Herbert and Pip get on very well. Herbert is very generous and welcoming towards Pip.

Herbert wants to give Pip a nickname to show their affection for one another. He dislikes Philip (Pip’s real name) as it sounds stuffy. He settles on Handel because the composer wrote a piece titled after blacksmiths (Pip’s trade).

Herbert works in the Counting House (a Victorian stocks and shares job). Ultimately he would like to insure merchant ships.

Pip isn’t bothered when Herbert corrects his manners as he wants to be a gentleman.

Miss Havisham turned Mathew Pocket out her house because he was the only one warning her against her fiancé Compeyson. It turned out that Compeyson was working with Miss Havisham’s younger half-brother to steal her fortune or ruin her. Mathew tried to tell her this but she wouldn’t listen. Instead, on the morning of her wedding Compeyson never turned up, having sent a letter saying he wouldn’t be coming.

The Pocket household is warm and loving if chaotic. Mrs Pocket is a caring mother but she does little n terms of disciplining her children or seeing to their hurts.

Jaggers thinks Pip will not make anything of his fortune because he does not know how to manage it properly. Jaggers believes Pip will blow all the money.

Jaggers is very much focused on the money. He won’t work unless he has that. He will then present the truth in a way that suits his clients outcomes.

Jaggers’ office reveals that he is a well-to-do man from his work. He likes to intimidate his clients so that they know he holds the power in the work relationship.

Wemmick is compared to wood to begin with. He presents a tough exterior, and seems very professional. However, he starts to warm up a little as we see him interact with Pip.

Barnard’s Inn, which becomes Pip’s lodging house, is not the nicest of places. It suffices as a home, but from the outside it is unclean and noisy.

Pip’s room-mate turns out to be the ‘pale young gentleman’ he fought at Satis House years ago. This was a surprise as the reader had forgotten about the boy. Pip and Herbert seem to get along. Herbert says Miss Havisham called him to Satis House to interview him, Herbert believed this interview was to potentially give him money so he could be engaged to Estella (who he doesn’t like). This is what strengthens Pip’s belief that Miss Havisham is his benefactor.

Pip promises he will come back to the village and do something special for everyone. His words seem sincere but he seems embarrassed by the village so it is difficult to know if he will keep his promise.

Pumblechook tells Pip his fortune is well-deserved because he still believes he is part of the reason it happened by taking Pip to Miss Havisham. He wants to keep in with Pip so he can feel the effects of Pip’s wealth.

Trabb is the town tailor. He is a reasonable man. Trabb treats Pip with great respect because Pip now has money and can pay Trabb for things.

Miss Havisham asks Pip questions which suggests she knows about Pip getting the money. She also does it in front of Sarah Pocket as if she is trying to show Sarah that she gave Pip money but not her own family.

Pip initially looks forward to leaving home, but he begins to get upset at the thought of leaving Joe and Biddy behind. The chapter ends quite sadly as Pip cries over leaving his home.

Pip’s expectations have been fulfilled as he always dreamed of being a gentleman and now this has become a possibility for him, with the small fortune coming into his possession.

Jaggers, a lawyer, turns up at the pub and tells Pip he is to be given a great fortune to become a gentleman. He will receive it on the condition that he always keeps the name Pip and that he never find out the name of his benefactor.

Pip believes Jaggers has been sent by Miss Havisham because he knows Jaggers is also Miss Havisham’s lawyer and that Miss Havisham wants to be anonymous.

Joe is clearly upset at the news. Pip is excited. They are juxtaposed as Pip is excited about leaving for London whereas Joe is sad at losing his best friend. In hindsight, Pip wishes that he had paid more attention to Joe as he knows now Joe was looking out for him from a place of love.

Pip still remains unhappy despite knowing he now has a fortune. He is sad at having to leave the forge, he feels lonely and he is scared about fitting in in London.

When Pip and Joe return from the town they find Mrs Joe has been attacked. She becomes disabled as a result of this assault. Biddy suspects her attacker is Orlick because Mrs Joe draws a hammer which she associates with Orlick. Also she behaves subserviently around him, as if she is frightened of him and wants to appease him.

The police seem a bit useless in their attempts to solve the crime on Mrs Joe.

To Pip, Estella and Biddy are totally different. They are opposites in class, character and appearance. Estella is a delicate lady who has a mean streak, Biddy is hardy and working class and kind. Despite Biddy being the nicer of the two, Pip still values Estella as she represents the life he aspires to. It shows that Pip is taken in by the glitz and glam of the upper classes, even though he can see that elements of it are dishonest.

Pip tells Biddy about his attraction to Estella because he needs to tell someone and he knows she will listen.

Pip does not like Orlick because he believes Biddy’s suspicions and also Orlick keeps trying to court Biddy.

Pip seems immature because of what he prizes in life – Estella and Miss Havisham’s life. He does not want an ‘honest’ working class life.

Pip is ashamed of his job in the forge. However, he doesn’t run away because i) he can’t afford to as he has no money of his own and ii) he respects Joe too much to leave him.

Pip goes to Satis House to say thank you for the apprenticeship bond money despite Joe telling him not to go because he hopes to see Estella.

