In this video, Amber discusses the brewery at Satis House, and considers the significance of beer and brewing in ‘Great Expectations’.
One of the first things that Pip notices when he visits Satis House is its brewery. Following Estella through the court-yard, he hears the wind howling through the building’s open sides and he reflects that no brewing could have taken place there for some time. A few pages later, this brewery is host to one of the strangest, most extraordinary moments in the novel.
Dismissed from his “play” with Miss Havisham, insulted by Estella on the grounds of his class, Pip explores the grounds of Satis House in the hope of expelling his anger and frustration; Satis House brewery is uncanny—it is both a familiar and an unfamiliar space. It is an everyday part of the country house and its domestic economy, and it was previously an integral part of the Havisham family business. But now it stands vacant and unproductive.
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