Plot Summary
Chapter 35 centers on the funeral of Mrs. Joe Gargery, Pip's sister, and the emotional aftermath that follows. Pip returns to the forge from London after receiving news of her death, reflecting on the strange shock of losing someone he had seldom thought about in recent years. He arrives to find that Mr. Trabb, the local undertaker-tailor, has transformed the house into an absurd spectacle of mourning, complete with sable warders posted at the door and black-clad attendants managing every detail of the procession. The funeral party — Pip, Joe, Biddy, Pumblechook, and the Hubbles — is "formed" into pairs and marched through the village under Trabb's stage direction, handkerchiefs pressed to their faces on command, while the neighborhood watches with excitement rather than solemnity.
After the burial in the churchyard near the graves of Pip's parents, the mourners return for refreshments. Pumblechook takes the occasion to ingratiate himself with Pip, shamelessly suggesting that Mrs. Joe would have considered her death a fair price for Pip's honoring her with his attendance. Once the others leave, Pip, Joe, and Biddy share a quiet dinner. In the evening, Pip walks with Biddy in the garden, where she recounts the peaceful circumstances of Mrs. Joe's death — her final words being "Joe," "Pardon," and "Pip." Biddy also reveals that Orlick has been lurking nearby. Pip promises to visit Joe often, but Biddy quietly doubts his sincerity, and Pip leaves the next morning walking into the rising mists, privately acknowledging that Biddy was right to doubt him.
Character Development
This chapter is pivotal for Pip's self-awareness. He recognizes his own lack of genuine tenderness toward his sister, substituting indignation against Orlick as compensation. His interactions with Biddy reveal the growing gap between his aspirations as a gentleman and his actual moral character — he is offended when she calls him "Mr. Pip" and wounded when she doubts his promises, yet he cannot honestly deny she is right. Joe, meanwhile, appears in his most sympathetically human light: entangled in an absurd mourning cloak, wishing he could have carried his wife to the church himself, and returning to his forge clothes the moment propriety allows. Biddy emerges as a figure of quiet strength and perception, planning her own independent future as a schoolmistress while seeing through Pip's self-deception with gentle clarity.
Themes and Motifs
The chapter explores the performative nature of grief and social ritual. Dickens satirizes the Victorian funeral industry through Trabb's theatrical management, the "blind monster with twelve human legs" image of the pallbearers, and the neighborhood's voyeuristic excitement. The contrast between this empty pageantry and the genuine, simple grief of Joe and Biddy underscores the novel's broader theme of authenticity versus pretension. Mrs. Joe's dying words — "Joe," "Pardon," and "Pip" — suggest a moment of grace and reconciliation that stands in quiet opposition to the elaborate performance staged in her name. The rising mists at Pip's departure echo the mists from the novel's opening, symbolizing uncertainty and self-deception.
Literary Devices
Dickens employs dark humor and satire throughout the funeral sequence, from the warder who was fired for riding his horse "clasped round the neck with both arms" to Trabb's command of "Pocket-handkerchiefs out, all!" The grotesque imagery of the pallbearers as a "blind monster" exemplifies Dickens's technique of blending comedy with pathos. Irony pervades Pip's narration — his indignation at Biddy's honesty, his self-righteous promises he knows he will not keep, and his final admission that the mists were "quite right too." The chapter also uses pathetic fallacy, with the fine summer weather and singing larks during the burial creating a poignant contrast with the occasion of death, while the darkening garden mirrors the emotional weight of Biddy's account of Mrs. Joe's final moments.