What happens in Chapter XXVII of Great Expectations?
Pip gets a letter from Biddy, sent at Joe Gargery's request, informing him that Joe and Mr. Wopsle will be at Barnard's Inn on Tuesday morning at nine o'clock. Biddy includes a postscript with Joe's cheerful message of "what larks" and hopes that Pip will still welcome Joe, even though he is now a gentleman. Pip admits he feels anxious about the visit, experiencing embarrassment and a sense of awkwardness, but is relieved that Joe won’t run into Bentley Drummle. On Tuesday, Joe arrives, unsteady on the stairs and nervous in the rooms, holding onto his hat like it’s a bird's nest. He updates Pip, saying his sister is still the same, Biddy is doing well, and Wopsle has left the Church to pursue acting in London. Joe hands Pip a playbill for Wopsle's first performance. Herbert joins them for breakfast, where Joe appears stiff and uncomfortable, constantly trying to catch his hat as it falls and struggling with the unfamiliar social situation. Once Herbert heads off to the City, Joe reveals his true purpose: Pumblechook relayed news from Miss Havisham that Estella has returned home and would like to see Pip. Biddy encouraged Joe to share this message in person. After finishing his business, Joe declines to stay for dinner, shakes Pip's hand warmly, and gives a heartfelt farewell speech about how their lives have diverged, reminding Pip to think of him at the forge. He gently touches Pip's forehead before leaving; when Pip rushes outside to find him, Joe has already vanished.
Analysis
The chapter revolves around a single social encounter that reveals Pip's snobbery through his own first-person confession. Dickens organizes it into three parts: the letter and Pip's dread, the awkward breakfast visit, and Joe's dignified farewell. The irony hits hardest in the opening self-criticism — "So, throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise" — where Pip admits that his shame about Joe comes from a fear of Drummle's disdain, a man Pip himself looks down upon.
Joe's hat serves as the chapter's main comic prop and a recurring symbol of displacement: he carries it like "a bird's-nest with eggs in it," places it on the chimney-piece where it keeps falling, and ultimately splashes it into the slop-basin. The hat's constant movement reflects Joe's social discomfort in a setting that feels alien to him. His speech patterns — the malapropisms, the formal "sir" alternating with the affectionate "Pip" — highlight the same sense of not belonging.
The tone of the chapter shifts significantly during Joe's farewell speech. The comic awkwardness gives way to straightforward moral eloquence: "one man's a blacksmith, and one's a whitesmith, and one's a goldsmith, and one's a coppersmith." The imagery of the forge here isn't comedic but rather dignified, and Pip himself recognizes "a simple dignity in him." The brief mention of Estella's return, almost tossed in as an afterthought during Joe's errand, hits at the emotional core of the chapter, making Pip's face "fire up," an expression of feelings he isn't yet able to articulate.
Key quotes from Chapter XXVII
“So, throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise.”
Pip reflects on his own shame about Joe's visit, noting that his anxiety centres on Drummle seeing Joe, even though Pip despises Drummle.
“Pip, dear old chap, life is made of ever so many partings welded together, as I may say, and one man’s a blacksmith, and one’s a whitesmith, and one’s a goldsmith, and one’s a coppersmith.”
Joe's farewell speech to Pip, just before he leaves Barnard's Inn for the last time in his holiday clothes.
“You won’t find half so much fault in me if you think of me in my forge dress, with my hammer in my hand, or even my pipe.”
Joe continues his farewell, urging Pip to remember him as he truly is, at the forge rather than in gentlemen's clothes.
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Create an accountSign inVocabulary in Chapter XXVII
- architectooralooral
- Joe's comically mangled pronunciation of 'architectural,' meaning relating to the design or structure of a building; used humorously to show his lack of education.