An old Pip re-enacts his first encounter with the convict with the son of Biddy and his uncle Joe.
After the capture of the convict Magwitch, and the following long period of sickness of Pip, he decides to work with Herbert in his shipping company, for which he leaves England for a long time. Eleven years later, a 35 years old Pip returns to his childhood place to visit his uncle Joe and his second wife Biddy, who he married some years after the death of Pip's sister, his first wife. Unlike the unhappy first marriage, this one proved more fruitful with the enlargement of the family by a boy named in honour Pip, and a little girl.
Pip grows promptly fond of the boy, and brings him to the graveyard to tell him the adventurous story of his meeting the convict, and all that followed.
As you may have noticed, this drawing is the spitting image of the very first illustration of Great Expectations I did; a fitting entry as the illustration of the last chapter of the book, bringing the story full circle. However, there are some differences: The "new" Pip is much fatter, and careless, than the mistreated, underfed, poor Pip from the first chapter. He takes Pip's re-enactment lightly, and gives him a wry smile with a sideways incredulous look. Why should he worry? In the caring embrace of Biddy and Joe, not having been "brought up by hand", the "new" Pip just shoos away worries, and doesn't foster a hunger for riches, and recognition, as it were the case for the "old" Pip. Our Pip, on the other side, is the much wiser, a bit bent by his troublesome life, but not pessimistic in the least.
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