Magwitch's attempted escape and capture

Magwitch’s attempted escape and capture is the turning point that converts Pip’s private plan to protect his benefactor into a public criminal case. A clandestine journey down the Thames, organized around the tides and the arrival of ships bound for the Continent, is intercepted by officers who recognize Magwitch as a returned transport. The seizure also brings Compeyson into the open: the two men go into the river together, Compeyson dies, and Magwitch is recaptured. The escape fails, and the law’s threat of death becomes immediate.

Causes and the plan

Magwitch knows that returning to England after transportation for life makes him liable to execution. When he reveals himself to Pip, he explains that coming back is death for him. The danger is therefore not incidental to the escape: it is the condition that makes secrecy and departure urgent. Earlier, Mr. Jaggers had warned Magwitch in New South Wales that he was banished for life and that returning would be a felony carrying the extreme penalty of the law. The warning had not prevented Magwitch from coming back to see Pip, but it defines what is at stake now that his presence has been discovered.

The route down the Thames

Pip and Herbert arrange to take Magwitch away by water, using an open boat and the river’s traffic rather than attempting a direct departure from London. They cast off at about half-past eight, close to high water, and plan to use the outgoing tide until three before rowing against it until dark. The intended resting place is among the broad, relatively solitary reaches below Gravesend, between Kent and Essex. From there, they expect to intercept a steamer for Hamburg or Rotterdam, with a second vessel as a fallback if the first opportunity fails. They know how to distinguish the ships and mean to hail whichever arrives first. The plan’s practical care gives the journey a temporary sense of forward motion. Herbert rows in the bow while Pip steers, and two friends help sustain the effort. When Magwitch joins them, he carries a boat-cloak and a black canvas bag, dressed to resemble a river pilot. He thanks Pip for his loyalty and, as the boat proceeds, behaves as though he is reassuring his companions rather than facing the greatest danger himself. The disguise and carefully timed route can delay recognition, but they cannot make the river an escape from the law.

Interception and the river struggle

The escape attempt comes to a head as the party waits for the steamer. After saying goodbye to Herbert and Startop, Pip sees a four-oared galley come out from the bank and draw alongside. Its officer identifies the cloaked passenger as Abel Magwitch, also known as Provis, a returned transport, announces the arrest, and calls on Pip to assist. The galley’s crew immediately boards and holds the boat. The steamer is stopped, but the boats’ movement and the force of the tide turn the arrest into confusion. Magwitch rises and pulls the cloak from the other covered passenger in the galley. Pip recognizes the face as that of the other convict from his childhood encounter in the marshes: it is Compeyson. A cry follows, then a splash, and Pip’s boat sinks. The galley crew quickly rights their vessel and searches the water. Magwitch is found swimming, brought aboard, and manacled at the wrists and ankles; Compeyson is not recovered. The Rotterdam steamer arrives after the struggle, but the search continues without success, and the party eventually abandons hope of finding Compeyson.

Recapture and consequences

Magwitch tells Pip that he and Compeyson went into the water locked together. He says that, while Magwitch was trying to identify him, Compeyson staggered backward; the attempt to pull Magwitch from Pip’s boat and the officer’s effort to restrain him then capsized it. Magwitch believes he went beneath the steamer’s keel and was struck on the head as he surfaced, while his chest was injured against the galley. The officer who commanded the galley gives the same account of the two men going overboard. Magwitch is taken back to shore with serious injuries, and Pip is permitted to accompany him to London. The officer takes custody of Magwitch’s belongings, including a pocketbook Pip had once held. The next day Magwitch is taken to the Police Court. He cannot be committed for trial immediately because an old officer from the prison ship he had escaped from must be brought to identify him. His identity is not in doubt, but the necessary witness is absent; Compeyson, who had intended to testify to it, is dead. Mr. Jaggers represents Magwitch but admits nothing on his behalf, and he tells Pip that once the witness appears the case will be decided quickly. The delay is procedural, not a real prospect of acquittal. The capture also destroys the expectation that Magwitch’s accumulated property will pass to Pip. Pip resolves not to pursue a claim: he is not related to Magwitch, there was no written settlement in his favour before the arrest, and an arrangement made after apprehension would be useless. Magwitch, however, never suspects that his inheritance is lost and continues to believe it is secure with Jaggers’s assistance. His ignorance keeps him from learning, while alive, that his attempt to make Pip prosperous has failed.

Legal and narrative significance

At the trial, Magwitch’s return from exile is presented as the decisive offence. The court recounts his long history of criminal convictions, escape from transportation, later peaceful life abroad, and eventual return to England, where he evaded arrest until he was seized while trying to flee. His case is among thirty-two people brought before the judge for sentence. Because he returned to the country from which he had been banished for life, and because Compeyson died during the recapture, Magwitch is sentenced to death. The escape has thus carried him from a concealed river passage to a public judgment, with the legal consequence anticipated in Jaggers’s warning now confirmed. The sequence also closes a loop reaching back to Pip’s childhood. The first meeting with the escaped convict took place among the graves in the marsh country; now, as an adult, Pip is beside the same convict in a renewed flight. The appearance of Compeyson reconnects the arrest to the earlier story of the two convicts, while the fate of the inheritance exposes the difference between Magwitch’s intention to reward Pip and the law’s treatment of his property. What begins as a rescue plan ends in recapture, loss of the expected fortune, and a death sentence.