Great Expectations: Book 3, Chapter 51 Summary & Analysis

Pip goes to Mr. Jagger's office and collects Miss Havisham's money for Herbert. Pip tells Mr. Jaggers' that he not only knows who Estella's mother is, but who her father is too. Pip can tell from Mr. Jaggers' surprise that he hadn't known about Provis. Still, Mr. Jaggers' tries to ignore Pip's news and goes right back to work with Wemmick, Pip makes a "passionate, almost an indignant appeal to him" to confide in Pip as Pip has in him, to honor Pip's love for Estella. Pip then entreats Wemmick to side with him, calling on Wemmick's "gentle heart" and "cheerful playful ways" at home. Mr. Jaggers is shocked to hear about Wemmick's home life. He consents to share his knowledge with Pip.

Mr. Jaggers insists on describing "the case" entirely hypothetically, and says he admits "nothing." Without naming names, he describes the possibility of having given the child of a murderer to a rich woman to save the child from the rough world the mother lived in, telling her that her child would be saved regardless of the mother's fate, and that he had used the mother's concern for her child to keep her docile and calm, that the mother knew nothing of her husband. Mr. Jaggers' then asks Pip who he would hypothetically benefit by revealing his news, as it could only bring harm and disgrace to mother, father, and daughter. Mr. Jaggers then restores his professional persona and gets back to business.