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Great Expectations Dreams, Hopes, and Plans Quotes Page 2
Citations follow this format: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
- Pip
- >
"I am ashamed to say it," I returned, "and yet it's no worse to say it than to think it. You call me a lucky fellow. Of course, I am. I was a blacksmith's boy but yesterday; I am -- what shall I say I am -- to-day?" (2.30.26)
In pursuing his dream, Pip sense of identity is all messed up. Most of the people in his life derive their identity from the job that they do. Pip has no job, but is stuck between being common and uncommon.
- Pip
- >
While my mind was thus engaged, I thought of the beautiful young Estella, proud and refined, coming towards me, and I thought with absolute abhorrence of the contrast between the jail and her. (2.33.4)
Though Estella is pretty and the jail is dirty, though Estella is free and the prisoners are not, though Estella is high and the jail low, Estella seems to have something in common with Newgate prison: inaccessibility and mortality. Estella’s life has been marked by mortality as her mother lived in a half-dead state for her entire childhood. Estella is also incredibly inaccessible, thriving upon a game of cat and mouse with the men in her life and remaining far away (literally and emotionally) from Pip.
"It is a part of Miss Havisham's plans for me, Pip," said Estella, with a sigh, as if she were tired; "I am to write to her constantly and see her regularly, and report how I go on – I and the jewels – for they are nearly all mine now." (2.33.58)
Miss Havisham’s "plans" seem very well laid and finely orchestrated. Later, she tells Pip that she had never meant to ruin Estella’s life, but the specificity of Miss Havisham’s orders in this moment indicate that she might not have tried as hard as she said she did. There seem to be intricate and conscious designs behind these orders.
