His friendship, if their early relationship deserves such a label, with Estella was fraught with unkindness and power imbalance and his relationship with Biddy was unsubstantial until his fifteenth year. It was only after Biddy became Mrs. Joe’s caregiver that they became closer, and he began to confide in her. Their friendship did not grow deeper because Pip did not allow it to do so. Biddy was quite willing to provide Pip with advice and companionship, and, depending on the interpretation, possibly romance. However, Pip was, in addition to being deeply, unhealthily in love with Estella, quite determined to be a gentlemen and convinced that he was superior to his family and friends. He was not purposefully cruel, but his inability to see past his own ambitions cost him a close friend. In this Dickens relationship, Dickens provides the reader with an example a failed love, whether one considers it friendly or romantic, that suffers due to differing goals and miscommunication rather than cruelty. It is important to note that this is a sad, but common phenomenon that is a part of many …show more content…
She was of a higher class, was wealthier, and was better educated. The young boy felt self-conscious before Estella even began mocking him for his habits, dirtiness and manner of speech. As Pip visited Miss Havisham and Estella, his self esteem was steadily eroded by her cruelty. Despite this, he fell in love with her. Dickens does not portray this love as healthy. Instead, it is a desperate and somewhat degrading attraction that causes Pip to make foolish, and occasionally unkind decisions. He changes the course of his life with little hesitation in hopes that he may make himself worthy for her. Eventually it is made clear that Miss Havisham and Estella have been manipulating him from his first visit to their home. Both Pip and Estella must change before they are worthy of the other. And change they do. Estella enters a marriage with an abusive husband, while Pip discovers in London that his rise to gentlemanhood was funded by a