Joe lets Pip down when they go to Miss Havisham’s and Joe only addresses Pip, and this embarrasses him. Pip wants to make a good impression to Miss Havisham, and especially Estella but she “stood at the back on Miss Havisham’s chair, and that her eyes laughed mischievously.”
Magwitch confuses Pip a lot of the time. He threatens to cut his throat, and on the other hand when Pip says “I am glad you enjoyed it” he says “thankee my boy, I do.” “he gave me a look I did not understand.” I think he also lets Pip down by scaring him so much and threatening that if Pip betrays Magwitch a strange man will come and eat his heart and liver, that he hardly sleeps as he is so terrified.
Herbert gives Pip a very heavy conscience and makes Pip feel like he had no choice but to fight Herbert even though he didn’t really want to. “His manner was so final and I was so astonished, that I followed where he led, as if I had been under a spell.” “I was secretly afraid of him.” The fight between Herbert and Pip makes Pip paranoid that the “Law would avenge it” and that Pip would be shot, or imprisoned. “he made me believe he really was going to do for me at last.” Pip thinks Herbert was going to kill him and so therefore does not think very kindly towards Herbert at this time.
“My mind grew very uneasy on the subject of the pale young gentleman.” It plays on his mind for a while after, and this would not have happened if Herbert had not challenged Pip and left him ‘no choice’ but to follow.
Pumblechook lets Pip down by being very patronising. Pumblechook is always questioning Pip and putting him on the spot, whether it is testing his maths, or insulting him over dinner with everyone else watching, calling him “pork and “squeaker”. Even though Pumblechook is Joe’s uncle and not Mrs. Joe she still calls him uncle but Pip was “not allowed to call him uncle, under the severest penalties.” This is as though Pip is not good enough to call him uncle, and is putting a barrier between Pumblechook and Pip.
Mr Wopsle calls Pip a “swine” in front of all the family and friends, even though Pip has never done anything to Mr Wopsle. He doesn’t even make an effort to be nice to Pip.
“When Mr Wopsle referred to me, he considered it a necessary part of such reference to rumple my hair and poke it into my eyes.” When Mr Wopsle is reading George Barnwell, Wopsle “took pains to present me in the worst light,” and Wopsle and Pumblechook look at Pip “as if it were a well known fact that I contemplated murdering a near relation.”
Miss Havisham makes Pip feel very awkward, and the first time he has met he she tells him to “play, play, play!” She teases him with Estella. She finds out that Pip thinks “she is very pretty” and then starts to play games with him, always reminding him how pretty she is, even though he can’t have her. “she would seem to enjoy it greedily.” Miss Havisham is only using Pip to satisfy her “sick fancy” and Pip just feels like he “wants to go home.” He does not feel comfortable at Satis house yet Miss Havisham makes Pip “play out the game”.
Estella is very cruel to Pip. She knows that he loves her, yet she treats him very cruelly and does not show any affection towards him. “You have been crying till you are half blind.” “She laughed contemptuously, pushed me out, and locked the gate upon me.” This is think also shows the way Estella treats Pip. She laughs at him, being so common, then pushes him away and doesn’t talk to him until she next feels like it. Estella is the one person who comes between Pip and Joe. “It is the most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home,” and this is all because of Estella. Pip used to look forward to becoming Joe’s apprentice and working by his side, but because of Estella’s comments Pip is not satisfied with this and wants to become a gentleman. She looks down on Pip and calls him “boy” and “you little coarse monster” and “common” all of which she knows deeply hurt him. “I felt that the kiss was given to the coarse common boy as a piece of money might have been, and that is was worth nothing.
Mr Jaggers is very sure of himself and very patronising towards Pip. He makes himself more superior in comparison to Pip, and talks badly of him before he even knows him. “I have a pretty large experience of boys, and you’re a bad set of fellows.”
I think Pip finds Biddy slightly unsatisfactory in her teachings as I think Pip has much higher expectations of how much she actually knows. He is grateful for what she does teach him, but he wants to be made a gentleman and not to be common anymore, and Biddy cannot do this for Pip.
