Great Expectations

Pip goes to visit Miss Havisham and finds her sitting on a ragged chair by the hearth, very close to the fire. She looks lonely and Pip pities her. Miss Havisham is remorseful for hurting Pip. She asks Pip how much money he needs for Herbert’s business and offers to pay him 900 pounds—through Jaggers—as a kind of penance. She then falls to her knees at Pip’s feet and begs him to forgive her, crying, “What have I done! What have I done!” (892). Miss Havisham then attempts to explain the way she raised Estella, saying that initially, she’d only hoped to save her from heartbreak. As Estella grew more and more beautiful, however, Miss Havisham’s desire for revenge overtook her and she instructed Estella to be heartless. 

Jaggers brought Estella to Miss Havisham when she was a toddler, two or three, and that she did not know where the child came from. Miss Havisham was lonely after being shut away in her dark room for many years, and that she’d told Jaggers she wanted a little girl to love and “save” from heartbreak.

Emotionally overwhelmed, Pip goes out for a walk around the garden and the old brewery, reminiscing about his childhood days with Estella and his first encounter with Herbert.