What happens in Chapter LVI of Great Expectations?
Magwitch lies gravely ill in prison after his capture, having broken two ribs and injured a lung. He is moved to the infirmary, where Pip visits him every day. Magwitch grows steadily weaker, never complaining and showing a quiet acceptance of his fate. Mr. Jaggers applies to postpone the trial, but the request is denied. At the Sessions, Magwitch is tried, found guilty of returning from exile, and sentenced to death alongside thirty-one other convicts. The Judge addresses him specifically, recounting his lengthy criminal history. Magwitch stands and says, "My Lord, I have received my sentence of Death from the Almighty, but I bow to yours." After the sentencing, Pip writes passionate petitions to the Home Secretary, other officials, and even the Crown, wandering the streets of London at night in restless despair. As the days go by, Magwitch becomes too weak to speak and can only communicate through hand squeezes. On the tenth day after the sentencing, Pip finds him near death. In their final exchange, Magwitch tells Pip he has never abandoned him and that Pip's loyalty during tough times is "best of all." He speaks his last words — "I don't complain of none, dear boy" — and passes away with Pip's hand resting on his chest. Pip tells him at the end that his lost child is alive, is a lady, and is loved by Pip. Pip concludes with a prayer for mercy.
Analysis
The chapter is narrated from Pip's reflective first-person perspective, allowing him to frame Magwitch's death with a moral clarity he couldn't understand at the time — particularly evident in the parenthetical confession, "I could not forget that I had once meant to desert him." This sense of self-blame subtly tracks Pip's journey.
Dickens divides the chapter into three parts: the slow decline in the infirmary, the public display of the sentencing, and the intimate deathbed scene. The middle section takes a sharp turn; the courtroom becomes a stage ("a large theatrical audience"), and the beam of April sunlight linking the condemned and the Judge hints at a higher, impartial justice — "the greater Judgment that knoweth all things, and cannot err." The imagery of rain and sunlight, filtering through the court's windows, recurs and enhances the feeling of something beyond human law.
Silence and a sense of reduction permeate the chapter's atmosphere. Magwitch speaks "so low as to be scarcely audible," then only in whispers, and finally through hand pressures, until his last words are a refusal to complain. The "placid look at the white ceiling" reappears as a visual motif, marking each retreat from life, until it "came back, and passed away" at the moment of death.
The chapter's tone shifts from the bleakness of institutions to tenderness. No one is harsh with Pip or Magwitch; the governor grants Pip extra time at the bedside without being asked. Amid the machinery of state execution, small acts of kindness accumulate. The chapter concludes with a biblical reference — the parable of the Pharisee and the publican — firmly placing Magwitch in the role of the humble sinner seeking only mercy.
Key quotes from Chapter LVI
“My Lord, I have received my sentence of Death from the Almighty, but I bow to yours”
Magwitch rises briefly in the dock to address the Judge after hearing his death sentence pronounced.
““you’ve been more comfortable alonger me, since I was under a dark cloud, than when the sun shone. That’s best of all.””
Magwitch speaks to Pip near the end of their final conversation at his prison bedside.
“I pressed his hand in silence, for I could not forget that I had once meant to desert him.”
Pip's private reflection immediately after Magwitch thanks him for never having deserted him.
Check your understanding
Ask about this work
The reader has this chapter in front of it — the summary, the analysis, the key quotes and the vocabulary — along with the rest of the book’s chapters. Ask what happens and why it matters, or push back on a reading.
It cites the chapter or the line it is working from, and it says so plainly when the guide doesn’t cover something. It’s instructed never to write an essay, a paragraph or an answer for you to hand in, and never to grade anything — it will show you how to approach the question instead. The reader is an AI, not a person, and its replies are written by Claude, from Anthropic. The people behind Storgy are at hello@storgy.com.
Sign in to ask the reader about this work — 1 credit covers three messages.
Create an accountSign in