Great Expectations Chapter Thirty-Eight Summary

Pip, the lovesick puppy, is spending most of his days hanging out in Richmond with Estella. There, Estella’s being introduced to society by means of one of Miss Havisham’s old (and wealthy) friends.
Pip believes that one day his ghost will haunt that house, because he has endured so much torture trying to woo Estella between its walls, watching as she is pursued by an endless train of men.
Estella treats Pip different from all of the other suitors. She calls him by his first name, and lets him do the same to her. She uses him to tease the others. She teases him, but never allows him to feel that he is any closer to her heart or to winning her. Pip is devastated.
Estella asks Pip if he’ll ever get the picture, if he’ll ever take warning.
Pip’s not sure of what he should be warned, and Estella tells him he’s blind.
Pip decides not to pursue her too forcefully, knowing that she is not free to choose her suitors or her future husband. Pip knows that Miss Havisham has that ultimate control over her.
Estella asks Pip to accompany her to Satis House, as Miss Havisham has asked to see her.
Pip is pleased as punch to do so. One-on-one Estella time sounds pretty blissful to him.
Miss Havisham is weird. No, seriously, folks. Dickens describes Miss Havisham as "weird," and we couldn’t agree more.
Miss Havisham is delighted to see Estella and is more obsessed with her than ever before. She hangs on Estella’s every word, and can’t stop looking at her. Miss Havisham wants to know how Pip has been used by Estella too.
At night, the happy family gathers by the fire, and Miss Havisham makes Estella describe all of the men who are in love with her.
Observing this scene, Pip realizes that Estella is Miss Havisham’s guided missile, designed to wound and destroy every man that comes in her path. Pip convinces himself that, once Estella has finished destroying her suitors, she will be free to marry Pip, and the two will live happily ever after.
The three are enjoying the accounts of the poor men who love Estella, when Estella decides to unhook her arm from Miss Havisham’s arm.
BIG mistake. Miss Havisham goes ballistic. Estella is not shaken. Miss Havisham accuses her of being ungrateful and cold. Estella responds that she is what Miss Havisham has made her.
Miss Havisham demands her love, and Estella replies (calling her "mother by adoption") that she cannot give what she doesn’t have. Estella tells her mother by adoption that she will give and has given her everything she owns. Beyond that, Estella explains she has nothing.
It looks like Miss Havisham’s guided missile had become misguided and has struck home.
Miss Havisham starts rocking back and forth and moaning, but Estella could care less.
Pip decides to go for a walk. A splendid idea. When he returns, Estella is kneeling at Miss Havisham’s feet and knitting. It’s as though their argument never happened, and Pip tells us he never witnessed another argument like it ever again.
Estella and Pip play complicated card games.
Miss Havisham is weird, but quiet. Quietly weird.
Pip decides to go to bed. It’s the first time he’s ever slept at Satis House, and it’s no Marriott. He keeps thinking he sees the ghost of Miss Havisham everywhere, and he can’t sleep. Eventually, he gets out of bed and decides to walk around. He sees Miss Havisham wondering around the house, moaning.
Pip tells us that he can’t end the chapter without talking about Bentley Drummle, the spider. One day, Pip is hanging out with the Finches at their club. Drummle tells the boys that he’s pursuing Estella, and that’s she totally into him.
Pip sees red. He accuses Drummle of lying. The society is aghast. Questioning anyone’s integrity back in the day was a big deal. The society decides that Drummle has to provide evidence that he’s dating Estella, which Drummle easily does. He shows the boys a note Estella had written him.
Pip is embarrassed and heart-broken.
At a party soon after, he watches Drummle flirt with Estella all night. Pip approaches Estella and asks her why she allows someone as spider-ly as Drummle to hang out with her. Estella tells him she does so to have a certain "effect" on her other suitors, but not on Pip. Pip wants to know why she doesn’t pay attention to him, and Estella asks him whether he would like her to deceive and entrap him. She tells him that he is the only man in her life that she does not deceive or entrap.
Normally, this would be great news for Pip. He is not deceive-able or entrap-able in Estella’s eyes. However, he knows more than ever that he doesn’t stand a chance with Estella, that she has plans for Drummle, and that he is farther away from her than he has ever been.
Break out the Otis Redding, because Pip has the blues. Big time.

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