Month: February 2016

• It’s Miss Havisham day!
• Pip arrives at the gate, and again Estella disdainfully lets him in and guides him down the dark passages.
• Today, however, he waits in a different room with three ladies and gentleman. These are Miss Havisham’s relatives, and they’re all justsick with worry about her. They talk dismissively of a one “Matthew Pocket.”
• When they finally notice Pip, they look at him like he were a piece of moldy meat.
• We’re pretty sure we don’t like these people.
• Estella takes Pip up to Miss Havisham’s room. He says he doesn’t feel like playing, but he’s totally down to work.
• Miss Havisham takes Pip across the hall to another big room. There’s a long table with some kind of blob sticking out of the middle of it. Little speckled spiders are running every which way, but mostly into the blob, like there’s a spider convention going on inside the blob.
• There are slower moving beetles chilling by the fireplace, and Pip can hear mice running behind the walls.
• So, Dickens has basically just described Shmoop’s worst nightmare.
• Miss Havisham tells Pip that this is her wedding feast, and that the blob is her bride-cake. Ew. When she dies, she wants to be laid on that very same table where her beyond-rotting wedding feast lies.
• Miss Havisham grabs hold of Pip’s shoulder and tells him to walk, and so he walks her around and around the room.
• Pretty soon, Estella and the relatives come traipsing into the room, but Miss Havisham is so not interested in them, even though they spend a lot of time telling her how they’re all worried about her (and how dumb they think some guy named Matthew Pocket is).
• Miss Havisham has had about enough of this, and she bangs her cane on the ground and insists that Matthew Pocket will stand at the head of the table. This shuts the visitors up, and they all head out.
• Apparently, it’s Miss Havisham’s birthday, and they visit her every year on her birthday.
• Estella comes back into the room after having escorted the guests out, and the three of them stand in silence as Miss Havisham imagines her dead body on the table.
• After some more card-playing, Pip is wandering through the garden and greenhouse looking at all of the deformed, overgrown vegetables when he sees another (totally random) little boy studying. The little boy is very pale and has red eye-lids.
• After playing twenty questions, the little boy asks Pip to fight. Pip, not wanting to be rude, accepts.
• The boys find a little protected nook, and the little boy brings over a sponge and bucket of water and vinegar. Pip is a little worried he’s gotten in over his head, especially when the little boy starts fancy footing around, balling up his fists and going over the rules.
• As you can guess, it’s not much of a fight. Pip basically knocks the kid out in ten seconds, but it’s all very friendly.
• When Pip heads out, Estella appears out of nowhere, and she’s kind of flushed. She tells Pip that he can kiss her on the cheek, and he immediately accepts.
• It is really dark when Pip finally arrives home, and he can see the glow of Joe’s forge fire reflected on the marshes.
  READ THE BOOK: Chapter 11
  • It’s Miss Havisham day!
  • Pip arrives at the gate, and again Estella disdainfully lets him in and guides him down the dark passages.
  • Today, however, he waits in a different room with three ladies and gentleman. These are Miss Havisham’s relatives, and they’re all justsick with worry about her. They talk dismissively of a one “Matthew Pocket.”
  • When they finally notice Pip, they look at him like he were a piece of moldy meat.
  • We’re pretty sure we don’t like these people.
  • Estella takes Pip up to Miss Havisham’s room. He says he doesn’t feel like playing, but he’s totally down to work.
  • Miss Havisham takes Pip across the hall to another big room. There’s a long table with some kind of blob sticking out of the middle of it. Little speckled spiders are running every which way, but mostly into the blob, like there’s a spider convention going on inside the blob.
  • There are slower moving beetles chilling by the fireplace, and Pip can hear mice running behind the walls.
  • So, Dickens has basically just described Shmoop’s worst nightmare.
  • Miss Havisham tells Pip that this is her wedding feast, and that the blob is her bride-cake. Ew. When she dies, she wants to be laid on that very same table where her beyond-rotting wedding feast lies.
