s lifted off me,"Pip explains."But I loved Joeperhaps for no better reason in those early days than because the dear fellow let me love him and as to him my inner self was not so easily composed. It was much upon my mind (particularly when I saw him looking about for his file) that I ought to tell Joe the whole truth. Yet I did not, and for the reason that I had mistrusted that if he did, he would think me worse than I was. The fear of losing Joe's confidence, and of thenceforth sitting in the chimney-corner at night staring drearily at my forever lost companion and friend, tied up my tongue (Dickens, 37)."
Miss Havisham, a sad, rich old woman, invites Pip to play at Satis House, the mansion where she lives. The clocks in the house have been stopped and no light enters the rooms. She lives everyday as if it were the day that her heart had been broken years before. She wears the same wedding dress and jewels. The wedding cake and table remain set as if they may someday be eaten but are now covered in bugs and cobwebs.
Miss Havisham is raising a young girl about Pip's age, Estella. As she grows, Estella learns life's lessons from Miss Havisham who teaches the young girl to break men's hearts. Pip is the first victim of these lessons. "Miss Havisham watched us all the time, directed my attention to Estella's beauty, and made me notice it the more by trying her jewels on Estella's breast and hair," Pip recalls (Dickens, 82).
Pip is caught in Miss Havisham's trap and falls in love with Estella instantly. Estella, on the other hand views Pip with contempt and indifference, "what coarse hands he has! And what thick boots (Dickens, 55)!" " I had never thought of being ashamed of my hands before," Pip recollects,"but I began to consider them a very indifferent pair. Her contempt for me was so strong that it became infectious, and I caught it (Dickens, 55)."
In his childhood home, Pip had lived happily but as he begins to spend mo...