Great Expectations, Chapter 8 summary

What happens

1. After an unpleasant breakfast filled with arithmetic questions, Mr. Pumblechook escorts Pip to Miss Havisham's house, where Estella admits Pip alone.
2. Pip finds Miss Havisham in faded bridal clothes beside stopped clocks, and she orders him to play.
3. Estella defeats Pip at cards and mocks his manners, hands, and boots, while Miss Havisham watches and questions him.
4. Miss Havisham orders another visit in six days, and Estella gives Pip food outside, where he hides and cries.
5. While exploring the abandoned brewery, Pip imagines Miss Havisham hanging from a beam, then finds no figure there.
6. Estella mocks Pip again before releasing him, and he walks toward the forge deeply ashamed of his background.

In this chapter

What to notice

Pip begins to judge himself through Estella's scorn. Her insults change ordinary features of his life into sources of humiliation.

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