Another day, and another
appointment at Miss Havisham's house. Pip is welcomed by Estella who conducts
him to the meeting where other people are waiting for. The meeting today is in
another part of the house, as Pip describes as " a gloomy room with a low ceiling,
on the ground floor at the back."
There are three ladies in the
room and one gentleman as Pip profiles as toadies and humbugs. Over the
chapter, Dickens manages a series of dialogues among these characters in a way
to introduce them in the narrative.
They left the room, Estella and
Pip have a sort of disagreement when she finally slaps his face. After that,
they go upstairs and met a gentleman groping his way down.Pip gives a complete description
of the man saying "He was a burly man of an exceedingly dark complexion,
with an exceedingly large head and a corresponding large hand. He took my chin
in his large hand and turned up my face to have a look at me by the light of
the candle. He was prematurely bald on the top of his head and had bushy black
eyebrows that wouldn’t lie down but stood up bristling. His eyes were set very
deep in his head and were disagreeably sharp and suspicious. He had a large
watch-chain, and strong black dots where his beard and whiskers would have
been if he had let them. He was nothing to me, and I could have had no foresight
then, that he ever would be anything to me, but it happened that I had this
opportunity of watching him well."
Pip meets Miss Havisham, who
sends him to another room and introduces him to some bizarre things, like one table that she wishes will be laid
when she died. After a while, Miss Havisham asks Pip to call Estella. Estella
comes with the others, the three ladies, and the two men. Once again, Dickens
introduces these guests and now it is clear that they are relatives visiting
Miss Havisham.
Estella, Pip and Miss Havisham
return to her room just after the guests went out. There, Estella and Pip start
to play cards. After that, Pip goes to
the garden where he meets a young gentleman, who evokes him to fight.
Dickens describes the fight with a richness
of details that I could almost feel and visualize everything that made part of
the scene.
It looks like some kind of
practice plotted by Miss Havisham and Estella, some part of a big plan for Pip.
After the fight, Estella allows him to
give her a kiss on the cheek. He returns home, ashamed that Estella looks down
on him.
See you on chapter twelve.
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