Sarah Pocket treats Pip with contempt because she thinks he has a special bond with Miss Havisham that could lead to him receiving money from Miss Havisham. Earlier that day Joe and Orlick had gotten into an argument as Orlick felt he deserved a half-day holiday too, just like Pip.

Dickens made Joe a physically big man to parallel with the bigness of his heart. His size symbolises how kind and caring he is. It also means he is physically able to protect those around him.

When Pip visits Satis House to say thank you to Miss Havisham, he discovers that Estella isn’t there. She has been sent to a finishing school to learn how to be a ‘proper lady’.

At the end of Chapter 15 Mr Wopsle reads aloud a story about George Barnwell – an apprentice who murdered his uncle so he could finance a prostitute and was hung for it. Pip identifies with the fictional character because he is also an apprentice.

Pip thinks that he will be seriously punished for fighting the ‘young gentleman’ but nothing happens.

Miss Havisham asks to see Joe to discuss Pip’s future.

Pip feels uncomfortable at taking Joe into Satis House because Joe appears so ill-at-ease in his best clothes and interacts weirdly with his ‘betters’.

When Joe is questioned by Miss Havisham he directs the response at Pip. He seems to do this because he is overwhelmed by the weirdness of the situation – Miss Havisham’s oddness.

Miss Havisham tells Joe she no longer requires Pip to visit the house and pays Joe £25 for his service. Mr Pumblechook takes credit for this payment and Mrs Joe takes the money from Joe.

Pip says ‘I should never like Joe’s trade. I had liked it once, but once was not now.’ He means that before he’d gone to Satis House he’d accepted his future as his future. Now though, he knew there was other things he could do or be and didn’t want to be a blacksmith anymore.

Pip meets some of Miss Havisham’s relatives on his next visit to Satis House. These people are the Pockets. They like to gossip about each other and complain. He also meets another unidentified figure on the stairs. This man seems very authoritative.

The Pockets talk about a relative called Cousin Raymond.

They dislike Raymond because he refused to pay for ‘deep trimmings’ for a funeral until pushed to pay for them. If he hadn’t paid for the ‘deep trimmings’ he would have shamed the family by showing a lack of money and appearances.

Estella treats Pip meanly when he arrives. She continues to be bullyish towards him.

Her attitude changes when he leaves the house. She is more flirty and lets Pip kiss her cheek – very naughty behaviour for a Victorian girl! This is in reaction to witnessing him fight Herbert Pocket.

The centre piece that Pip sees in the house is Miss Havisham’s wedding day feast. Miss Havisham says that she will be laid upon the table when she dies. Everything has stopped since her wedding day and she and the wedding preparations decay as a curse.

As Pip leaves the mansion he meets a boy. The boy challenges him to a fight. He continuously knocks the boy down till the boy concedes that Pip has won. The boy is Herbert Pocket, a son of the Pocket family.

Pip didn’t want to tell the truth about what happened at Satis House (playing cards with Estella whilst Miss Havisham watched) because he didn’t think they’d understand Miss Havisham’s weirdness.

Instead he makes up a funny weird story about his visit in which he claims he went in a coach in the house and drank wine and ate fancy food and played with swords.

Mrs Joe and Pumblechook believe Pip’s story because they know Miss Havisham is a bit weird and neither of them have met or seen her.

Joe is angry when Pip tells him the truth because he doesn’t want Pip telling lies. He also explains that he has nothing to be embarrassed about because if he works hard then he can educate himself and achieve things.

Pip’s expectations have changed because he now knows he can control his fate through hard work.

(OWN ANSWER)

Pip is dissatisfied with Mr Wopsle’s school because he realises it is a sham. The teacher sleeps the whole time, the children constantly fight each other, there are no resources in the room that are usuable and the children recite things that they don’t actually understand properly.

Pip and Joe find bank notes in Joe’s pocket when they get back from the pub after Pip’s school. Pip knows the money is from the convict because the stranger in the pub who put the money in Joe’s pocket had secretly shown Pip the stolen file.

At the beginning of C6 Pip feels bad because he lied to Joe.

Pip doesn’t feel ashamed for stealing Mrs Joe’s food because he doesn’t love her. However, he loves Joe and so the lies make him feel bad.

Mr Pumblechook declares that the convict climbed the outer walls and used his bedsheets to clamber down the chimney and exited out the same way. This suggests Pumblechook is very imaginative and also pompous as he won’t let anyone challenge his idea.

Pip was to be apprenticed which means learning a trade over a period of years.

Pip is educated at an evening school. The teacher constantly falls asleep as the kids learn very little. They pay for this lack of education. The owner recites to them suggesting education was rote learning rather than learning how to think critically for yourself.

We learn that Joe’s childhood was very difficult. His father was a drunk who beat up his mum and him. His mum tried to take him away several times, but his father always found them and brought them back. He hadn’t really gone to school much as it cost money, but he became apprenticed as a blacksmith so he could start earning.

Joe is motivated to stay with Mrs Joe because she reminds him of his mother. Also he sees himself in Pip and wants him to be cared for.