Estella Essay, Research Paper

Estella – Miss Havisham’s beautiful young ward, Estella is Pip’s unattainable dream throughout the novel. He loves her passionately, but though she sometimes seems to consider him a friend, she is usually cold, cruel, and disinterested in him. As they grow up together, she repeatedly warns him that she has no heart. Though she does not know it herself–and though Pip does not learn it until almost the end of the novel–Estella is the daughter of Magwitch, the convict Pip aids as a child. Through the intercession of the lawyer Jaggers, she is adopted by Miss Havisham, who raises Estella into a life of wealth and social status for her own ulterior motives.

Miss Havisham – Miss Havisham is the wealthy, eccentric old woman who lives in a manor called Satis House near Pip’s village. She is manic and often seems insane, flitting around her house in a faded wedding dress, keeping a decaying feast on her table, and surrounding herself with clocks stopped at twenty till nine. As a young woman, Miss Havisham was left at the altar on her wedding day, and now she has a vendetta against all men. She deliberately raises Estella as the tool of her revenge, training her beautiful ward to break men’s hearts.