 Let's look at the character of Estella in Great Expectations. Like Pip, she is an orphan and she's brought up by Miss Havisham. Now Miss Havisham is abusive towards Estella, she treats her quite harshly, quite coldly and also Miss Havisham who was jilted at the altar uses Estella and Malta to become a horrible manipulative person in order so that Stella could use her beauty to lure in men and break heart and break the men's hearts as Miss Havisham's way of seeking revenge against the male species. Because Miss Havisham has never gotten over the fact that she was jilted which means rejected at the altar on her wedding day. Now Estella, even if she is quite cold, even as a child she makes fun of Pip's background, she makes fun of his class and his social upbringing. We as readers actually develop a sense of sympathy for Estella because we realize that her cold mean nature is as a result of how Miss Havisham treats her and how Miss Havisham basically hones her in to become a mean manipulative person. Also she enters into a very disastrous marriage with Bentley Drummell which is quite abusive, however once he does die and she becomes a widow only then towards the end of the story is she free to associate with Pip whom she shows regretful feelings towards. Now there's lots to bear in mind with Estella's character therefore what I have decided to do especially if you're writing about her either for your Corsica exams I have selected the most relevant quotations to bear in mind for her character as well as a word level analysis you want to do because remember when you're writing anything and you're picking out quotations from Charles Dickens book you need to also use word level analysis, engage in word level analysis for each quotation. So let's begin with the first quote. Now this is a quote that actually describes Estella as a young girl okay so it's not her own words but these are important descriptions relating to her as a character and this of course establishes her as very scornful particularly towards Pip. She is described as being a girl and beautiful and self-possessed and she was a scornful of me as if she had been one and twenty in a queen so this is Pip describing how when Estella meets him she is very very condescending towards him she looks down on him down on his class even as a young girl okay now here we can see this massive class difference between her and Pip this is something that Pip obsesses over he also does not feel worthy of her love and he professes to become a gentleman in order in order to overcome this social boundary and feel worthy and maybe make Estella his wife. Now the one level analysis you want to do here is firstly the rule of free to describe Estella as a girl beautiful and self-possessed but also dissimilar as if she'd been twenty and one in a queen so of course here we can see the massive divide and the massive difference between Pip and Estella and of course this is set up to show us how later she does break his heart. The second quotation for Estella's character is when Pip notes her contempt for me was so strong that it became infectious and I caught it so here we can see that Pip because Estella looks down on him as a young child she looks down on him in terms of his social background Pip then internalizes this and looks down on himself but also looks down on Joe Gargery and the people from his social background because he's internalized disliking being a working class individual. Now the word level analysis especially this is illustrating the big divide especially even during this time during the Victorian era between the poor and the rich. Now here what you want to point out is firstly the use of the sibilance so strong to show just how contemptuous how hateful Estella was of Pip purely because he was a working class young boy and a young orphan also you want to look at words that belong to a semantic field of sickness infectious as well as caught it okay so these two words belong to a semantic field of illness this is when Pip internalizes that he is not worthy of Estella because he comes from a lower working class background. The third quotation to bear in mind for Estella is when Pip realises that girl has been brought up by Miss Havisham to re-crevention all the male sex so here of course it's made evidently clear that Estella's the aim that Miss Havisham has for Estella is to basically use her as a way to get back against men for what Miss Havisham felt was a slight against her being jilted at the altar so of course here we can see that Estella does fulfill her role very well she breaks Pip's heart however of course this also comes at the expense of her own happiness the one level analysis you want to do for this creation is the alliteration of B in being brought up by and also the hyperbole that she is going to re-crevenge on all the male gender okay now remember also the alliteration of B, B is what we call a letter or a plosive sound okay so here of course we can see that Estella Miss Havisham mistreats her but this is a way to make her horrible malicious towards men the other quotation for Estella's character is when she herself states I have no heart now this is the declarative sentence a declarative sentence is a sentence that states a fact feeling or mood now here she is basically stating the fact that she has no heart she's cold also her cold nature is illustrated in the litteration of H and have a heart of course again here we can see that Estella does foreshadow how she breaks Pip's heart okay we can see that she's very cold and she is going to break his heart the other quotation to bear in mind is when later on Miss Havisham wants to reverse all the terrible things that she's done to Estella she wants her to become kind to also fall for Pip Miss Havisham realizes she's made a huge and terrible mistake in in molding Estella to become this terrible individual however it's too late Estella tells her I am what you designed me to be I am your blade now here we can see the contrast the juxtaposition in the pronouns I versus you this is obviously contrasting Estella versus Miss Havisham but also the fact that Estella says that I am your blade blade referring to she's the person that Havisham Miss Havisham can use to cut up men and cut up their hearts now this is a medical describing the terrible treatment that she's going to wreak on Pip simply because he's the man the other quotation is later on towards the end of the story you want to realize that Estella has essentially been experienced some kind of change as a result of her disastrous marriage she had a very abusive marriage to Bentley Jumble so even if he was the same social class as her he still mistreated her really terribly and she makes it clear to Pip that she herself has also undergone her own journey of change she's now more melancholic but also she's become a better person she states suffering has been stronger so her suffering has been stronger than all other teaching and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be so here we can see that she has developed a strong sense of empathy for what Pip went through what she put Pip through and she now feels really regretful and empathetic towards that because she herself now knows what it feels like to be mistreated because she was mistreated by her husband the word love analysis you want to do here is sibilance in suffering and stronger also eliteration of tea in teaching and taught and finally the possessive pronoun your okay relating back to Pip's heart that Estella broke now the final quotation to bear in mind for Estella's character is at the end of the story when they visit Miss Havisham's run down home and of course and this is not when they visit Pip goes to her rundown home he finds Estella and then realized she's a widow so she's now free to associate with Pip again and it ends this chapter chapter 59 ends in a very hopeful note Pip states I'll take her hand in mine and we went out of the ruin place ellipsis now of course the ruin place is Miss Havisham's home it's now fallen into disrepair but also it symbolizes so the place being ruined could also be symbolic of how both Pip and Estella life has really knocked them it has ruined them it has maybe destroyed them to some extent but also rebuilt them through the process of destruction the naivety the innocence has been destroyed they've actually been rebuilt into better individuals okay now the one level analysis you want to do here and of course the story ends on a positive note is the literation of we in oh sorry the literation of w in we and went and of course this really shows that both Pip and Estella are both melancholic individuals now they are far more knowledgeable of the ways of the world however they also do generally love each other they've developed a Estella has especially developed a soft spot for Pip Pip still loves her and there is a sense of hope okay there's a sense of hope even a sense of renewal in their love for each other because that's it when it comes to the key quotations to remember and to bear in mind when discussing Estella's character and indeed other themes and novels within this story thanks so much for listening