  • Miss Havisham grabs hold of Pip’s shoulder and tells him to walk, and so he walks her around and around the room.
  • Pretty soon, Estella and the relatives come traipsing into the room, but Miss Havisham is so not interested in them, even though they spend a lot of time telling her how they’re all worried about her (and how dumb they think some guy named Matthew Pocket is).
  • Miss Havisham has had about enough of this, and she bangs her cane on the ground and insists that Matthew Pocket will stand at the head of the table. This shuts the visitors up, and they all head out.
  • Apparently, it’s Miss Havisham’s birthday, and they visit her every year on her birthday.
  • Estella comes back into the room after having escorted the guests out, and the three of them stand in silence as Miss Havisham imagines her dead body on the table.
  • After some more card-playing, Pip is wandering through the garden and greenhouse looking at all of the deformed, overgrown vegetables when he sees another (totally random) little boy studying. The little boy is very pale and has red eye-lids.
  • After playing twenty questions, the little boy asks Pip to fight. Pip, not wanting to be rude, accepts.
  • The boys find a little protected nook, and the little boy brings over a sponge and bucket of water and vinegar. Pip is a little worried he’s gotten in over his head, especially when the little boy starts fancy footing around, balling up his fists and going over the rules.
  • As you can guess, it’s not much of a fight. Pip basically knocks the kid out in ten seconds, but it’s all very friendly.
  • When Pip heads out, Estella appears out of nowhere, and she’s kind of flushed. She tells Pip that he can kiss her on the cheek, and he immediately accepts.
  • It is really dark when Pip finally arrives home, and he can see the glow of Joe’s forge fire reflected on the marshes.

• On the day of the visit, Joe works himself up into a tizzy. He can’t decide what to wear, and puts on his finest digs.
• He pops his collar to seem more gentlemanly, but the poppage just pushes up the hair in the back of his head so that he looks like a bird.
• Pip wishes Joe would just be himself and wear his normal workday clothes—as though he doesn’t understand exactly what Joe is feeling.
• Mrs. Joe, Joe, and Pip walk into town with Mrs. Joe at the helm. She’s wearing a big sun bonnet and is carrying an umbrella and lots of other random items. Pip thinks she’s popping her proverbial collar for all the town to see.
• Mrs. Joe hangs with Mr. Pumblechook during the visit, but she’s still ticked off that she’s not invited.
• Estella opens that gate for Pip and Joe, but she doesn’t say anything, nor does she look at them. Surprise, surprise.
• Estella leads the Gargery men down the dark, labyrinthine passages.
• Joe is a mess. When she asks him a question, he tells Pip the answer instead of answering her directly, and he tries to talk all elegant but just ends up sounding, um, incomprehensible.
• Pip is MORTIFIED.
• Finally, Miss Havisham tells Joe that Pip has earned a reward: 25 pounds as an investment in Pip’s apprenticeship in the smithy.
• (Apprentices usually had to pay money to get training, kind of like having to pay for school, except you learn a useful trade. The money covered the apprentice’s expenses, like food and rent.)
• Joe is flabbergasted. That’s a LOT of dough.
• Miss Havisham sends Pip away, and she tells Joe never to expect more money from her than what she’s just given.
• As they leave Satis House, Joe is dumbfounded by the amount of money he’s holding, but Pip is crestfallen: he thought that Miss Havisham was going to adopt him or something, and instead he’s just lost Estella for good.
• When they arrive at Mr. Pumblechook, Joe conjures up a story about how Miss Havisham did not feel well enough to entertain a lady such as one Mrs. Joe Gargery, but that she sends her best regards. Total poppycock, but Mrs. Joe eats it up.
• When Mrs. Joe and Mr. Pumblechook learn that Miss Havisham has given a gift of 25 pounds, they go CRAZY.
