Character analysis of Estella

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  • Estella
    • Dicken's supremely ironic creation who serves as a bitter criticism against the class system in which she is mired
    • From a young age, she wins Pip's deepest love by practicing deliberate cruelty, cold, cynical, introverted and manipualtive
      • Trained to break men's hearts by Ms Havisham as revenge for men
      • Shes been raised to be the la belle dame sans merci of Keats poem, the women whose beauty seduces men and breaks their hearts
    • On one level she may destroy Pip, but at another level she makes him what he is- destroyed him only to build him back up again - stronger than ever
      • Taunts Pip for his social class and is the reason for his class conscience awakening. However, ironically she is from an even lower class then pip, having her biological father be a convict
    • She is emotionally cauterised and incapable of loving Pip, which she admits to him in chap 29- she warns him that she ha no hear and seems to urge him to leave her and find happiness
    • "I have been bent and broken- but i hope into better shape" connoting that this novel is somewhat bildungsroman for her as well
    • her name means "star" in spanish- she's cold and distant just like it.
      • As a star is a heavenly body that has its's own light-towards the end of the novel we see as a cold character but has HONESTY
        • In Christianity, stars were used for orientation- to guide us in the night- just how Estella guides pip and he always has her on his mind
    • She is a victim of circumstance- it wasn't her fault she is how she is brought up by Ms Havisham

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