Great Expectations Chapter 11: Toadies and Humbugs...

Pip makes his second visit to Miss Havisham's to find it's the old woman's birthday, and that a small gaggle of what seem to be her relatives have shown up for the occasion. Pip quickly dismisses the other guests--Camilla, Cousin Raymond, Sarah Pocket, and the grave lady--as a bunch of toadies and humbugs, and Miss Havisham doesn't seem to think much of them either. One gets the feeling that they're lurking around in the hopes that the old rich lady will remember their dutiful appearance when it comes time to write up her will.

Estella continues to taunt Pip as she walks him up to Miss Havisham's room, and on the steps they run into a burly dark man who grabs Pip by the arm and warns him to behave himself.

When Pip tells Miss Havisham he's not up for playing, she says that maybe he should work, and she directs him across the hall to another creepy room, in which is set a big table and a decaying wedding cake, and everything's crawling with bugs. Miss Havisham is cranky today, and demands that Pip walk her around and around the table. As the two walk, the other guests enter and Miss Havisham is snappy and curt with them. After they leave, Miss Havisham claims that when she is dead, she wants to be laid out on the bride's table, in her bride's dress, and that this will be "the finished curse upon him" (102).

Topic Tracking: Love 2

Pip is sent off into the yard for his lunch again, and while exploring comes upon a pale young gentleman. The boy, an odd and sickly-looking redhead, urges Pip to come on and fight. The two have an strangely choreographed fistfight, during which Pip repeatedly surprises himself by knocking the boy to the ground, and the boy repeatedly surprises Pip by getting up, toweling himself off, and coming back for more abuse. The boy finally concedes victory to Pip, and the two part. Pip has one final surprise to face--Estella appears, looking oddly happy, and demands that Pip kiss her. Pip does, though like his victory against the pale-faced boy, it's not very satisfying. Pip then heads off toward home.