• Pip is taken to the court that very day to be sworn in as an official blacksmith’s apprentice, thus binding him to the trade for the rest of his days.
• That night, the whole family celebrates at the Three Jolly Bargemen with a big feast.
• Everyone but Pip, that is. He’s just depressed.
  • On the day of the visit, Joe works himself up into a tizzy. He can’t decide what to wear, and puts on his finest digs.
  • He pops his collar to seem more gentlemanly, but the poppage just pushes up the hair in the back of his head so that he looks like a bird.
  • Pip wishes Joe would just be himself and wear his normal workday clothes—as though he doesn’t understand exactly what Joe is feeling.
  • Mrs. Joe, Joe, and Pip walk into town with Mrs. Joe at the helm. She’s wearing a big sun bonnet and is carrying an umbrella and lots of other random items. Pip thinks she’s popping her proverbial collar for all the town to see.
  • Mrs. Joe hangs with Mr. Pumblechook during the visit, but she’s still ticked off that she’s not invited.
  • Estella opens that gate for Pip and Joe, but she doesn’t say anything, nor does she look at them. Surprise, surprise.
  • Estella leads the Gargery men down the dark, labyrinthine passages.
  • Joe is a mess. When she asks him a question, he tells Pip the answer instead of answering her directly, and he tries to talk all elegant but just ends up sounding, um, incomprehensible.
  • Pip is MORTIFIED.
  • Finally, Miss Havisham tells Joe that Pip has earned a reward: 25 pounds as an investment in Pip’s apprenticeship in the smithy.
  • (Apprentices usually had to pay money to get training, kind of like having to pay for school, except you learn a useful trade. The money covered the apprentice’s expenses, like food and rent.)
  • Joe is flabbergasted. That’s a LOT of dough.
  • Miss Havisham sends Pip away, and she tells Joe never to expect more money from her than what she’s just given.
  • As they leave Satis House, Joe is dumbfounded by the amount of money he’s holding, but Pip is crestfallen: he thought that Miss Havisham was going to adopt him or something, and instead he’s just lost Estella for good.
  • When they arrive at Mr. Pumblechook, Joe conjures up a story about how Miss Havisham did not feel well enough to entertain a lady such as one Mrs. Joe Gargery, but that she sends her best regards. Total poppycock, but Mrs. Joe eats it up.
  • When Mrs. Joe and Mr. Pumblechook learn that Miss Havisham has given a gift of 25 pounds, they go CRAZY.
  • Pip is taken to the court that very day to be sworn in as an official blacksmith’s apprentice, thus binding him to the trade for the rest of his days.
  • That night, the whole family celebrates at the Three Jolly Bargemen with a big feast.
  • Everyone but Pip, that is. He’s just depressed.
    • On the day of the visit, Joe works himself up into a tizzy. He can’t decide what to wear, and puts on his finest digs.
    • He pops his collar to seem more gentlemanly, but the poppage just pushes up the hair in the back of his head so that he looks like a bird.
    • Pip wishes Joe would just be himself and wear his normal workday clothes—as though he doesn’t understand exactly what Joe is feeling.
    • Mrs. Joe, Joe, and Pip walk into town with Mrs. Joe at the helm. She’s wearing a big sun bonnet and is carrying an umbrella and lots of other random items. Pip thinks she’s popping her proverbial collar for all the town to see.
    • Mrs. Joe hangs with Mr. Pumblechook during the visit, but she’s still ticked off that she’s not invited.
    • Estella opens that gate for Pip and Joe, but she doesn’t say anything, nor does she look at them. Surprise, surprise.
    • Estella leads the Gargery men down the dark, labyrinthine passages.
    • Joe is a mess. When she asks him a question, he tells Pip the answer instead of answering her directly, and he tries to talk all elegant but just ends up sounding, um, incomprehensible.
    • Pip is MORTIFIED.
