Examine the development and effects of the relationship between Pip and Estella
Pip and Estella’s story is not about living happily ever after. Dickens never tells us what happens, if anything, between them in the end. He leaves it only that they remain friends. There is a purpose for this. Dickens novel is about Pip's quest for Estella's love and what he is willing to do to gain it. I think that the story is never about the love itself. We can see this because in the majority of the story, Estella is only present in Pip's heart and thoughts. The actual interaction between the characters Dickens keeps at a minimum. To make this a love story, the characters would have to carry out some sort of loving affection towards each other, which they don’t do, although I do believe that Pip loves Estella but she thinks it is impossible that she will ever love, and so does not ever like the idea of Pip's affection; as a friend she repeatedly warns him off. I think that most of us regard a woman without feeling, who torments others, with disapproval, but it is not Estella’s fault she turned out that way. Her non-present emotions are the fault of Miss Havisham's cruel experiment. Estella has obeyed her adoptive mother perfectly, and Estella is always honest about herself with Pip. The Estella of the final chapter, restrained by her experience of marriage to Drummle, seems at last prepared to admit Pip to a closer relationship, although they remain friends.
