Presentation of Estella

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Stephen Huyton                                                            Janis Bill - English

Explore the representation of Estella’s behaviour towards Pip here and elsewhere in the novel.

In the extract of Great Expectations given Estella’s behaviour towards Pip is presented to be snobbish and rather patronising, this is generally presented by the use of speech but also her actions.

Estella’s tone when speaking about and to Pip seems very much like she is looking down her nose at him, ‘with this boy! Why he is a common labouring boy’. The word common connotes that Pip is very low in social class, when at this time social class was very highly regarded. The use of the exclamatory sentence, ‘with this boy!’ suggests that Estella seems to think she is too high in the social class to play cards with Pip.

After Miss Havisham orders Pip to shout of Estella, Dickens writes that she, ‘came along the dark passage just like a star’, the simile of Estella being like a star connotes that she is out of reach as stars are not able to be reached and also that she is cold but beautiful to look at; in this instance her personality is cold but Estella to look at is very pretty. This simile also connotes that she is bright and shining. Stars are seen in the night sky so they are bright and the shine in the dark, which Estella is described as doing when she walks down the ‘dark passage’; this obviously represents the night sky. A star is also known to be a guide (in circumstances such as Christianity). Estella is intermittent in where she appears in the novel; this is in contrast to other characters such as Joe, who is based in the deep marshes and Jaggers who is always in London.

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In chapter 11, Pip returns to Satis house by order of Miss Havisham and once again plays cards with Estella. In this chapter we are also introduced to, who the reader is later educated to be, Herbert Pocket. He is described as nothing more than a ‘pale young gentleman’. The card game in this chapter is important as it shows how people move in society. Estella; as someone who considers herself to be high in society, searches for company of people who have achieved ‘winning’ in society, so when Pip has a fight with the pale young gentleman (pocket) ...

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