As Herbert tends to Pip's burns from the fire at Satis House, Pip
realizes the heritage of Estella: She's the daughter of the convict
Magwitch, and Mr Jaggers's housekeeper.
Pip's looking back on some wearisome days: First the bad news of
Estella's wedding with his arch-rival Drummle must have been a blow to
his feelings for her, and the definite mark of defeat in front of his
foe. On top of that, mentions of Compeyson's appearance in London, the
guy who wants to see Magwitch on the gallows, pull at his already
strained nerves, which are on edge, too, due to fearing the convict
Magwitch's hideout at the wharfs might be found out, or, even worse,
might have been already found out...
In the midst of the preparation of the plan for smuggling the convict
out of Britain, Miss Havisham calls him to Satis House. When he arrived
there, she was only a wreck, trying to find redemption through Pip
forgiving her unkind acts in the past. As a sign of her being earnest,
she grants Pip's bidding to secretly aid Herbert with her last will.
Instead of calming herself, Miss Havisham's seems to lose her mind more and more, almost like a mad scene in a bel canto
opera, and ends up catching fire at the fire place. Pip rushes to help
her, suffering a lot of burns on his arms, but eventually leads her out
of danger.
Exhausted, knowing that she's in recovery, he comes back to London,
where he recollects his thoughts with the helping hand of Herbert. By
and by, both connect the dots, and Pip learns about Estella's origins -
ghostly figures in the background from left to right: Magwitch, Estella,
and Molly, the housekeeper of Mr Jaggers. In this picture, he lost all
of his energy to properly react to this shocking news. He merely sports a
sad smile of empathy on the total situation, seemingly ignoring the
sharp pain of his burnt arm, which is about to being cooled by a piece
of cloth in Herbert's hand. This picture captures the moment when Pip
realizes the truth, before Herbert could, hence the latter looking
confused and preoccupied at Pip's sudden calmness, or melancholic
illumination, if you will...
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