Great Expectations Chapter Thirteen Summary

When the day of the impending visit arrives, Joe works himself up into a tizzy. He can’t decide what to wear, and puts on his finest digs. He pops his collar to seem more gentlemanly, but the poppage pushes up the hair in the back of his head so that he looks like a bird.
Pip wishes Joe would just be himself and wear his normal workday clothes. Easier said than done, Pip – you know that better than any one.
Mrs. Joe, Joe, and Pip walk into town with Mrs. Joe at the helm. She’s wearing a big sun bonnet and is carrying an umbrella and lots of other random items. Pip thinks she’s popping her proverbial collar for all the town to see.
Mrs. Joe leaves Pip and Joe to go hang out with Mr. Pumblechook. She is still quite annoyed.
Estella opens that gate for Pip and Joe, but she doesn’t say anything, nor does she look at them. Surprise, surprise. Joe is really nervous.
Estella leads the Gargery men down the dark, labyrinthine passages that Pip knows so well.
In Miss Havisham’s room, Joe is a mess. When she asks him a question, he tells Pip the answer and does not answer her directly. He tries to make his words as elegant as possible, but they end up sounding a little confusing.
Pip is MORTIFIED.
Finally, Miss Havisham tells Joe that Pip has earned a reward for all his service two her. She gives Joe 25 pounds in the hopes that it will serve as an investment in Pip’s apprenticeship in the smithy.
Joe is flabbergasted. That’s a LOT of dough.
Mrs. Joe discharges Pip, and she tells Joe never to expect more money from her than what she has just given.
As they leave Satis House, Joe is dumbfounded and speechless by the money he holds in his hands. Pip is more crestfallen than toothpaste at having to leave Miss Havisham and Estella for good in the name of pursuing a life as a blacksmith.
When they arrive at Mr. Pumblechook, Joe conjures up a story to ease Mrs. Joe’s temper. He tells her that Miss Havisham did not feel well enough to entertain a lady such as one Mrs. Joe Gargery, but that she sends her best regards. Total poppycock, but Mrs. Joe eats it up.
When Mrs. Joe and Mr. Pumblechook learn that Miss Havisham has given a gift of 25 pounds, they go CRAZY.
Pip is taken to the court that very day to be sworn in as an official blacksmith’s apprentice, thus binding him to the trade for the rest of his days.
That night, the whole family celebrates at the Three Jolly Bargemen with a big feast, but Pip is sad beyond belief.
He goes to sleep later on thinking about how much he does not want to be a blacksmith.

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