CHAPTER 57 Practice Quiz — Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: CHAPTER 57
Why is Pip putting up bills in his Temple windows at the start of Chapter 57?
He is subletting his chambers because he is deeply in debt, has scarcely any money, and plans to quit the Temple as soon as his tenancy legally ends.
What happens when two men arrive at Pip's chambers?
They come to arrest Pip for a debt of £123, fifteen shillings, and sixpence owed to a jeweler. Pip is too ill to stand, so they leave him.
What recurring hallucination does Pip experience during his fever?
Every face around him, no matter who is actually present, eventually resolves into the face of Joe Gargery.
What does Pip hallucinate about Miss Havisham during his delirium?
He hears a voice calling out repeatedly that Miss Havisham is consuming within a closed iron furnace in a dark corner of the room.
What disturbing self-images does Pip experience during the fever?
He imagines he is a brick set into a house wall begging to be released, and a steel beam in a vast engine clashing over a gulf, pleading to be hammered off.
Who nurses Pip back to health during his long illness?
Joe Gargery travels to London and stays at Pip's bedside for weeks, caring for him with the same tenderness he showed when Pip was a child.
What does Biddy tell Joe to do when she hears of Pip's illness?
Biddy's exact words, which Joe repeats proudly, are "Go to him, without loss of time" — and Joe emphasizes it was "without a minute's loss of time."
What evidence shows that Biddy has been educating Joe?
Joe sits down to write a letter to Biddy, demonstrating that she has taught him to write, though he still struggles with the pen, dips it into empty space, and makes laborious downstrokes.
What happened to Miss Havisham after Pip fell ill?
She died about a week after Pip's illness began, as Joe reluctantly reveals through his characteristic indirect manner of delivering bad news.
How did Miss Havisham's will distribute her property?
Most of her estate went to Estella. She left £4,000 to Matthew Pocket because of "Pip's account of him," smaller amounts to Miss Sarah for pills, Miss Georgiana, and Mrs. Camilla for rushlights.
Why does Pip feel joy about Miss Havisham's bequest to Matthew Pocket?
Because it resulted from Pip having spoken well of Matthew to Miss Havisham, making it "the only good thing" Pip felt he had done with his influence.
What happened to Orlick?
Orlick broke into Pumblechook's house, robbed his till and cash-box, drank his wine, slapped his face, pulled his nose, tied him to the bedpost, and stuffed his mouth with flowers. He was caught and jailed.
What troubling change does Pip notice in Joe as Pip grows stronger?
Joe gradually stops using the affectionate "old Pip, old chap" and reverts to calling Pip "sir," signaling that he expects their old intimacy to fade as Pip recovers.
What does Joe's use of the word "sir" toward Pip signify?
It reveals Joe's awareness of the social distance between them. Joe instinctively loosens his hold on Pip, expecting that a healthy Pip will once again grow cold and cast him off.
What does Pip's fever symbolize in terms of his character development?
The fever functions as a symbolic death and rebirth — his old identity as an ambitious, status-conscious gentleman is burned away, and he awakens with moral clarity and humility.
How does Joe respond when Pip begs him to be angry about Pip's ingratitude?
Joe refuses to assign any blame, simply saying "You and me was ever friends" and putting his arm around Pip's neck in joy that Pip recognizes him.
What is the "reserved Secondly" that Pip mentions?
It is Pip's plan to return to the forge and propose marriage to Biddy, asking her to go through the world with him and letting her decide where they will live and what work he will do.
What does Joe's farewell note say?
The note reads: "Not wishful to intrude I have departured fur you are well again dear Pip and will do better without Jo. P.S. Ever the best of friends."
What does Pip find enclosed with Joe's farewell note?
A receipt for the debt on which Pip had been arrested, revealing that Joe had secretly paid off the entire amount.
How does the Sunday carriage ride echo Pip's childhood?
Joe wraps Pip up, carries him in his arms, and puts him into the carriage as if Pip were still a small helpless child, mirroring Joe's caring role during Pip's youth at the forge.
What theme does Joe's dialect — words like "unacceptabobble" and "coddleshell" — reinforce?
Joe's malapropisms highlight the contrast between surface refinement and inner worth. His uneducated speech coexists with the deepest moral goodness in the novel.
What literary device does Dickens use in the repeated resolution of faces into Joe's face?
Repetition (anaphora). The pattern of "I opened my eyes... and saw Joe" recurs to emphasize that Joe is the stable moral center of Pip's world, even during his worst suffering.
What role does dramatic irony play at the end of Chapter 57?
Pip plans to propose to Biddy, not knowing what the reader will discover in Chapter 58 — that Biddy has married Joe. This creates poignant tension in Pip's hopeful resolution.