Tuesday, July 23, 2013

How does Estella treat Pip in their first meeting?

Estella is scornful and arrogant to Pip on their first meeting. She calls him "boy" over and over again, even though they are about the same age. She does this despite the fact that he is very respectful of her and calls her "miss." Pip notes that she acts as if she is older than he is. He attributes this to her being a beautiful girl and very self assured. He says she behaves as "if she had been one-and-twenty, and a queen."
What Pip doesn't know at this point is that Estella has been deliberately brought up by Miss Havisham to be proud and scornful of the male sex. Miss Havisham means for her to break Pip's heart in revenge for her own distress and heartbreak at having been left at the marriage altar many years before.

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