Great Expectations Chapter Eleven Summary

It’s Miss Havisham day!
Pip arrives at the gate, and again Estella disdainfully lets him in and guides him down the dark passages.
Today, however, he waits in a different room with three ladies and gentleman. These are Miss Havisham’s relatives, and all are discussing how often they think of her and how they make themselves sick with worry about her. They talk dismissively of a one "Matthew Pocket."
When they finally notice Pip, they look at him like he were a piece of moldy meat.
Estella takes Pip up to Miss Havisham’s room.
Miss Havisham asks Pip to play, but he tells her he doesn’t feel like it. She asks him if he would like to work, and he says absolutely.
Miss Havisham takes Pip across the hall to another great room. In this room there is a long table with some kind of blob sticking out of the middle of it. Little speckled spiders are running every which way, but mostly into the blob. Pip thinks it’s as though there were a spider convention going on inside the blob.
There are slower moving beetles chilling by the fireplace, and Pip can hear mice running behind the walls.
Miss Havisham tells Pip that this is her wedding feast, and that the blob is her bride-cake. Ew. She then tells Pip that, when she dies, she wants to be laid on that very same table where her beyond-rotting wedding feast lies.
Miss Havisham grabs hold of Pip’s shoulder and tells him to walk, and so he walks her around and around the room.
Pretty soon, Estella and the relatives come traipsing into the room. Pip tries to be polite and stop when they address Miss Havisham, but Miss Havisham won’t have it. She doesn’t want to look at her relatives. Around and around the dining table Pip and Miss H. go.
Camilla Pocket rants passionately about how often she thinks of Miss Havisham and how she works herself up into illness worrying about her dear cousin.
Raymond Pocket, her husband, verifies this account, and all seem to continue to denounce a one Mr. Matthew Pocket.
Miss Havisham suddenly bangs her cane against the dining table and tells everyone where they will stand when her dead body is laid on the table. She insists that Matthew Pocket will stand at the head of the table. This shuts the visitors up. She tells everyone to go, and they try to dig in some last minute sucking up.
When they are all gone, Miss Havisham tells Pip that today is her birthday, and that her relatives visit her every year on her birthday.
Estella comes back into the room after having escorted the guests out, and the three of them stand in silence as Miss Havisham imagines her dead body on the table.
Then Pip and Estella play card games again, and Pip gets his butt kicked again. Again, Estella him leads him down the passages and feeds him like a dog outside.
Pip is wandering through the garden and greenhouse looking at all of the deformed, overgrown vegetables when he sees another (totally random) little boy studying. The little boy is very pale and has red eye-lids.
After playing twenty questions, the little boy asks Pip to fight. Pip, not wanting to be rude, accepts.
The boys find a little protected nook, and the little boy brings over a sponge and bucket of water and vinegar. Pip is a little worried he’s gotten in over his head, especially when the little boy starts fancy footing around, balling up his fists. The little boy is, however, very big on rules, and he makes sure Pip knows all of the rules before they begin.
Less than ten seconds go by and Pip punches the little boy’s lights out. The little boy gets up again, and the fight goes on. Soon after, however, Pip knocks the little boy down again. The little boy concedes the fight to Pip, and Pip feels pretty glorious.
When Pip heads out, Estella appears out of nowhere, and she’s kind of flushed. She tells Pip that he can kiss her on the cheek, and he immediately accepts.
It is really dark when Pip finally arrives home, and he can see the glow of Joe’s forge fire reflected on the marshes.

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