The story of Pip, a young orphan who works as a clerk for the lawyer Mr. Jaggers and whose benefactor Mr. Jaggers represents, is a well-known one. Pip lives with his mean older sister and her kind husband Joe. It is a harsh life but warm friends keep Pip satisfied. One day, he meets a convict on the run and brings him food, but the escaped prisoner is recaptured and sent away. At one point, Pip is hired by an eccentric, wealthy recluse, Miss Havisham, to serve as a companion to her daughter Estella, who is adopted. Pip is quite smitten with the beautiful but high-and-mighty Estella.
Pip's world is radically transformed when he is told by Mr. Jaggers that a benefactor has "great expectations" and with his financial support, Pip can become a gentleman of the upper classes (Dickens 138). Pip thinks his benefactor is Miss Havisham, and he excitedly heads to London where he is schooled in the art and manners of becoming a fine gentleman and being integrated into high society. Pip becomes jealous, though, because Estella exists in this society and is wooed by many suitors. He becomes determined to pursue her, even though his friend Herbert tells him Miss Havisham trained Estella only to "wreak revenge on the male sex," since she was jilted (Dickens 177). Pip will eventually discover just how correct Herbert has been when Estella coldly rejects his protestations of love.
Pip becomes a bit too involved in high society, becoming haughty in his own right. Joe, who has always been kind to Pip, comes to give him a message and Pip, embarrassed by what he now views as Joe's coarse ways, treats him poorly. At this point, Pip's world undergoes another radical transformation. He is told that his benefactor is not Miss Havisham but the escaped convict he aided as a boy, Magwitch. This greatly displeases Pip but ultimately he begins to see the folly of many of his illusions and expectations. When Mr. Jaggers ...