Jaggers is Pip’s guardian , Miss Havisham’s lawyer . Jaggers’ role is central to the plot , it is he who brings Pip the news of his expectations and manages Pip’s life , he is the only person who knows the true source of those expectations , he is the only person who knows Estella’s true parentage , he proves to have been an agent in events years before the action of the novel begins and thus to have played a central part in creating the situation that gradually unfolds through the action of the novel. His significance lies in his relationship to a number of themes , he is a keeper of secrets and holds the key to most of the novel’s mysteries , he enjoys the knowledge, power and control of others that his position brings him , he appears to be detached, harsh, cruel and even unfeeling, and embodies some of the novel’s moral issues , he stands at an oblique angle to domestic life, as can be seen in the description of his own home , he has a more human side, suggested by his rescue of Estella and his defence of her mother , he is a skilful if unscrupulous lawyer, central to the novel’s concern with the machinery of the law, crime and punishment.