    • Finally, Miss Havisham tells Joe that Pip has earned a reward: 25 pounds as an investment in Pip’s apprenticeship in the smithy.
    • (Apprentices usually had to pay money to get training, kind of like having to pay for school, except you learn a useful trade. The money covered the apprentice’s expenses, like food and rent.)
    • Joe is flabbergasted. That’s a LOT of dough.
    • Miss Havisham sends Pip away, and she tells Joe never to expect more money from her than what she’s just given.
    • As they leave Satis House, Joe is dumbfounded by the amount of money he’s holding, but Pip is crestfallen: he thought that Miss Havisham was going to adopt him or something, and instead he’s just lost Estella for good.
    • When they arrive at Mr. Pumblechook, Joe conjures up a story about how Miss Havisham did not feel well enough to entertain a lady such as one Mrs. Joe Gargery, but that she sends her best regards. Total poppycock, but Mrs. Joe eats it up.
    • When Mrs. Joe and Mr. Pumblechook learn that Miss Havisham has given a gift of 25 pounds, they go CRAZY.
    • Pip is taken to the court that very day to be sworn in as an official blacksmith’s apprentice, thus binding him to the trade for the rest of his days.
    • That night, the whole family celebrates at the Three Jolly Bargemen with a big feast.
    • Everyone but Pip, that is. He’s just depressed.
      • On the day of the visit, Joe works himself up into a tizzy. He can’t decide what to wear, and puts on his finest digs.
      • He pops his collar to seem more gentlemanly, but the poppage just pushes up the hair in the back of his head so that he looks like a bird.
      • Pip wishes Joe would just be himself and wear his normal workday clothes—as though he doesn’t understand exactly what Joe is feeling.
      • Mrs. Joe, Joe, and Pip walk into town with Mrs. Joe at the helm. She’s wearing a big sun bonnet and is carrying an umbrella and lots of other random items. Pip thinks she’s popping her proverbial collar for all the town to see.
      • Mrs. Joe hangs with Mr. Pumblechook during the visit, but she’s still ticked off that she’s not invited.
      • Estella opens that gate for Pip and Joe, but she doesn’t say anything, nor does she look at them. Surprise, surprise.
      • Estella leads the Gargery men down the dark, labyrinthine passages.
      • Joe is a mess. When she asks him a question, he tells Pip the answer instead of answering her directly, and he tries to talk all elegant but just ends up sounding, um, incomprehensible.
      • Pip is MORTIFIED.
      • Finally, Miss Havisham tells Joe that Pip has earned a reward: 25 pounds as an investment in Pip’s apprenticeship in the smithy.
      • (Apprentices usually had to pay money to get training, kind of like having to pay for school, except you learn a useful trade. The money covered the apprentice’s expenses, like food and rent.)
      • Joe is flabbergasted. That’s a LOT of dough.
      • Miss Havisham sends Pip away, and she tells Joe never to expect more money from her than what she’s just given.
      • As they leave Satis House, Joe is dumbfounded by the amount of money he’s holding, but Pip is crestfallen: he thought that Miss Havisham was going to adopt him or something, and instead he’s just lost Estella for good.
      • When they arrive at Mr. Pumblechook, Joe conjures up a story about how Miss Havisham did not feel well enough to entertain a lady such as one Mrs. Joe Gargery, but that she sends her best regards. Total poppycock, but Mrs. Joe eats it up.
      • When Mrs. Joe and Mr. Pumblechook learn that Miss Havisham has given a gift of 25 pounds, they go CRAZY.
      • Pip is taken to the court that very day to be sworn in as an official blacksmith’s apprentice, thus binding him to the trade for the rest of his days.
      • That night, the whole family celebrates at the Three Jolly Bargemen with a big feast.
      • Everyone but Pip, that is. He’s just depressed.

• Pip is pretty sure that he’s either going to be thrown in prison for life or be pummeled to a pulp by a gang of rich kids for having hit (twice) the random, pale little boy in Miss Havisham’s garden.
