What happens in Chapter XL of Great Expectations?
The chapter begins the morning after Magwitch's arrival. Unable to sleep, Pip carefully makes his way down the dark staircase and trips over a man crouching in the shadows, who disappears before the watchman can catch him. The watchman then informs Pip that a stranger—Magwitch—entered the gate with another unidentified person, which makes Pip feel even more anxious. At breakfast, Magwitch reveals his real name, Abel Magwitch, and shares that he also goes by Provis. He mentions that Jaggers defended him in his last trial and declares he has returned to England for good, with no plans to go back to New South Wales. He takes out a thick pocket-book filled with money and insists it all belongs to Pip. Pip questions him about safety; Magwitch remains calm but admits that being caught would lead to a death sentence. Pip arranges for lodgings on Essex Street, buys new clothes, and visits Mr. Jaggers at Little Britain to confirm that Magwitch—and only Magwitch—is his benefactor, not Miss Havisham. Jaggers verifies this while carefully distancing himself from any knowledge of Magwitch's return. Back at the Temple, Pip realizes that no disguise can hide the convict in Magwitch; his every habit reveals his past. As Pip grows more horrified, he even gets out of bed one night planning to flee and enlist for India. After about five days of this distress, Herbert returns from France. Provis immediately pulls out his black Testament and swears Herbert to secrecy, promising that Pip will also help make Herbert a gentleman.
Analysis
The chapter unfolds in two distinct timeframes: the tense night and early morning, followed by the days after Magwitch’s revelation. Pip tells the story in the first person, adopting a retrospective, confessional tone—“This is written of, I am sensible, as if it had lasted a year. It lasted about five days”—a self-reflective comment that compresses time and highlights how subjective fear can distort one’s experience.
The figure lurking on the staircase and the unnamed "person" who trails Magwitch through the gate serve as an unresolved threat, creating a gothic atmosphere filled with the sense of surveillance and hidden peril that the watchman’s lantern fails to illuminate.
Magwitch is characterized through vivid physical details: he eats “like a hungry old dog,” drags one leg “as if there were still a weight of iron on it,” and wipes his jackknife on his legs. These actions make his convict history unmistakable—“there was Prisoner, Felon, Bondsman, plain as plain could be”—which renders the episode involving his disguise (the powder likened to “rouge upon the dead”) both darkly humorous and pitiable.
The Jaggers scene exemplifies legal evasion: each mention of Magwitch is followed by the parenthetical “in New South Wales,” and Jaggers prefers “informed” to “told” to avoid any implication. His repeated phrase “the strict line of fact” ironically highlights how facts can be manipulated to obscure the truth.
The chapter concludes with a literary reference—Pip compared to “the imaginary student pursued by the misshapen creature he had impiously made”—depicting Magwitch as a monstrous creator in reverse, the maker who haunts rather than the one who is made.
Key quotes from Chapter XL
““Magwitch,” he answered, in the same tone; “chrisen’d Abel.””
Pip asks Magwitch his real name at the breakfast table, and Magwitch answers in a whisper.
“there was Prisoner, Felon, Bondsman, plain as plain could be.”
Pip reflects on how Magwitch's every habit and gesture betrays his past, no matter what clothes he wears.
“The imaginary student pursued by the misshapen creature he had impiously made, was not more wretched than I, pursued by the creature who had made me”
Pip describes his torment during the five days before Herbert's return, comparing himself to a figure from a well-known story.
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