Plot Summary
Chapter 27 opens with a letter from Biddy, written on Joe's behalf, informing Pip that Joe Gargery will be visiting London with Mr. Wopsle and would like to call on Pip at Barnard's Inn. Pip confesses that the news fills him not with pleasure but with "considerable disturbance, some mortification, and a keen sense of incongruity." He dreads the thought of Joe being seen by Bentley Drummle, whom Pip despises yet whose opinion he inexplicably values.
When Joe arrives on Tuesday morning, the visit is painfully awkward. Joe refuses to part with his hat, clutching it "like a bird's-nest with eggs in it," and it repeatedly tumbles from the chimney-piece throughout the meal. He addresses Pip as "Sir," struggles with formal conversation, and is visibly uncomfortable in Pip's decorated chambers. Herbert presides graciously at breakfast, but Joe's unease only deepens. He reports that Mr. Wopsle has left the church to become an actor in London, and shares a comically disastrous account of Wopsle's theatrical debut.
Once Herbert departs, Joe reveals the true purpose of his visit: Miss Havisham has sent word through Pumblechook that Estella has returned home and wishes to see Pip. Having delivered this message, Joe rises to leave immediately. When Pip protests, Joe delivers a moving speech about how "life is made of ever so many partings welded together" and that he is "wrong out of the forge, the kitchen, or off th' meshes." He gently touches Pip's forehead and departs. Pip rushes after him but Joe is already gone.
Character Development
This chapter marks a crucial moment in Pip's moral deterioration. The older, narrating Pip recognizes his younger self's snobbery with painful clarity, admitting he lacked "the good sense nor the good feeling to know that this was all my fault." Joe, by contrast, displays extraordinary dignity and emotional intelligence. His farewell speech—comparing life's partings to different types of smiths—reveals a man who understands social reality without bitterness, choosing to preserve the relationship on terms that protect both their feelings. Joe's shift between calling Pip "Sir" (when formal and uncomfortable) and "Pip" (when genuine affection breaks through) subtly maps the emotional landscape of the entire visit.
Themes and Motifs
The chapter powerfully explores social class and its corrosive effects on personal relationships. Pip has hired a servant boy he calls "the Avenger," run up debts with an upholsterer, and constructed an elaborate performance of gentility—all of which alienates him from genuine human connection. The motif of appearance versus authenticity runs throughout: Joe's ill-fitting clothes and oversized boots contrast with his authentic warmth, while Pip's polished surroundings mask his moral shallowness. Dickens also develops the theme of self-knowledge and regret, as the narrating Pip consistently judges his younger self's behavior.
Literary Devices
Dickens employs comic symbolism through Joe's hat, which becomes a physical manifestation of his social discomfort—forever toppling, never at rest, demanding "a quickness of eye and hand, very like that exacted by wicket-keeping." The first-person retrospective narration creates dramatic irony, as the older Pip's self-awareness frames the younger Pip's obliviousness. Dickens uses dialect and speech patterns to brilliant effect: Joe's malapropisms ("ekerval," "backerder," "architectooralooral") charm the reader while embarrassing Pip, and his alternation between "Sir" and "Pip" functions as an emotional barometer. The chapter's closing image—Joe touching Pip's forehead before vanishing into the streets—carries the weight of a benediction, recalling a parent's gesture over a sleeping child.