• But nothing happens!
• When he returns to Miss Havisham’s, Pip visits the scene of the fight. He covers up some dried blood on the pavement with some leaves and calls it a day.
• Pip starts a new ritual at Satis House—he pushes Miss Havisham in a garden-chair-on-wheels (you know, a wheelchair) around and around her dressing room and wedding feast room. For almost three hours.
• During one of these indoor adventures, Miss Havisham notices that Pip is tall, and she asks him what he’s going to do with his life. He tells her he intends to apprentice with Joe.
• The ritual continues over the course of many months.
• Estella remains frosty, and Miss Havisham continues to give her jewels and to coach her in the ways of breaking men’s hearts.
• One day, Miss Havisham tells Pip to bring Joe with him the next time he visits.
• When Pip relays the message at home, Mrs. Joe is furious that she isn’t invited. Her method of coping is to tear up the entire house and subject everything to a deep cleaning, which is at least better than some we can think of.
  • Pip is pretty sure that he’s either going to be thrown in prison for life or be pummeled to a pulp by a gang of rich kids for having hit (twice) the random, pale little boy in Miss Havisham’s garden.
  • But nothing happens!
  • When he returns to Miss Havisham’s, Pip visits the scene of the fight. He covers up some dried blood on the pavement with some leaves and calls it a day.
  • Pip starts a new ritual at Satis House—he pushes Miss Havisham in a garden-chair-on-wheels (you know, a wheelchair) around and around her dressing room and wedding feast room. For almost three hours.
  • During one of these indoor adventures, Miss Havisham notices that Pip is tall, and she asks him what he’s going to do with his life. He tells her he intends to apprentice with Joe.
  • The ritual continues over the course of many months.
  • Estella remains frosty, and Miss Havisham continues to give her jewels and to coach her in the ways of breaking men’s hearts.
  • One day, Miss Havisham tells Pip to bring Joe with him the next time he visits.
  • When Pip relays the message at home, Mrs. Joe is furious that she isn’t invited. Her method of coping is to tear up the entire house and subject everything to a deep cleaning, which is at least better than some we can think of.
    • Pip is pretty sure that he’s either going to be thrown in prison for life or be pummeled to a pulp by a gang of rich kids for having hit (twice) the random, pale little boy in Miss Havisham’s garden.
    • But nothing happens!
    • When he returns to Miss Havisham’s, Pip visits the scene of the fight. He covers up some dried blood on the pavement with some leaves and calls it a day.
    • Pip starts a new ritual at Satis House—he pushes Miss Havisham in a garden-chair-on-wheels (you know, a wheelchair) around and around her dressing room and wedding feast room. For almost three hours.
    • During one of these indoor adventures, Miss Havisham notices that Pip is tall, and she asks him what he’s going to do with his life. He tells her he intends to apprentice with Joe.
    • The ritual continues over the course of many months.
    • Estella remains frosty, and Miss Havisham continues to give her jewels and to coach her in the ways of breaking men’s hearts.
    • One day, Miss Havisham tells Pip to bring Joe with him the next time he visits.
    • When Pip relays the message at home, Mrs. Joe is furious that she isn’t invited. Her method of coping is to tear up the entire house and subject everything to a deep cleaning, which is at least better than some we can think of.

The convict is sleeping, so Pip just kind of whispers and pokes him gently.BUT IT’S NOT THE CONVICT! It’s a younger man who Pip assumes to be the bloodthirsty sidekick the convict tried to scare him with, but he must not be thirsty this morning because he just runs away, despite the iron chain around his leg.Pip continues in search of his very own convict. Eureka! His convict looks pretty beat up, but really appreciates the food.Is the convict is going to share any of the food with the sidekick?The convict is shaken when he realizes that Pip saw someone else on the marshes, and he runs off, madly trying to free himself of his iron with the file.