Estella also leads Pip on in the second half of the book. She goes with Pip to balls and other parties. She also goes down to Miss Havisham’s with him, but these things have no meaning.]
As I just mentioned Pip and Estella go down to Miss Havisham’s together. This is because; although she is grown-up Estella is still controlled by Miss H. What I’m saying is that Miss H makes them go (well not so much Pip; he just comes along for the ride). She also controls Estella in other ways. She makes her write notes home every day and go certain places and stay with certain people. Here’s what I mean.
“This is my purse and you are to pay my charges out of it. Oh you must take the purse! We have no choice, you and IU, but to obey our instructions. We are not free to follow our own devices, you and IU.’” (Page 265, paragraph 2) This is something that Estella says to Pip when she first arrives in London in the second part of the book. Of coarse this is not true Pip, but neither he nor Estella knows that Miss Havisham is not his benefactor.
Miss Havisham also pushes Estella around in the first part of the book. She makes her play cards with Pip when she doesn’t want to; she makes her bring him food; etc. Estella does these things, but does not do them with any kindness. She only doss them because she had to, which brings me to my final subject, the fact that, throughout the story Estella is cold-hearted, unemotional, and sometimes even mean.
Again on Pip’s second trip to Miss Havisham’s, when he first gets there, Estella just completely ignores him.
“At the appointed time I returned to Miss Havisham’s, and my hesitating ring at the gate brought out Estella. She locked it after admitting me, as she had done before, and again preceded me into the dark passage where her candle stood. She took no notice of me until she had the candle in her hand.” (Page 74, paragraph4) Can you believe it? Not even a courteous “Hello.” Tsk, tsk, tsk.
As I said, Estella had been known to be quite mean to the Pipster. Okay, okay, I’ll give you an example if you really want me to. How ‘bout the time when Estella makes fun of Pip for crying. Get ready. Here... we... go!
“’Why don’t you cry?’
‘Because I don’t want to.’
‘You do,’ said she. ‘You have been crying ‘till you are half blind, and you are near crying again now.’
She laughed contemptuously, pushed me out, and locked the gate upon me.” (Page 65, paragraphs 3-6, first Havisham encounter)
These quotes were from the first half of the book, but I’ve got more proof from the second half. At this part Pip tries to compliment Estella and she laughs right in his face.
“’I live quite pleasantly there; at least—‘It appeared to me that I was losing a chance.
‘At least?’ repeated Estella.
‘As pleasantly as I could anywhere away from you.’
‘You silly boy,’ said Estella, quite composedly, ‘how can you talk such nonsense?’” (Page 226, paragraphs 8-11) Hey, I don’t know about anyone else, but I think that was pretty mean (although it wasn’t the same kind of meanness that was in the first part).
That’s exactly what my paper’s on. I think I’ve just proved that Estella is the same person throughout the whole book, but the kind of person she is changes (whether she’s leading Pip on, being controlled by Miss Havisham, or being her mean ol’ self). If I have then my mission was successful.
