Before going to Miss Havisham’s house, Pip viewed himself as high up in society, because people
require Joe Gargery‘s (his brother in law/ guardian) skills. ‘Are you the blacksmith?
Yes.
We need you to make us a pair of handcuffs for this ‘ere criminal ‘
to make handcuffs and horseshoes along with many other things. Also people asked Pip to do jobs for them and Pip got paid for doing the jobs.
When Pip visits Miss Havisham’s house, he is treated with little respect like a servant ’He calls the Knaves, Jacks (laughter).’ Estella especially treats Pip like a play thing or a toy. Dickens turns this into a sort of epiphany for Pip and he becomes very unhappy.
The effect that the Epiphany has on pip is devastating and pip becomes depressed and demoralised. He isn’t nice and thinks that him and his family are rubbish.
Dickens mainly emphasises the peculiarity of Miss Havisham and how awkward she is. For instance he emphasises the fact that Miss Havisham is in an old wedding dress that has gone yellow because it has not been taken of in a very long time ‘Pip realised that she was in fact sitting in yellowed wedding dress’.
Dickens also emphasises many things about Miss Havisham’s house mainly that it is chained up and dark, as if “no glimpse of daylight was to be seen in it.” Dickens also emphasises that everything in Miss Havisham’s house is covered “with dust and mould.” This all symbolises Miss Havisham is mentally disturbed because she doesn’t wash eat or clean anything.
From Dickens’ characterisation you can tell that Miss Havisham is going to be a bad influence on Pip because before meeting her, Pip is a good boy who is going to be an apprentice to his brother in law. However, afterwards he is depressed and unsure of whether to be an apprentice or not to Joe ‘Forgive me, it is too much to decide at once‘ . Also because Miss Havisham is associated to death because of all the dead spiders and rats lying around on her floor you definitely think Miss Havisham is a bad person who Pip shouldn’t be associating with.
Once Pip knows Miss Havisham and Estella his whole attitude to life changes for the worse. He treats his family with less respect in a way similar to how Estella treated him while he was at Miss Havisham’s house. Also he despises Estella for being so rude to him, but he also loves her at the same time because she is so beautiful. Pip’s social ambitions also change because Pip finds himself resenting his future being Joe’s apprentice. So I definitely think that Pip knowing Estella and Miss Havisham was bad for Pip.
At the end of the novel the convict that Pip met in his childhood comes back and tells Pip that he gave him the money. When Pip finds out he gets angry and goes to see Miss Havisham who he presumed was funding him. Consequently Miss Havisham commits suicide.
In conclusion Pip’s visit to Miss Havisham is the turning point of the whole story and sets Pip on his tale of sadness.