Main Characters
Pip (Philip Pirrip)
Pip is the narrator and protagonist of the story. He begins the story as a seven-year-old orphan boy living with his older sister and brother-in-law in the marshes of England. Pip is a good-natured boy who has set great expectations for himself in order to impress the girl he falls in love with. His motivation allows him to pursue his dreams but also blinds him to the fact that there is more to a person than social class. As he continues to study and grow, he begins to realize his faults and recognize those who matter to him, regardless of class. Pip's need to constantly improve himself and natural kindness helps him to develop and not irreversibly stray from the right path. |
Estella
Estella is Pip's initial motivation to become a gentleman when he meets her at Miss Havisham's house. Although Pip's affections towards her are easily expressed, she has been raised by Miss Havisham to be a cold and cruel heart-breaker, only addressing him as her friend and constantly reminding him that she has no heart. She develops throughout the story similar to Pip, learning from her struggles in the upper class to trust her own feeling more instead of keeping solely to her initial teachings. As more about her past reveals, it hints to how much she truely relates to Pip. |
Miss Havisham
Miss Havisham is a batty old woman with lives in Satis House in Pip's home town. As a young woman, she was left and humiliated by her fiance, causing her to grow insane and alone in that old house, still in the wedding dress she wore that fateful day. It is at her manor that Pip begins to learn about higher-class ideals and also where he is first introduced to Miss Estella. She pushes him to fall in love with Estella and top never stop loving her no matter what. Estella is used by her as a way of revenge for her own shattered heart, raising the beautiful girl to know little emotions and break the hearts of the men who may fall for her. |
Abel Magwitch
Magwitch is a known convict who first meets Pip in a cemetery by the Marshes. He threatens Pip and forces him to steal tools of escape and food from home in aid of his escape. However, Pip's pure kindness inspires a change of heart a Magwitch, leading him to selflessly gain a fortune in order to anonymously assist Pip's growth and education as a proper London gentleman. |