Great Expectations Chapter 21 Summary

Summary

Pip walks through London with Mr. Wemmick, observing Wemmick’s odd, chiseled face, his mourning rings, and his dry, mechanical manner. They talk briefly about the dangers and character of London; Wemmick shows little enthusiasm but guides Pip to Barnard’s Inn, a dingy set of chambers that disappoints Pip’s romantic expectations of the city. Pip’s sensory impressions emphasize decay, soot, and rot, and he experiences a gloomy letdown about his 'great expectations.'

Wemmick leaves Pip at the chambers where a nameplate reads MR. POCKET, JUN. After an anxious wait, Mr. Pocket, Junior arrives breathless with paper-bags and strawberries, apologizing for his lateness and explaining he went to Covent Garden to fetch fruit. He is gentle, flustered, hospitable, and anxious to show Pip around London and to make him comfortable, explaining arrangements for food and lodging (at Pip’s expense by Jaggers’s direction). The chapter ends with the mutual recognition: Pip sees in him the 'pale young gentleman' and Mr. Pocket, Junior exclaims, 'Lord bless me, you’re the prowling boy!'

The chapter therefore moves Pip from the professional, slightly sinister world of Jaggers’s clerk to a more domestic, genteel counterpart in the Pocket household. It contrasts Wemmick’s dry civility with Mr. Pocket, Junior’s civil, nervous warmth and establishes the living arrangements and social introductions that will orient Pip in London society.

Key events

1. Pip inspects Mr. Wemmick’s appearance and mourning rings on the walk into London.
2. Conversation about the character and dangers of London on Holborn Hill.
3. Arrival at Barnard’s Inn; Pip’s disappointed, sensory description of the chambers.
4. Wemmick leaves Pip at MR. POCKET, JUN.’s rooms after a brief handshake.
5. Mr. Pocket, Junior returns with fruit from Covent Garden and apologizes for delay.
6. Mr. Pocket, Junior shows Pip the rooms and explains table/lodging arrangements.
7. They recognize one another: Pip as the 'prowling boy' and Pocket, Junior as the 'pale young gentleman.'

Analysis

This chapter functions as a tonal and social pivot: Pip shifts from the uneasy, professional world represented by Wemmick and Jaggers to the domestic and genteel household of the Pockets. Dickens uses contrasting character sketches to reveal social types — Wemmick’s mechanical and mourning-filled exterior suggests reserve, practicality, and an ornamental cling to memory; Mr. Pocket, Junior’s flustered civility and genteel poverty reveal earnestness and refinement but also a comic, self-conscious awkwardness. The gloomy physical description of Barnard’s Inn undercuts Pip’s romantic expectation of London, signaling a recurring theme: the discrepancy between appearances and reality, and the disappointment that often accompanies social advancement.

Narratively, the chapter establishes Pip’s immediate London accommodations and introduces a figure (Matthew Pocket’s son) who will be part of Pip’s social world. The detailed sensory description (sight, smell, touch) of the Inn reinforces the novel’s realist technique and grounds Pip’s psychological responses. Small symbols — Wemmick’s mourning rings, the label 'Return shortly,' the hired furniture — gesture toward memory, absence, impermanence, and dependence. The closing mutual recognition connects Pip’s village identity with his new London context, foreshadowing the interactions and class observations that will occupy the following chapters.

Important quotes

“Casting my eyes on Mr. Wemmick as we went along, to see what he was like in the light of day, I found him to be a dry man, rather short in stature, with a square wooden face, whose expression seemed to have been imperfectly chipped out with a dull-edged chisel.”

NarratorOpening physical portrait of Wemmick that establishes his peculiar, mechanical appearance and the narrator’s observational voice.

“You’re in the habit of shaking hands?”

Mr. WemmickWemmick’s awkward attempt at social custom reveals his dry, mechanical civility and Pip’s uncertain position in London society.

“Lord bless me, you’re the prowling boy!”

Mr. Pocket, JuniorThe moment of mutual recognition that identifies both characters to each other and closes the chapter with a comic, intimate note.

Characters in Chapter 21

• Mr. Wemmick
• Matthew Pocket
• Mr. Jaggers
• Pip
• Barnard