When Pip goes to Miss Havisham’s, he sees the gates, and does not know what to do. He describes the gates and the setting around him from a young boy’s point of view. It all seems big and scary around him, and he is worried.
Pip has a large shock when he meets Miss Havisham. She is an old lady, who doesn’t seem the type to ‘play’. He is instantly taken-aback when he meets her, as she is in an elegant gown, and she is in a large dining room with rats and mice all over the tables with half-eaten food on it. It looks as if it has been left on a certain day, and has not been changed since. The clocks are all set at twenty past nine, and they do not move. She also seems to have no idea of the days of the week, as we will find out later. He also notices that Miss Havisham puts everything back in exactly the same place from which it came. He instantly knows that this lady is strange, and that something is abnormal is going on in the house. He is now scared of Miss Havisham because of this strange behaviour and he wants to leave. He finds Miss Havisham intimidating. Soon after we have been introduced to Miss Havisham, she reveals to Pip that she has had her heart broken.
The reader feels very sorry for Pip in this next extract because we find out that Estella is meant to break Pip’s heart as Miss Havisham told her to. Miss Havisham has previously had her heart broken by someone- she was a jilted bride, and now she believes that all men are the same, so has set out to break many hearts through Estella. Pip is very worried and upset, as he is not having a good time at Miss Havisham’s. Estella is called to play with Pip, and Miss Havisham seems to get great enjoyment out of watching Estella beat Pip in Beggar My Neighbour.
Pip hears something that he thinks he shouldn’t have, and is very surprised by what he just heard. Miss Havisham is telling the next quote to Estella in a whisper;
“ Well? You can break his heart.”
Pip is very taken-aback by this, and the reader feels sorry for Pip, as he has had to hear this, and instantly knows what the meeting is about, and that what he had seen fitted in with this comment. Pip is sure he heard this comment, but doesn’t think he could have- that it was all in his imagination, which shows the reader that really, he is quite naïve;
“ I thought I overheard Miss Havisham answer-
only it seemed so unlikely-“
This makes the reader feel very sorry and sympathetic towards Pip, as we know that he doesn’t quite know what to think at this point. He doesn’t know whether Miss Havisham and Estella really meant what they said, or whether his ears had failed him and he hadn’t heard correctly what they had been talking about, which I think he was desperately hoping that this was the case. I think that here, Pip’s heart has already been broken- because, maybe, Pip was supposed to hear Miss Havisham and Estella’s conversation.
Miss Havisham seems to like asking Pip about Estella. She eventually finds out from Pip that he thinks she is pretty and that yes, he is attracted to her. Miss Havisham asks Pip;
“What do you think of her?”
He replies;
“I think she is very proud, insulting and pretty”
This is exactly what Miss Havisham wants to hear, for as soon as Pip asks to go home, she replies:
“And never see her again, though she is so pretty?
Miss Havisham obviously is pleased to know that Pip has taken a liking to Estella even though she is so rude to him, and we are worried about Pip, as we know he is going to get hurt in one way or another by now. She is now well on the way to breaking his heart.
Pip has already been hurt by the way that Estella, Miss Havisham’s adopted daughter has spoken to him. Estella uses harsh dialogue, and snaps a lot towards Pip. The reader feels sorry for him then because of the way he has been treated. Estella is roughly the same age as him, but treats him as if she is an adult and he is just a little misbehaving boy, saying quotes such as;
“You are to wait here, you boy,”
And
“Why don’t you cry?”
One reason that Estella speaks to Pip like this is because Estella is of a higher class than Pip, so she thinks she has the right to speak to him like this. In those times (the Victorian era), this would have been very common, and upper class citizens had the right to speak like this to lower class citizens. She does not know any different to this way of speaking because Miss Havisham has taught her to speak like this. The social system in Dickens’ day was very important. As you have probably already noticed, you can sometimes tell that Pip is in a lower class by the way that he speaks, and the words that he uses. Pip finds Estella strange, but this is because he can’t figure out why Estella is acting this way towards him.
Whilst Pip and Estella are playing, she remarks on a lot of things that are strange, or wrong with Pip. She first points out that he calls Knaves, Jacks. She also says that Pip has very coarse hands and thick boots, which would have been common among the less wealthy members of society. When Estella has won, and Miss Havisham allows Pip to leave, Pip knows that she doesn’t really know what day it is. Pip tries to be kind, and tell her what day it is, but Miss Havisham says that she doesn’t care what day it is. She says it in such a way that it could be as if Pip is not allowed to be right, and everything must be her way. This is when Pip first realises that he is of a lower class than Miss Havisham and Estella.
Eventually, Miss Havisham allows Pip to leave, after she has found out that he admires Estella despite the rudeness she has shown towards him. She takes him downstairs, and tells him to wait outside a door. Here, Pip takes a moment to look at his coarse hands and thick boots, and decides that they are not a good thing to have, but he knows that he can’t do anything about it. Pip then goes on to think about why he calls Knaves Jacks, and why he hadn’t been brought up to be more like Estella, so in other words, why he can’t be of a higher class. This makes us feel sorry for Pip, as we know that it is not his fault if he is of a higher or lower class than Estella. We know that none of this had troubled Pip before;
“They had never troubled me before, but they troubled me now”
But, we know that Estella and Miss Havisham have made Pip think about who he really is, and he now thinks he is not good enough for the likes of them.
The ultimate offence from Estella to Pip is when she puts a few scraps on a plate and a drink on the floor as if he is a “disgraced dog” as he said. Pip then says that he was so “humiliated, hurt, spurned, sorry, offended and angry”, but he had done nothing wrong. Readers will really feel sorry for Pip here.
Pip then goes against a wall and cries, and cries, and different emotions and thoughts and feelings rush over him that he has never thought of before, but you can tell he has had his heart broken from the way he has just been treated. We feel very sorry for him then, because for a young boy of Pip’s age to have to go through this, it can’t be right. As you read through, you can almost feel his pain, and you dislike Estella and Miss Havisham for doing this to him. This is where Dickens is the most successful in creating sympathy for Pip.
Overall, Dickens was very successful in creating sympathy from the readers towards Pip. He has put the extract in first person, so it is being told by Pip, and although it may be slightly exaggerated, it is told from a young boy’s perspective, so you think of what a young boy of Pip’s age would be able to put up with. We see how Miss Havisham and Estella try to and successfully break Pip’s heart, as towards the end of the extract Pip cries a lot.
