Great Expectations, Chapter 56 summary

What happens

1. Magwitch’s injured lung worsens in the prison infirmary, where the narrator visits daily and finds him patient and repentant.
2. Mr. Jaggers seeks a delay, but the trial proceeds and Magwitch is found guilty of returning from exile.
3. The Judge sentences Magwitch to death alongside thirty-one other prisoners, while the narrator holds his hand.
4. The narrator sends urgent petitions for mercy and anxiously wanders near the places where he submits them.
5. On the tenth day, Magwitch thanks the narrator for remaining faithful through his disgrace and growing weakness.
6. Allowed to stay beyond visiting time, the narrator tells Magwitch about his surviving daughter; Magwitch dies, and the narrator prays.

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What to notice

Magwitch treasures the narrator’s loyalty. The narrator’s silent recollection that he once considers desertion adds guilt to this moment of gratitude.

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