Great Expectations Chapter 25: I Go Home With Wemmick...

Of the two boarders at the Pocket's, Pip is fond of one--Startop, and not at all fond of the other--Bentley Drummle. Herbert is his closest friend, and the two spend lots of time together. Pip is settling in to his education, getting along well with Mr. Pocket and cultivating expensive habits. After a month or two at Pocket's, Mr. and Mrs. Camilla and Georgiana, who Pip first met on his second visit to Miss Havisham's, pay a visit. Pip is nonplussed by how much they seem to hate him.

One evening, Pip drops by Jaggers' office to walk home with Wemmick and to visit his house, finally accepting his offer of hospitality. Wemmick's place is quite a strange one--there is a very tiny house with gothic trimmings and extensive, though miniaturized grounds. Wemmick has put a great deal of work into building his "castle", driven in good part by his desire to please his father, an old deaf man he refers to as the aged parent. Pip enjoys a very pleasant dinner with Wemmick and the aged parent, plus a ceremonious shooting of some sort of cannon out on the grounds (a nightly ritual, apparently done to please the aged parent), and passes an equally pleasant night in the tiny castle. The next morning, as Pip and Wemmick move away from the castle, back toward Jaggers' office, Pip observes that Wemmick seems to get "dryer and harder" (243) as they move along; like he's said of Jaggers, Wemmick seems to be quite different in his personal and professional manners.

Topic Tracking: Identity 6
Topic Tracking: Love 6