Great Expectations Chapter Thirty-Five Summary

Pip is rocked by his sister’s death. It’s the first death that he’s encountered in his grown-up life, and he can’t stop thinking about Mrs. Joe in her rocking chair by the fire. Sometimes he thinks he sees her walking down the street.
He didn’t really like her that much. She was kind of a mean old snake, but he feels like he has to hunt down Orlick who he believes is the cause of her death.
Pip goes home to the funeral, which turns out to be a big, old spectacle. He finds himself remembering the Tickler, but he bears no grudge against his sister.
At home, Joe is very sad. Trabb is arranging the funeral, and makes the pall bearers (Pip included), carry Mrs. Joe’s casket across town. Trabb throws a black sheath over the casket, and it covers the pall bearers’ heads. As they walk down the street, the procession looks like a giant, many-legged monster-bug.
Mr. Pumblechook is being uber annoying. He keeps drinking all the alcohol, preening Pip, and taking credit for Pip’s rise to fame and fortune.
After the funeral, Pip, Joe, and Biddy have a cold dinner, and Joe does some knife tricks. Just kidding. But he handles his knife well.
Joe and Pip sit on a stone and chit chat just like old times.
As the stars are coming out, Pip and Biddy go for a walk. Pip asks her what she will do with her life now. Biddy sassily responds that she’s going to be a schoolmistress and will be just fine, thank you very much.
Pip asks Biddy how Mrs. Joe died, and she tells him that one day around tea-time, Mrs. Joe asked for Joe. Joe came to her and she simply said, "Joe," "Pardon," and "Pip." And then she dropped dead. Peacefully.
Pip discovers that slimy Orlick has been hanging around Biddy, watching her, and being up to no good. Pip is enraged. He wants to hunt Orlick down, Mariah Carey style. Biddy tells him to simmer down.
Then the conversation turns a bit awkward as Pip promises Biddy he will come home often to take care of Joe. Biddy just doesn’t believe him, and she conveys this through silence. Pip is annoyed, heartbroken, and altogether sad that Biddy would think that.
Pip sleeps in his old room that night and is proud of himself for doing so rather than sleeping at the fancier Blue Boar inn. Good job, Pip. Gold star for you.
The next morning, he watches Joe in the window of the forge. Joe looks young, strong, and sunshiny.
Biddy gives Pip milk and bread for the road and tells him she is sorry if she hurt his feelings.
Pip leaves the forge, promising to return soon.
Guess what? The mists are rising. We know – shocking.
The mists are like Pip’s crystal ball and, in them, on this particular day, he sees that he will not be coming home soon at all. Liar, liar, pants on fire.

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