Love in Great Expectations

A detailed Summary of Love in Great Expectations

Webster's dictionary defines love in many different ways, "A feeling of intense desire and attraction toward a person with whom one is disposed to make a pair; the emotion of sex and romance. To have a feeling of intense desire and attraction toward (a person) (Webster, love)". In Great Expectations, Pip is going through maturity, and is always undergoing maturity. We find that Pip is always longing for friends, family, and for love. Love can be a number of things to different people. Love is an emotion, where there is no wrong definition, for it suits each and every person differently, however some characteristics are the same amongst everybody. Pip thinks he is in love, but in my paper I investigate if it's a real desire of infatuation for Estella, or just a first big crush which lasted through out his teenage years.

Pip's love for Estella is usually a one-way street, at least in his eyes. From the moment Pip meets her, he feels an attraction towards her. At the same token, Estella's outward feelings towards Pip are confusing and cruel. From slapping him in the face as hard as she can, to making him feel as low as dirt saying he has coarse hands and thick soles and such, Estella is able to crush Pip inside. He feels a

For a great duration of the novel, Pip is infatuated with Estella. He thinks he is in love, but with no solid reasons as to why. As a reader, it can be perceived that Pip being a young man, is going through changes and is attracted physically to Estella however that can only measure so much of love. This was shown when Biddy told Pip she liked him, but he opted for Estella. Pip experienced new feelings, which he never had experienced, feelings that he doesn't know about. Throughout the book we discover that his false love controls Pip. His infatuation for Estella inspires him to become an educated gentleman. We, like Pip have no idea how long he will feel like he does for Estella. We do know his infatuation is for the wrong reasons. Pip really didn't have anybody or anything to compare his infatuation with, thus it gave him no reason not have one. He never had love before, not the love, leaving him nothing to compare to see if he is really in love.

s though he cannot let Estella know how he really feels besides telling Miss Havisham and Estella her self that she was pretty, yet mean. As time goes on, Pip learns all about Estella from her attitude and appearance. This attitude and appearance is what Pip wanted to attain so that Estella would love him. In chapter 17 Pip tells Biddy " I am not at all happy as I am" (Dickens, 127). He wants to become a gentleman, a complement to a gentlewoman--Estella. Again telling his feelings to Biddy, he professes. " the beautiful young lady at Miss Havisham's. And she's more beautiful than anybody ever was, and I admire her dreadfully, and I want to be a gentle man on her account" (Dickens, 129). This is the first time we learned about Pip's love from Pip. Thus far we assume that he likes her, but we never actually hear him say it. The reasons, which he gave Biddy, are his desires, his own infatuation, or a "false love". Pip has no real ground to like, let alone love Estella since he hardly knows her at all. All Pip knows is a young girl, which was taught to break men's hearts.

This is the prelude to why he professes his love. He doesn't want to see Estella marry Drummle for he knows he cannot ever attain Estella's love, but at the same time he wants who ever is going to marry her to treat her like a queen. He wants to best for her. His boldness to be able to confront a problem, kn

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1593
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels