How Does Miss Havisham Change Throughout The Novel

Chapters 11-20

Pip returns to Satis House for Miss Havisham’s birthday, who is celebrating surrounded by her servile, insincere relatives. The young boy encounters a dark man on the stairs that criticizes him. After his game with Estella, he enters in a fight for honor with a pale young gentleman. As a sign of thankfulness Estella lets Pip kiss her on her cheek. He leaves Satis House again and when he returns there, Pip is afraid he might be punished for the fighting, but it seems that none gives importance to it. Occupied with his expectations for the help of Miss Havisham to raise him to a high rang in society, Pip doesn’t notice that Miss Havisham herself urges Estella to torment him: “Break their hearts, my pride and hope! Break their hearts and have no mercy!”

Now on he loses some of his innocence and becomes detached from his natural, sympathetic kindness and grows to be snobbish, a trait that will be predominant throughout the book. He grows apart from his family, confiding in Biddy instead of Joe and sometimes feeling ashamed about him. He even loses sympathy for Joe, although he is the dearest and the most caring figure in his life. Miss Havisham offers help for him to become Joe’s apprenticeship, but Pip gets extremely disappointed when he understands that Miss Havisham’s intentions weren’t to help him to become a gentleman. In fact, she never intended to help him to fulfill his dreams. It was all an illusory irony. Pip understands it too late, but for the reader this is clear enough. She was trying in the opposite direction. Estella laughs bitterly in Pip’s face seeing him disappointed. However, Pip loves Estella so much that he measures his values with Estella’s standards, thus he begins to feel uncomfortable with his rough manners and poor clothes, feeling the need for immediate