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It is a critical commonplace that the crux of Great Expectations is guilt. The plot unfolds, the settings change, the characters develop, but the sense of guilt is constant. J. Hillis Miller observes that in Great Expectations “the Dickensian hero becomes aware of himself as guilty. His very existence is a matter of reproach and a shameful thing.”1 Similarly, Robert Barnard: “The all-pervasive theme of Great Expectations is not money, but guilt—guilt imposed, guilt assumed, guilt transcended…. young Pip soaks up guilt like a sponge.”2 The hero's assumption of guilt is apparent after his fist fight with Herbert Pocket in Miss Havisham's courtyard:
I felt that the pale young gentleman's blood was on my head, and that the law would avenge it…. For some days, I even kept close at home … lest the officers of the county jail should pounce upon me. The pale young gentleman's nose had stained my trousers, and I tried to wash out that evidence of my guilt in the dead of night.3
Pip's concern with cleansing stains and spots of blood “in the dead of night” echoes Lady Macbeth's nocturnal efforts to rid herself of proof of her criminality. But the “evidence” notwithstanding, Herbert was knocked down, not murdered by Pip. Moreover, it was Herbert, not Pip, who started the fight—a moral distinction children usually make. The disparity between young Pip's actual deed and his