A cruel, scheming villain, Compeyson is a forger and counterfeiter who uses his educated, upper-class appearance to trick people into thinking he is more honorable and less guilty than the lower-class criminals (like Provis) whom he manipulates. Though Compeyson may possess the trappings of gentility, he is ignoble to the core.
Compeyson (a.k.a. the other convict) Quotes in Great Expectations
The Great Expectations quotes below are all either spoken by Compeyson (a.k.a. the other convict) or refer to Compeyson (a.k.a. the other convict). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Book 1, Chapter 5
Quotes
"Let him go free? Let him profit by the means I found out? Let him make a tool of me afresh and again? Once more? No, no, no. If I had died at the bottom there…I'd have held to him with that grip, that you should have been safe to find him in my hold."
Related Characters:
Provis (a.k.a. Abel Magwitch) (a.k.a. the convict) (speaker), Compeyson (a.k.a. the other convict)
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Compeyson (a.k.a. the other convict) Character Timeline in Great Expectations
The timeline below shows where the character Compeyson (a.k.a. the other convict) appears in Great Expectations. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 1, Chapter 3
...direction and instead of reaching the Battery where the convict awaits him, he stumbles across another convict who swears at Pip and tries to strike him, then stumbles off into the mist....
(full context)
Book 1, Chapter 5
...way for runaway convicts!" and is intent on convincing the soldiers that he has turned the other convict in. He explains that, though he could have escaped on his own, he would rather...
(full context)
Book 3, Chapter 42
...committing petty crimes for survival. Twenty years ago, he met a rich, educated, gentleman named Compeyson, who was in fact a forger and counterfeiter, and was the man Pip saw Provis...
(full context)
...of an angry, broken-hearted woman all in white threatening to cover him in a shroud. Compeyson unsympathetically reminded Arthur that "she" had a "living body." Arthur died screaming at hallucinations of...
(full context)
When Provis and Compeyson were both eventually arrested for counterfeiting, Compeyson insisted on "separate defenses, no communication" and Provis...
(full context)
On the prison ships, Provis managed to strike Compeyson before escaping. Compeyson escaped too, thinking he was running away from Provis without realizing Provis...
(full context)
...him that Miss Havisham's brother's name was Arthur and that her devious fiancée was named Compeyson.
(full context)
Book 3, Chapter 45
...and Little Britain) tells Pip he wrote the note after overhearing in Newgate Prison that Compeyson knows Provis is in London and has had Pip's apartment watched. Pip connects this news...
(full context)
Book 3, Chapter 47
...show, Mr. Wopsle approaches Pip and tells him that the other convict from the marshes (Compeyson) has been sitting behind Pip's shoulder during the play. Pip is terrified, though he tries...
(full context)
Book 3, Chapter 50
...with Mr. Jaggers, he hid to spare her his damning testimony about the murdered child. Compeyson had used his knowledge of the circumstances to blackmail Provis into working harder for even...
(full context)
Book 3, Chapter 53
Orlick tells Pip that he now works for Compeyson, who is going to make sure to get rid of Provis. The stranger in the...
(full context)
Book 3, Chapter 54
...leans across and pulls the cloak off the other man on board the galley—it is Compeyson. Compeyson staggers overboard, Provis falls with him, and Pip's boat overturns and sinks. Everyone but...
(full context)
Book 3, Chapter 55
...Pip for not securing Provis' fortune ahead of time from confiscation, but Pip is unconcerned. Compeyson's corpse is found on the river with notes indicating he had hoped to be rewarded...
(full context)
...week, Wemmick visits Pip to apologize for the failure of his escape plan—he realizes that Compeyson must have planted rumors that he was out of London so that Wemmick would overhear...
(full context)
