Great Expectations – The Guardian’s Influence

Posted on January 18, 2022 Updated on August 28, 2026

(867 words)

In this essay, I will show how Miss Havisham’s influence affects her adopted daughter, Estella, and how this influence shapes Estella’s attitudes towards love and men. Since Miss Havisham was betrayed on her wedding day, she has developed a deep contempt for men. By adopting a young girl called Estella, she attempts to instil in her a similar distrust of men and encourages her to take revenge on them. As a result, Estella grows up to be cold and cruel. However, as Estella becomes older, she begins to show indifference towards Miss Havisham’s destructive ways and starts to recognise the negative influence she has had on her life.

Miss Havisham also influences Pip, the protagonist and narrator of Great Expectations, by arranging for him to visit her house. Pip sets off to Miss Havisham’s house, where it becomes clear that Miss Havisham’s plan is to encourage Estella to entrap Pip and make him fall in love with her. Pip enters Miss Havisham’s house through dark passages where only candles light the way. Estella leads him by candlelight to the room where Miss Havisham sits. Pip finally sees Miss Havisham in an armchair, with one elbow resting on the table and her head leaning on her hand. He describes her as the “strangest lady I have ever seen”. This gives the reader an immediate image of a reclusive woman who is trapped in the past.

There has been no change to the decaying house, which is repeatedly presented as dark and neglected. Miss Havisham’s weathered wedding dress is still on display, preserved from the day she was jilted at the altar. The deterioration surrounding Miss Havisham has been there for Estella to see and live amongst, symbolising Miss Havisham’s inability to move on from her past. It also characterises her relationship not only with Estella but with humanity as a whole, particularly with men. The decaying environment reflects the destructive effect of Miss Havisham’s bitterness.

The reader can imagine Estella being brought up in an environment where Miss Havisham has shut herself away from the outside world. This has an obvious effect not only on the bitter and reclusive Miss Havisham but also on the young and impressionable Estella. Miss Havisham has not taught Estella what love is or how to love another person. Instead, she teaches her to use her beauty and attractiveness to manipulate men. Dickens therefore presents Estella as a product of her upbringing.

Miss Havisham influences Pip by deliberately encouraging him to fall in love with Estella. She repeatedly tells him, “Love her, love her, love her!” The repetition emphasises the strength of Miss Havisham’s desire for revenge. She takes pleasure in Pip’s suffering and wants him to continue loving Estella regardless of how cruelly Estella treats him. Miss Havisham is therefore using Pip as part of her revenge against men, even though Pip himself has done nothing to deserve her hatred.

Miss Havisham treats Estella as though she is responsible for carrying on the bitterness that Miss Havisham developed when she was younger. However, after Estella has been away from Miss Havisham, she seems to have developed a greater awareness of the influence that Miss Havisham has had on her. As a young child, Estella appears to accept Miss Havisham’s views without questioning them. The reader understands that Estella has been taught to believe that men are objects to be controlled and hurt. Miss Havisham adopted Estella and brought her up, so Estella has a sense of respect and loyalty towards her. However, as Estella becomes older, she begins to express her own feelings and challenge Miss Havisham.

Miss Havisham cruelly treated Estella when she was a child, giving her an upbringing characterised by psychological manipulation and emotional abuse. Estella has been taught how to attract men while simultaneously being encouraged to despise them. This creates a contradiction in her character: she has the ability to make men fall in love with her, but she has not been taught how to experience genuine love herself. Dickens therefore suggests that Miss Havisham’s attempt to use Estella as an instrument of revenge has caused lasting emotional damage.

Miss Havisham eventually confronts Estella about her cold and distant behaviour. However, Miss Havisham seems to blame Estella for qualities that she herself has encouraged. She reproaches Estella by exclaiming, “You cold, cold heart!” Estella responds by asking, “do you reproach me for being cold?” This rhetorical question exposes the hypocrisy of Miss Havisham’s criticism. How can Miss Havisham be angry with Estella for being cold when she is the person who raised her to behave in this way?

Miss Havisham’s influence has been to make Estella follow her beliefs and listen to her advice. However, now that Estella has grown older and has left home, she begins to resist Miss Havisham’s control. Miss Havisham resents Estella for developing feelings and opinions that challenge the way she was brought up. Dickens makes it clear that Estella’s behaviour is not entirely her own making. She has been shaped by Miss Havisham’s bitterness, manipulation and desire for revenge. Through Estella, Dickens demonstrates how damaging it can be when a child is raised to inherit another person’s hatred and emotional pain.