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Book 3, Chapter 40
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Great Expectations, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Social Class
Ambition and Self-Improvement
Integrity and Reputation
Parents
Justice
Generosity
Summary
Analysis
Pip escorts Provis back to a room he has rented for him and returns to the Temple to talk with Herbert. Herbert is equally horrified by Provis. The two hatch a plan to free Pip from Provis: knowing that he risked his life to come to him, Pip does not want to risk angering Provis in England where he might be spurred to action that would get him arrested. Instead, he will sneak out of the country with Provis and will try to explain his feelings to Provis abroad. In the meantime, he will stop accepting Provis' money and will forgo his expectations, hoping eventually to pay back all the funds he's already received from Provis. (This will be especially difficult as Pip is already deep in debt.) Pip will then become a soldier since he has not been trained for any trade.
Even though Pip resents Provis, he shows sympathy in trying to protect Provis from being arrested. Pip will refuse Provis' generosity from now on to protect his own reputation—he does not want to be beholden to a convict. Becoming a soldier will lower Pip's social status dramatically, but, ironically, being a soldier is the only thing he might be able to do because his gentleman's education never taught him how to do anything.
Themes
Quiz
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