Great Expectations

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 honorable 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 behavior, 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.