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Unit 13: Great Expectations: Detailed Study of Text-II

Analysis Notes
Pip reflects on how criminals have intercepted his life at various points, starting with the
convict that he fed at the beginning and the one-eyed convict that gave him the pound note
from the first convict. Now he is involved in men, Wemmick and Jaggers, who make convicts
their livelihood. These thoughts are interrupted by the strangely abrupt entrance of Estella’s
carriage. It is strangely abrupt since Pip spent the whole chapter in anticipation, waiting for
nearly six hours for it, but when it finally comes, Pip is involved in other thoughts.

Narrator Pip is hinting with these thoughts that Young Pip’s interaction with criminals is not
over. Their surprising involvement in his life will continue. Dicken’s placing the abrupt intervention
of Estella’s entrance in these thoughts foreshadows a little more specifically: Estella, too, will
have something to do with criminality.

Part II: Chapter 14

Estella is to go on to Richmond, accompanied by Pip, and the two sit in a nearby cafe as they
wait for the outgoing coach. Estella is to educated by a wealthy woman in Richmond with a
single daughter.
Estella tells Pip that all of Miss Havisham’s relatives hate him because they Miss Havisham
to be his benefactor. They are always gossiping jealously, but Estella believes that Pip is still
alright in Miss Havisham’s eyes.
The carriage comes and they ride to Richmond talking of trivial things. Pip believes that if he
were to be with her forever that he would be blissfully happy — but this contradicts his
knowledge that whenever he is with her he is “always miserable.”

Analysis

“We are not free to follow our own devices, you and I,” says Estella, meaning that she has
been given instructions for the day and they must not deviate from them. The statement,
however, is a projection of how both their lives are controlled in general.
Estella is not free “to follow her own devices” not only because Miss. Havisham is her adoptive
mother and she should do as she says, but because Estella has been raised to actually think,
feel, and act exactly as Miss. Havisham wishes. In raising Estella, Miss. Havisham created a
puppet, an individual who indeed cannot choose her own destiny because she will act that
way she has been conditioned to act.

Pip, on the other hand, is also trapped and cannot freely choose, but his lack of independence
is wholly his own fault. Pip is not free to follow “his own devices” because he has trapped
himself in how he thinks he needs to act, think, and feel. He believes himself to have great
expectations, among these, someday, the hand of Estella, and this belief has forced him into
acting a certain way (snobbishly, especially toward his past), feeling a certain way (that he is
happy with Estella even if he is not), and thinking a certain way (proud and wasteful).
As hinted in the previous chapter, both Pip and Estella will find their destinies intricately tied
up in their pasts. This, too, will bind them to certain actions.

The irony is that, though they think themselves trapped, both can escape their current lifestyles
if they truly wanted too, just as easily as they could ignore Miss Havisham’s instructions and
change the plans for the day. Estella can shake off her upbringing and try to find her emotions;
Pip can stop acting like an ass and lead a life which feels more natural to him.

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