Estella Havisham

Estella is the star, our protagonist’s love interest. She lights up the novel with her unrivaled beauty (we’re talking Helen of Troy, here), and she freezes the world around her faster than Frozone.

When we think about it, Estella has had a pretty hard life. Can you imagine living in Satis House with a mother who wears her wedding dress everyday and who only cares that you grow up to break boys' hearts? Can you imagine having to deal with relatives who only want your mother’s money? Think of sleeping in that run-down house every night, hearing Miss Havisham’s low moaning and mouse-like shuffling all over the floor boards.

Estella claims not to have a heart, and, for some reason, we kind of believe her. If this is a world in which a 25 year-old wedding cake still exists, then it just might be that Estella lacks a heart. She chooses the meanest, roughest, cruelest man she possibly could pick to be her husband. There is something inherently self-destructive about this choice, making her not so dissimilar from the self-destructive Pip. Perhaps they are meant for each other after all.