How Is Pip Alike

Pipstella

"That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been" (Dickens 75). This is an excerpt from Charles Dickens' acclaimed novel, Great Expectations, throughout the story, readers follow Pip's narration, a once coarse and common boy whose change in fortune allows him to become a gentleman. As Pip visits Satis House, Miss Havisham's adopted daughter, Estella, becomes the object of adolescent Pip's affection. Although Pip and Estella are both orphans, they differ in several areas such as their upbringing and ability to love, yet resemble each other in their defining moments. From rags to riches,
Pip is often referred to as being brought up "by hand" in a simple home, not affecting his ability to love, but moments that define him.
Pip's earliest visit to Satis House changes his view on his circumstances. "I took the opportunity of being alone in the court-yard, to look at my coarse hands and my common boots... They had never troubled me before, but they troubled me now, as vulgar appendages" (64). Never exposed to those of higher status, Pip did not have reason to be ashamed of his common background. Similar to the story of Adam and Eve, Estella is the snake that opens Pip's eyes to a world of unsettling knowledge. Consequently, the abashing sojourn sparks his desire to break away from the social class he was born into. During his childhood, Pip did not experience a lack of love attributable to his brother-in-law, Joe, enabling Pip to love others. (add evidence) When Pip visits Satis house, it is apparent that Pip became infatuated with Estella and
convinces himself, "[Miss Havisham] had reserved it for me to restore the desolate house, admit the sunshine into the dark rooms... in short, do all the shining deeds of the young knight of romance, and marry the princess" (245). Not only is Pip enamored of Estella, but his degree of affection blinds him into having delusions that the two were made for each other. As years pass, Pip's wish to become a gentleman remains unwavering as he realizes that rising in status would be an opportunity for Estella to notice him. Accordingly, Mr. Jaggers arrives at the Three Jolly Bargemen to inform Pip of startling news. "'Now, I return to this young fellow. And the communication I have got to make is that he has great expectations'" (146). The prospect of becoming a gentleman is the start of his departure from the coarse and common life Pip grows to abhor. His dream to become a gentleman and uncommon suddenly becomes within reach. Raised in a wealthy home with no knowledge other than teachings from Miss Havisham, Estella had an upbringing that greatly differs from Pip's determining her ability to love and her defining moments.
When Estella and Pip initially meet, Estella blatantly displays her sense of superiority. "Though she called me 'boy' so often, and with a carelessness that was far from complimentary, she was of about my own age. She seemed much older than I... she was as scornful of me as if she had been one-and-twenty, and a queen" (58). It seems as though Estella's privileged background gave her prerogative to be haughty. When Estella matures into a woman, she confronts her adopted mother about what she has been deprived of. "'If you [Miss Havisham] had taught her, from the dawn of her intelligence, with your utmost energy and might, that there was such a thing as daylight, but that it was made to be her enemy and destroyer, and she must always turn against it, for it had blighted you and would else blight her...'" (326). Daylight being the equivalent to love in Estella's disclosure, it becomes clear Estella is unable to show endearment having never been acquainted with it. Love is a foreign concept to Estella and after Pip confesses his love, she admits to her inability. "'When you say you love me, I know what you mean, as a form of words; but nothing more. You address nothing in my breast, you touch nothing there'" (384). Estella is not necessarily at fault for her ignorance of love and
its worth, but it is Miss Havisham's obsession with wreaking revenge on the male sex. Estella has become collateral damage by never being able to love due to Miss Havisham's mania. After a lifetime under Miss Havisham, Estella shows honesty by stating, "'I am what you have made me. Take all the praise, take all the blame, take all the success, take all the failure, in short, take me'" (324). In like manner of Pip, this marks the moment where Estella breaks away, in her case, from Miss Havisham's control. Estella, being able to mature away from Satis House, allows her to begin making her own decisions despite rebukes from Miss Havisham. Estella, raised to be a lady and become one, while Pip, raised to be a blacksmith, did not follow the path expected of him. If Pip never met Estella or Miss Havisham, his life would have taken him in a different direction, the path he was expected to follow. Pip's journey from a commoner to a gentleman conveys that without love, there is no reward in reaching the great expectations.