Great Expectations

Question:

Answers:

1. 
   missblimey Teacher
   High School - 12th Grade

   The chapter begins with Pip hoping and expecting that his future lies with Estella - that this is what Miss Havisham had planned all along. But right from his first sight of the 'new' Estella we see that she is not likely to agree with any such scheme. She looks at him "archly" (chapter 29) and this immediately throws him back to childhood when Estella was all "distance and disparity" (chapter 29).

   Estella is capable of reminding Pip of times and events which make him feel uncomfortable and it is implied that she does this deliberately. She reminds him, for instance, of Joe and thereby his troubled relationship with him now he is educated. She also places him in a continually subordinate position to her - like when she calls him her "Page" (chapter 29).

   But there is also a sense that she is trying to warn Pip not to get too close to her. While Miss Havisham is keen to make Pip fall even deeper in love with Estella in order to fulfill her plan of revenge against the male sex - "Love her, love her, love her! If she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her." (chapter 29) - Estella cautions Pip by telling him that she has no heart or "sympathy - sentiment - nonsense" (chapter 29). Estella knows that she cannot return the love Pip would offer her and, in her own way, tries to tell him that he should not place any hope in dreams that she would. In this way one could argue she is being as kind to him as she knows how.

   Rate answer:

    

   • Flag as inappropriate

   Posted by missblimey on Thursday August 21, 2008 at 1:48 PM
   
   

You can now ask questions directly from Facebook, add the Ask a Teacher App from eNotes!