Great Expectations Ch. 25: Two Worlds of

Summary

Family connections draw Pip back into the orbit of various Pocket relations, all dancing around Miss Havisham's fortune with varying degrees of obviousness. Mrs. Pocket's social pretensions become more pathetic as Pip spends time at their Hammersmith house, watching her ignore her children while pursuing imaginary social advancement. Matthew Pocket, by contrast, emerges as fundamentally decent, an ineffectual man in practical matters but honourable in his dealings, unable to manage his own household but genuine in his educational efforts.

Other relations visit Satis House, fawning over Miss Havisham while clearly positioning themselves for inheritance. Pip's assumption that he's the chosen one gives him a sense of superiority over these obvious fortune-hunters, though his own position is really no different, he too is waiting for Miss Havisham's money, just in a different form. The chapter deepens the portrait of a society where wealth dictates relationships, where distant relatives maintain contact solely for financial expectations, and where everyone is trapped in elaborate dances around money and class.

Miss Havisham seems to enjoy the spectacle of her relations' grasping behaviour, just as she enjoys Pip's torment over Estella. Her revenge against the man who abandoned her has metastasized into a general cruelty toward everyone in her orbit, using her money to make people desperate and then watching them debase themselves.

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Why This Matters

Creating Protective Boundaries

Fear and social pressure can force good people into choices they would never make in daylight. Creating Protective Boundaries starts with noticing that trap before you are inside it.

This week, notice when you bring work stress home or personal problems to work, then practice leaving each world at its proper door.

This chapter

Inside the Mind: Bentley Drummle

Drummle takes up a book as if its writer had done him an injury, and the sulk does not pass when the company improves. He meets talk, manners, and other people as offences already committed. What looks like dull pride is a standing grievance: he feels attacked by the mere fact of being among equals.

Read the full psychological reading

Coming Up in Chapter 26

Pip receives an invitation to dine at his mysterious guardian Jaggers' house, where he'll discover more secrets about the man who controls his fortune. The dinner promises to reveal new dimensions of Jaggers' character and perhaps shed light on the source of Pip's expectations..

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Chapter 25

Two Worlds of Wemmick

Bentley Drummle, who was so sulky a fellow that he even took up a book as if its writer had done him an injury, did not take up an acquaintance in a more agreeable spirit. Heavy in figure, movement, and comprehension,—in the sluggish complexion of his face, and in the large, awkward tongue that seemed to loll about in his mouth as he himself lolled about in a room,—he was idle, proud, niggardly, reserved, and suspicious. He came of rich people down in Somersetshire, who had nursed this combination of qualities until they made the discovery that it was just…

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Two Worlds of Wemmick

Summary

Why This Matters