Plot Summary
Chapter 40 opens with Pip grappling with the immediate problem of concealing his "dreaded visitor" — the convict Abel Magwitch, who revealed himself as Pip's secret benefactor the previous night. Pip decides to introduce Magwitch to his servants as his uncle from the country, using the alias "Provis." While groping down the dark staircase for a light, Pip stumbles over a mysterious man crouching in the corner who vanishes before the watchman can find him. The watchman also reveals that a second person accompanied Provis through the gate — a "working person" in dust-coloured clothes — raising Pip's alarm that Magwitch may already be under surveillance.
Over breakfast, Pip learns Magwitch's full name — Abel Magwitch, christened Abel — and that he was tried in London, with Mr. Jaggers as his lawyer. Magwitch declares he has returned to England permanently, despite the penalty of death by hanging for a transported convict who returns. Pip arranges lodgings for Magwitch in Essex Street and visits Mr. Jaggers, who carefully confirms — while maintaining legal deniability by repeatedly adding "in New South Wales" — that Magwitch is indeed Pip's benefactor, not Miss Havisham. Five agonizing days pass as Pip waits for Herbert's return, during which Magwitch's rough manners and convict bearing prove impossible to disguise despite new clothes. When Herbert finally arrives, Magwitch forces him to swear secrecy on a pocket Bible before Pip can share the truth.
Character Development
This chapter marks a turning point in Pip's moral education. His visceral revulsion toward Magwitch — comparing him to "a hungry old dog" and recoiling from his "uncouth, noisy, and greedy" habits — exposes the depth of Pip's snobbery. Yet Pip also feels genuine fear for Magwitch's safety, creating a painful internal conflict between repulsion and obligation. Magwitch himself emerges as a complex figure: fiercely proud of "the gentleman what I made," touchingly eager for Pip's approval, yet also disturbingly possessive, treating Pip as a product of his investment. Mr. Jaggers reveals his own shrewdness, maintaining strict legal deniability through his pointed repetition of "in New South Wales" while clearly understanding the entire situation.
Themes and Motifs
The chapter's central theme is the collapse of false expectations. Pip's assumption that Miss Havisham was his benefactress — and therefore that Estella was destined for him — crumbles entirely when Jaggers confirms Magwitch as the sole source. The creator-creature motif runs throughout: Magwitch views Pip as "the gentleman what I made," while Pip compares himself to Frankenstein's monster, "pursued by the creature who had made me." Social class and its pretensions dominate as well — Magwitch's boasts about horses and spending money expose how gentility, to him, is merely a matter of outward display, mirroring the superficiality Pip himself has embraced.
Literary Devices
Dickens employs dramatic irony through Mr. Jaggers's repeated qualifier "in New South Wales," which allows the lawyer to acknowledge Magwitch's return without legal culpability. The Frankenstein allusion — "the imaginary student pursued by the misshapen creature he had impiously made" — inverts the creator-creation dynamic, as Pip feels haunted by the man who made him rather than the reverse. Pathetic fallacy reinforces mood: the "wet wild morning, all of a leaden hue" mirrors Pip's despair. Dickens also uses vivid animal imagery to characterize Magwitch — his "strongest fangs," eating like "a hungry old dog" — underscoring the gulf between his savage manners and the gentlemanly world he aspires to create through Pip.