FAQ

Pip recovers from his illness, and only avoids jail because of money Joe puts up for him. Earlier, Pip had paid a trading firm to arrange a position for Herbert; Pip now joins him there as a clerk, and goes to work overseas, eventually working up to the position of partner. Eleven years later, Pip returns to Joe and Biddy, who now have a son of their own, named Pip. By coincidence, he goes by the demolished ruins of Miss Havisham's house, and meets Estella, who has just sold the land. Estella had married Drummle, who mistreated her, but who had died accidentally two years earlier. Estella apologizes for her mistreatment of Pip, who professes his love for her. The ending suggests they will not be separated again. That ending itself was different from Dickens's first draft, which was much more downbeat. He was persuaded by his friend and fellow author Lord Bulwer-Lytton to change it to what would now be called a "Hollywood ending".