Great Expectations: Key Quotes

Pip’s Social Class and Personal Growth

“I was always treated as if I had insisted on being born in opposition to the dictates of reason, religion, and morality, and against the dissuading arguments of my best friends.” The palpable resentment directed towards Pip in act of his conception and birth emphasises the pickle he finds himself in, never being allowed to forget his humble beginnings.
“I wanted to make Joe less ignorant and common, that he might be worthier of my society.” This quote reflects Pip’s transformation from a simple, loving boy to someone with inflated expectations about his life, illustrating Pip’s misguided sense of superiority.

Characters and their Social Status

“Break their hearts my pride and hope, break their hearts and have no mercy!” Miss Havisham’s single-minded pursuit of revenge upon the male sex shows her broken, bitter personality, a critique of the wealthy and their inability to find happiness.
“I am what you have made me.” Written by Estella to Miss Havisham, this line highlights the destructive influence Havisham has had on Estella’s life, turning her into a heartless woman without the ability to love or care.

The Themes of Love, Kindness and Compassion

“I’m wrong in these clothes. I’m wrong out of them.” The struggle of Joe Gargery to fit in within a society that places importance on social class and material wealth is a mirror to how kindness and compassion are valued less.
“After all, it is the heart that makes the man. No wealth or education could make a gentleman.” Pip finally comes to this realisation after years of attempting to be a “gentleman” in the societal sense. This epiphany signals the culmination of Pip’s character development where he realises that character and goodness outrank societal status and wealth.

Symbolism in Great Expectations

“In the little world in which children have their existence whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and finely felt as injustice.” Through Pip, Dickens implies that the societal structure and its bias is something even children are not immune from sensing.
“The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made, are not more real, or more impossible to displace with your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere.” This quote encapsively describes how Estella’s influence over Pip has served to mould his character and steer his actions, much like a sturdy, immovable Victorian building.