Great Expectations: Book 2, Chapter 39 Summary & Analysis

Pip is now twenty-three. He has left Mr. Pocket's classes behind and studies on his own in London. He and Herbert have moved from Barnard's Inn to the Temple in Garden Court. One dark and stormy night while Herbert is away on business, Pip receives a mysterious visitor, a rough, balding man with a lower-class accent. To his shock, Pip realizes that this man is the convict he helped on the marshes. The convict calls Pip "noble Pip," commending Pip for acting so "nobly" towards him as a child. Pip tries to turn him out but, disarmed by the convict's warmth towards him, invites the man to stay for a drink.

The convict reveals that he is Pip's patron. Pip is speechless with horror and nearly faints. The convict, meanwhile, explains how he has scrimped and saved for years working as a shepherd in the New South Wales to make Pip a gentleman. "I'm your second father," he tells Pip. He marvels with pride at Pip's genteel appearance. Pip recoils.

The convict asks Pip to help him hide. He explains that he has sailed to London illegally, having run away from a life sentence in the colonies, and will be hanged if he is caught. Pip gives the convict Herbert's bedroom and seals the shutters and doors.

Pip stays up late trying to process the news. He is devastated to realize that Miss Havisham is not his patron and that Estella, therefore, isn't destined for him. He is even more devastated to realize that he has deserted Joe and Biddy for the sake of a criminal, a potentially violent man. Thinking along these lines, Pip grows afraid of the man and, after making sure the convict is asleep, locks him into his room.