Magwitch meets Pip at the beginning of the novel in the
graveyard when Magwitch is in dire straits and sorely in need of help. Pip generously
gives him the help he needs--partly out of terror, partly out of compassion. The parts
combined so that Magwitch's life is changed by his encounter with Pip. Then he chooses a
more noble path in life than that of crime after which he becomes Pip's secret
benefactor as a way to repay his gratitude.
The themes of
crime and punishment and justice naturally arise around Magwitch since he is an escaped
criminal when Pip first encounters him in the opening of the novel and is called to
account for his crimes in the end of the novel.
"You have a returned Transport there," said the
man who held the lines. "That's the man, wrapped in the cloak. His name is Abel
Magwitch, otherwise Provis. I apprehend that man, and call upon him to surrender, and
you to assist."
Pip sees how
crime and punishment works in what Dickens portrays as a corrupt justice system. Pip
also sees the injustice one person can express toward another when he comes to value
Magwitch differently than he did before.
"I will never stir from your side," said I, "when
I am suffered to be near you. Please God, I will be as true to you as you have been to
me!"
Estella really speaks
for Magwitch's transformation, Pip's revelation, and her own transformation when she
says, "I am greatly changed. I wonder you know me."
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