, not Miss Havisham, was Pip’s secret benefactor.

With a crestfallen heart, Pip heard that the convict was even now on the run from the law, and that if he was caught, he could be put to death. Pip realized that though the convict’s story had plunged him into despair, it was his duty to help his benefactor. He fed him and gave him Herbert’s bed for the night, as Herbert was away.

Since the truth of his fortune was known, he didn't want to use it, but still tried to conceal Abel Magwitch, the convict, with the help of his friends: Herbert, Wemmick, Jaggers. They planned to take Magwitch abroad, where he woull be safe from the police, before parting ways with him.

One day Magwitch told his story to Pip and Herbert. As a young man, he met a gentleman criminal named Compeyson and fell under his power. Compeyson had already driven another accomplice, Arthur, into alcoholism and madness. Arthur was driven to despair by the memory of a wealthy woman he and Compeyson had once victimized. As it turned out, Arthur was Miss Havisham’s half brother; Compeyson was the man who stood her up on their wedding day. So that Magwitch was caught by police instead of Compeyson and Arthur. And also Wagwitch was a father of Estella.



Ashamed that his rise to social prominence wa owed to such a coarse, lowborn man, Pip felt that he must leave Estella forever. After an unpleasant encounter with Drummle, Estella's fiance at the inn, he traveled to Satis House to see Miss Havisham and Estella one final time.

Having returned to London, Pip got a note where Wemmick warned him not to go home. The next day, Pip found Wemmick, who explained that he had learned through Jaggers’s office that Compeyson was pursuing Magwitch. And Herbert had hidden Magwitch at Clara’s house, and Pip went there. Herbert and Pip discussed a plan to sneak Magwitch away on the river, and Pip began to consider staying with his benefactor even after their escape. Pip bought a rowboat, keeping a nervous watch for the dark figure searching for Magwitch.