CHAPTER 38 Practice Quiz — Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: CHAPTER 38
Where does Estella live in London during Chapter 38?
Estella lives with Mrs. Brandley, a widow and former friend of Miss Havisham, in a house near the Green at Richmond.
What role does Pip play in Estella's social life in London?
Pip accompanies Estella to parties, operas, concerts, and outings on the water, but is treated as a familiar companion rather than a suitor, used to tease her other admirers.
What sparks the confrontation between Estella and Miss Havisham at Satis House?
Estella begins to detach herself from Miss Havisham's possessive physical embrace, and when Miss Havisham accuses her of being tired of her, Estella responds with cold composure, escalating the argument.
What does Bentley Drummle do at the Finches of the Grove dinner that enrages Pip?
Drummle toasts Estella by name as "a peerless beauty" of Richmond. Pip challenges him, nearly provoking a duel, but Drummle produces a note in Estella's handwriting confirming their acquaintance.
What does Pip see when he cannot sleep at Satis House?
Pip sees Miss Havisham wandering the dark passages carrying a bare candle and making a low, ceaseless cry, pacing between the feast-chamber and her room until daylight.
What does Estella admit to Pip at the Richmond ball?
She admits that she deceives and entraps all of her admirers — all of them except Pip. This is the closest she comes to expressing genuine regard for him.
What parable does the chapter end with?
An Eastern tale about a sultan whose ceiling slab is rigged to fall on his bed. The rope is cut and the roof collapses — a metaphor for the revelation about to strike Pip in Chapter 39.
How does Estella defend herself during her argument with Miss Havisham?
Estella argues she is what Miss Havisham made her: raised without love, taught to see affection as an enemy. She uses a daylight analogy — you cannot raise someone in darkness and then expect them to embrace the sun.
What does Miss Havisham demand from Estella, and why is this ironic?
Miss Havisham demands love, but this is deeply ironic because she deliberately raised Estella to be incapable of feeling it. She destroyed the very capacity she now craves from her adopted daughter.
Why does Mr. Jaggers call Drummle "the Spider"?
Because Drummle has the patience and predatory instincts of a spider — he lies in wait, doggedly watching Estella, and outlasts brighter rivals by sheer dull persistence and blockhead confidence.
What is Mrs. Brandley's connection to Miss Havisham?
Mrs. Brandley was a friend of Miss Havisham before her seclusion. She serves as Estella's London hostess, providing her a respectable social position in Richmond.
How does Pip interpret Miss Havisham's scheme in this chapter?
Pip realizes Estella was sent out to attract and torment men as Miss Havisham's revenge, with the assurance that Estella was beyond their reach. He believes he is reserved as her ultimate match, but must wait while she gratifies Miss Havisham's vengeance.
What does Chapter 38 reveal about the consequences of emotional manipulation?
Miss Havisham's revenge scheme has backfired: the weapon she forged against men cannot distinguish between targets and maker. Estella's coldness extends to Miss Havisham herself, proving manipulation consumes the manipulator.
How does the chapter explore the theme of nature versus nurture?
Estella's daylight analogy argues that emotional capacity must be cultivated. Having been taught from infancy that love is an enemy, she cannot suddenly produce it on demand — demonstrating that nurture has fundamentally shaped her nature.
What different forms of love are contrasted in Chapter 38?
Three distorted forms appear: Pip's selfless but self-destructive devotion, Miss Havisham's possessive and devouring affection, and Estella's enforced emotional void. None produces happiness.
How does the motif of entrapment appear in this chapter?
Pip is trapped by his feelings for Estella, Estella is trapped by the upbringing that made her incapable of love, and Miss Havisham is trapped in Satis House by her own obsessive revenge — none can escape what holds them.
What is the effect of the anaphora "I saw in this" repeated five times?
The repetition builds rhythmic intensity as Pip pieces together the full extent of Miss Havisham's scheme. Each repetition adds another layer of understanding, creating a cumulative revelation.
How does Dickens use Gothic imagery at Satis House in this chapter?
He describes the stopped clock, withered bridal dress, cobwebs, scurrying mice, flickering candles, and Miss Havisham's ghostly nighttime wandering — creating an atmosphere of decay and psychological horror.
What rhetorical device does Estella use with "Who taught me to be proud?" and "Who taught me to be hard?"
Parallel structure (parallelism). By echoing the same syntactic pattern, Estella turns Miss Havisham's accusations back on her with devastating logical force.
What literary purpose does the Eastern parable at the chapter's end serve?
It functions as foreshadowing through extended metaphor. The collapsing ceiling represents the revelation about to destroy Pip's assumptions in Chapter 39, while the elaborate preparation mirrors the long-building events of the novel.
Who says "I am what you have made me. Take all the praise, take all the blame" and what does it mean?
Estella says this to Miss Havisham during their confrontation. It means Estella's coldness is entirely Miss Havisham's creation — she accepts no responsibility for a nature that was imposed on her.
What does Estella mean when she says moths "hover about a lighted candle" and asks "Can the candle help it?"
She compares herself to a candle and Drummle to a moth, suggesting she cannot help attracting admirers. It reveals her view of her own beauty as an impersonal force rather than something she deliberately wields.
What is the significance of Miss Havisham's cry "Did I never give her love!"?
It reveals Miss Havisham's desperate self-deception. She believes her obsessive, possessive attachment to Estella was love, but the reader can see it was a distorted instrument of revenge rather than genuine maternal affection.