Great Expectations · Character

Compeyson

A polished swindler whose charm hides a coward's heart, he ruined Miss Havisham and turned Magwitch into a lifelong enemy.

supporting

Also known as Ware Compeyson

First appearance: iv

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Compeyson moves through the criminal underworld with a gentleman's manners and a forger's cunning, bending weaker men like Magwitch into his service through debt and fear. When his accomplice Arthur raves about a vengeful woman in white, Compeyson speaks boldly but never draws near the sickroom himself — a telling glimpse of the coward beneath the polish. His shadow falls across the entire story: he is the reason Miss Havisham stopped her clocks and the reason Magwitch was transported, making him the hidden hinge on which Pip's fortune and Estella's coldness both turn.

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See Compeyson in iv

Character Web

13 connections

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Relationship types

Other

Character groups

Pip's moral and social circle
Protagonist
Minor relatives, servants, and background figures

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Narrative arc

Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.

Setup
Escalation
Breaking point
Aftermath
Closing

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In the story

Compeyson appears across 4 companion beats. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.

Chapter III
The second convict, mistaken by Pip for the first, is encountered on the marshes and flees into the mist.
XLII
Described as a smooth, gentlemanly criminal who betrayed Magwitch and was Miss Havisham's lover.
XLV
Compeyson is mentioned as a man of bad character; Pip asks Wemmick about him and learns he is alive and in London.
Chapter L
Mentioned as the evil genius who used knowledge of Magwitch's past to keep him poor and working hard.

Chapter companion notes

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