Great Expectations Chapter Fifty-Eight Summary

Pip goes home and stays the night at the Blue Boar. Because he is no longer the Donald Trump of his hometown, he doesn’t get treated like he used to and he doesn’t get his old room. However, he does sleep really well and he has great dreams.
The next day he goes over to Satis House and finds that everything there is to be auctioned off, and that the land is to be divided into different lots. Subdivisions, here we come!
When Pip returns to the Blue Boar for breakfast, he finds the ever-annoying Mr. Pumblechook, ready to berate him.
Mr. Pumblechook pretends to be benevolent and nice by ordering watercress sandwiches for Pip, but Pip doesn’t like watercress sandwiches.
Mr. Pumblechook launches into a lecture in which he talks about how horrible Pip has been to his family.
Pip can’t stand it, and is snarky to Mr. Pumblechook.
When Mr. Pumblechook is done lecturing, Pip promptly leaves the Blue Boar in search of Joe and Biddy.
It is a beautiful, sunshiny, June day. For once. Shmoopsters, take note. This is the only documented sunshine in the entire novel. Let us bask for a while.
Pip first goes to the schoolhouse where he hopes to watch Biddy in action, teaching her students. But no one is in the schoolhouse. It’s a holiday. Kids these days. Never in school.
So Pip presses on, and he arrives at the forge, but he doesn’t hear any hammering, and it seems like the forge and smithy are closed. Ruh-roh. Don’t tell us Joe moved away. That would be devastating. We can’t take it. Must keep reading…
But wait! The house is alive! There are white curtains, and it seems like there are people inside.
Soon Joe and Biddy are standing before Pip. They are arm and arm. Biddy looks beautiful and is crying. Joe is overjoyed.
Biddy tells Pip it is her wedding day and that she has married Joe. Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!
Pip is not feeling so well. The news is kind of a shock. He lays his head down on the kitchen table, and thinks about how glad he is that he never told Joe that he wanted to marry Biddy once upon a time.
Then Pip professes his undying love for Joe and Biddy and he blesses their marriage. He begs them for forgiveness at having treated them so badly and at having spurned them, and he tells them he will repay them both for the money they spent paying off his own debts. Pip explains that he’s about to leave England, but that he hopes Joe and Biddy will tell their future children that he loved them and honored them both.
Pip takes a nap, eats a wedding meal with Joe and Biddy, and says goodbye.
Pip leaves England to go "east" (we’re not exactly sure where) to join Herbert and Clara. Pretty soon, Pip becomes a partner in the business. Pip writes letters to Joe and Biddy all the time and gradually pays them back.
Eventually, Herbert discovers that Pip had helped him secure his job. Herby is totally surprised.
Herbert and Pip’s shipping company is not the most prosperous, but they live comfortably in the East, and they do well enough. Pip realizes that the success of the company is largely due to Herby’s attitude and smarts. Pip wonders why he ever doubted Herby’s abilities. He realizes that he is the one who’s screwed up royally in life.

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