Plot Summary
Chapter 56 follows Abel Magwitch from his imprisonment through his trial, sentencing, and death. Gravely injured during his failed escape on the Thames—with two broken ribs and a punctured lung—Magwitch is moved to the prison infirmary, where Pip visits him daily. Too ill to be placed in irons, Magwitch speaks little but listens gratefully as Pip reads and talks to him. His condition worsens steadily, and Mr. Jaggers applies unsuccessfully for a postponement of the trial.
When the trial arrives, Magwitch must sit in a chair at the bar. The proceedings are brief: although his industrious life in New South Wales is acknowledged, nothing can undo the fact of his illegal return to England. He is sentenced to death alongside thirty-one other prisoners in a solemn mass sentencing. In a moment of quiet dignity, Magwitch rises and tells the Judge: "My Lord, I have received my sentence of Death from the Almighty, but I bow to yours."
Pip throws himself into writing petitions to the Home Secretary, the Crown, and every authority he can reach, desperate to win a reprieve. Meanwhile, Magwitch grows weaker, his face losing its light until Pip's words momentarily brighten it. On the tenth day after sentencing, Magwitch's final decline comes. In their last exchange, Pip tells him that his lost daughter is alive, that she is "a lady and very beautiful," and that Pip loves her. Magwitch raises Pip's hand to his lips, lets it rest on his breast, and dies peacefully.
Character Development
This chapter marks the completion of Pip's moral transformation. The young man who once recoiled from Magwitch's coarseness now devotes every waking hour to comforting him, writing petitions on his behalf, and roaming London's streets in anguished vigil. Pip's admission that he "could not forget that I had once meant to desert him" reveals his painful self-awareness—he measures himself against Magwitch's unwavering loyalty and finds himself wanting. Pip has learned to see past social class to the human being beneath.
Magwitch, too, reaches his final form: humble, contrite, and grateful. He never complains, never justifies his past, and meets his death with a quiet resignation that transforms the former convict into a figure of moral dignity. His "trustful look" toward Pip suggests he has always believed Pip saw the good in him, even from childhood.
Themes and Motifs
Redemption and forgiveness dominate the chapter. Magwitch's peaceful death, blessed by Pip's devotion and his final prayer—"O Lord, be merciful to him, a sinner!"—echoes the biblical parable of the Pharisee and the publican, affirming that true worth lies in humility rather than social standing. The critique of the justice system runs throughout: the Judge's speech reduces Magwitch's entire life to a criminal record, ignoring the poverty that shaped him and the honest life he built abroad. The mass sentencing of thirty-two prisoners underscores the dehumanizing machinery of Victorian law.
The motif of loyalty versus desertion recurs as Pip reflects on Magwitch's constancy—"You've never deserted me, dear boy"—while Pip silently recalls his own earlier impulse to abandon his benefactor. Love transcending class is crystallized in the deathbed revelation about Estella, which binds convict, gentleman, and lady into a single emotional chain.
Literary Devices
Imagery and light symbolism pervade the chapter. The "drops of April rain" glittering in sunlight create a shaft of light connecting the prisoners and the Judge—a visual reminder that both "were passing on, with absolute equality, to the greater Judgment that knoweth all things." The recurring image of the "placid look at the white ceiling" charts Magwitch's fading life force, each return of that vacant gaze marking another step toward death.
Dickens employs biblical allusion in Pip's closing prayer from Luke 18:13, and dramatic irony in the deathbed scene: Pip tells Magwitch his daughter lives and is beautiful, but Magwitch dies without knowing that daughter is Estella—the very woman Pip loves. The contrast between the courtroom spectacle (the audience "putting their dresses right, as they might at church") and its deadly stakes sharpens Dickens's social criticism.