In “Great Expectations,” Episode 1, Miss Havisham talked about her twisted fantasies, and we came to know that she was not the only one who had them. Fidelity wasn’t a strong suit for Sarah, Pip’s sister, either. She was cheating on her husband with Mr. Pumblechuk, and Joe had no clue what was happening behind his back. It seemed like it was not the first time Sarah was indulging in such an act, and she knew that what she was doing was not right, but she just couldn’t resist her impulse. Mr. Pumblechuk paid her, and Sarah looked content with the arrangement, as money was her priority, and she had been quite straightforward about it since the very beginning.
Spoilers Ahead
Miss Havisham Decides To Train Pip
Miss Havisham was teaching Pip how to be a gentleman in her own weird manner. She told Pip how she had once been betrayed by her lover, and ever since then, she had realized the true nature of love. Miss Havisham’s fiancé betrayed her and didn’t show up on the day of their wedding. She blindfolded Pip and asked him to find Estella in the room. The game was a personification of the negative connotation Miss Havisham had with the idea of love. She wanted to show Pip how love could make one look helpless and needy, like an urchin. Pip told her that he didn’t want to play such a strange game, but Miss Havisham didn’t give him an option. She told him that he wouldn’t get paid if he didn’t abide by her orders.
Pip was scared, and that really amused both Estella and Havisham. Pip was searching for Estella in the room when he heard her footsteps recede, and that’s when he took out his blindfold and complained to Miss Havisham that Estella had broken the rules of the game as she was not supposed to move. And that’s when Havisham tells Pip that the cardinal rule of love is that it cheats and hurts. Pip told Havisham that he wanted to learn from both the ladies and cross the bridge that separated Gravesend from the upper town. Pip said that he wanted to become a businessman, own a lot of ships, and sell elephant tusks.
Havisham was impressed by the extent to which the boy was willing to go in order to realize his dreams. Pip was an ambitious young man, and Havisham knew that it was his biggest strength yet his biggest flaw at the same time. Estella didn’t like staying with Havisham, but she knew that she didn’t have anywhere else to go, and that is why she would have to put up with everything till she found a rich man who would help her escape her misery. Estella told Pip that the quality inherent to each and every gentleman is the ability to lie and pretend. After his eventful first day, Pip went back to Gravesend, not knowing if he would be called by Miss Havisham ever again.
What Did Pip Experience On His Journey To Become A Gentleman?
Miss Havisham paid Pip 10 shillings in the second episode of the series, Great Expectation, and she asked him to visit her every Wednesday. Pip kept meeting Biddy and assuring her that he was not going to fall for Estella and that he was going there merely to learn how to be a gentleman. Biddy loved Pip, and she didn’t like him going to Miss Havisham’s, but she knew that she couldn’t do much about it. Pip asked Biddy to help him with his studies so that he could impress Miss Havisham, and he told her that he would pay her two shillings. But Biddy was not doing it for money, and she told him that she would teach him nonetheless, as being around Pip made her feel fulfilled. He was probably the only person who saw through her. Pip knew that Biddy was the cleverest person in the school, but because she was a woman, she never got a proper appreciation for the immense amount of knowledge she had on every subject matter.
Years passed, and Pip finally learned all the etiquette, manners, and to-dos necessary to become a gentleman. The most important thing that he was told by Estella and Miss Havisham was that he should have no concerns about the morality of his actions if he wanted to become a gentleman. On his 18th birthday, Miss Havisham introduced Pip to Mrs. Gibbons, who told him that every man in the Sunday congregations had availed themselves of her services. Gibbons told a nervous Pip to keep up the tradition and behave in any manner that he wanted with her. Pip found it all too absurd, often not being able to realize what the point of making him go through such bizarre experiences was. But still, he went on with it because his ambitions overpowered every other feeling. Pip was told in clear and plain words that he needed to use those below him, and only then could he become a true gentleman.
‘Great Expectations’ Episode 2: Ending Explained – What Deal Did Havisham Make?
Pip was the kind of man who didn’t even sell the chains and iron shackles that Joe made in his workshop if he thought that they could be used for illegal purposes, like restraining slaves, as he felt that it was not morally right to do so, and now he was doing all sorts of things that Miss Havisham was telling him to. Pip felt like a hypocrite, but he realized that maybe, that, too, was an essential quality needed to become a gentleman.
In “Great Expectations” Episode 2, we are introduced to a lawyer named Carmichael J. Jaggers who had gone to a judge named Mansell-Haig to take an order to quash the criminal charges against some convicted felons and stop the death sentence that was supposed to take place in about 10 minutes. The judge didn’t want to open the door for some unknown reason, and he wanted to shoot himself and end his life. The judge just couldn’t pull the trigger, and he opened the door to let the lawyer inside.
Jaggers knew a secret about the judge, and he used it every time to blackmail him and make him give orders in his favor. The judge was probably in a relationship with a young man, and Jaggers had caught hold of some letters that they exchanged. Jaggers made it very clear to the judge that if he thought that he could just commit suicide and end his misery, then he was wrong. Jaggers threatened him that, in the event of his death, he would make those letters public, and the world wouldn’t remember him as an honorable justice but, in fact, as a pervert who indulged in immoral acts. The judge signed the orders, and Jaggers stopped the execution of his client.
Miss Havisham had made some sort of arrangement with Jaggers pertaining to Pip, and she had told the lawyer about what needed to be done once Pip became an adult. When Jaggers received the letter from Miss Havisham, he realized that the time had come, and he needed to fulfill whatever contractual obligations or promises he had made. Jaggers told his assistant that neither Miss Havisham nor he would ever speak of the true purpose of an apparently secret experiment they were conducting on Pip. Jaggers asked his assistant to write to Miss Havisham and tell her that he would be happy to take the boy under his wing, provided she assured him of his education and manners.
Pip’s weird training kept going, and in the process, he ended up learning French with Biddy’s help and also how to dance like a true gentleman. The day finally came when Miss Havisham realized that Pip’s training was complete. She saw the boy falling in love with Estella, and though he didn’t accept it upfront, it was visible through his touch and gleaming eyes. Miss Havisham gave Pip a small amount of opium of the highest quality and asked him to sell it in the market and use the money to get some good clothes for himself. That was the last time that Miss Havisham met Pip. Pip didn’t know what to do after he was suddenly abandoned and told not to return by Estella. He wanted to tell Estella that he loved her, but he just couldn’t. Pip was sitting in a bar and gulping down his sorrows when Jaggers barged inside and announced that he was looking for a man named Pip Gargery. In “Great Expectations” Episode 3, we will get to know what other weird experiences Pip has while on his quest and if he is ever able to express his feelings towards Estella, knowing that it would really hurt Biddy if she came to know about it.
