Great Expectations: The strange romance of Pip and Estella

Introduction

Pip’s love for the cold- hearted beauty Estella is one of the main themes of Dickens’ Great Expectations and Pip’s main motivation for becoming a gentleman. Throughout the novel Estella seems ever present even when she is miles away. His expectations and aspirations are all linked in some way to his desire for her. Pip’s obsession with Estella is somewhat confusing for today’s readers, since this relationship is clearly one-sided and “[…] against reason, […] against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.”1 (S. 229) In his essay I will describe the nature of their relationship. It is going to analyse what it is that attracts Pip to Estella. This means we are going to discuss if Pip’s feelings towards Estella are, at all, of a romantic nature, or if there are other forced at work. I will further show that social and economic aspects play a vital role in their relationship. We are thus going to have a closer look at the background and the upbringing of both characters, in order to clarify in how far the factors that I have mentioned above determine Pip and Estella’s relationship. Lastly I will compare the two endings and see how the conflict between Pip’s naïve aspirations and the somewhat less romantic reality is resolved in each.