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[welcoming Pip to her decaying mansion]
Miss Havisham: Come nearer. Let me look at you. Come close. Look at me. You aren't afraid of a woman who has never seen the sun since before you were born?
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Pip: [narrating] In trying to become a gentleman, I had succeeded in becoming a snob.
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Magwitch: Keep still, you young devil, or I'll slit your throat!
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Joe Gargery: Pip! A young gentleman of great expectations.
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Mr. Jaggers: Take nothing on its looks, take everything on evidence. There is no better rule.
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Mrs. Joe: If that boy comes back 'ere with his 'ead blown to bits by a musket, don't look to me to put it together again!
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Mr. Jaggers: I have a pretty large experience of boys and you're a bad lot of fellows.
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Mr. Jaggers: Now, Pip: put the case that this legal advisor has often seen children tried at the criminal bar. Put the case that he has known them to be habitually imprisoned, whipped, neglected, cast out, neglected, cast out, qualified in all ways for the hangman, and growing up to be hanged. Put the case that here was one pretty little child out of the heap that could be saved. Put that last case to yourself very carefully, Pip.
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Pip: Mr. Wemmick, I don't quite know what to make of Mr. Jaggers.
Mr. Wemmick: He don't mean that you should know what to make of him. Deep, that's what he is, as Australia.
Pip: Who was that he shouted at so fiercely in the office?
Mr. Wemmick: That was his housekeeper, name of Molly. He got her off on a murder charge.
Pip: Murder? Isn't he frightened of having her about?
Mr. Wemmick: Not him. When you come to see us again, take a good look at her.
Pip: Shall I see anything very uncommon?
Mr. Wemmick: You'll see a wild beast tamed. Keep your eye on it.
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Pip: Why are you going to Richmond, Estella?
Estella: I am going to live, at a great expense, with a lady there who has the power or so she has of taking me about and introducing me, and showing people to me, and showing me to people.
[sipping tea]
Pip: You'll have a gay time and be much admired. You must look forward to that, Estella.
Estella: It's part of Miss Havisham's plan for me, Pip. I shan't take any great pleasure in events which I don't shape, but I shall be beautiful and I shall be gay, I shall be obedient and I shall write regularly of my gaiety.
Pip: Will you always be part of Miss Havisham's plan, Estella?
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Estella: Moths and all sorts of ugly creatures hover about a lighted candle. Can the candle help it?
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Pip: Do you remember the first time I came here? The time you made me cry?
Estella: Did I? I don't remember.
Pip: Not remember you made me cry?
Estella: You meant nothing to me, why should I remember? You must know, Pip, I have no heart. Perhaps that's why I have no memory.
Pip: No one looking at you could believe that.
Estella: Oh, I have a heart to be stabbed at or shot at, but you know what I mean. There's no sympathy there, no softness, no sentiment. If we are to be thrown much together you had better believe that at once.
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Estella: Why not tell you the truth? I am going to be married to him.
[Rises and walks towards Pip]
Estella: Come, Pip. Don't be afraid of my being a blessing to him. I shall not be that. Here is my hand. Let us part on this. You'll get me out of your thoughts in a week.
Miss Havisham: What have I done? What have I done?
Pip: If you mean what have you done to me, Miss Havisham, let me answer. Estella has been part of my existence ever since I first came here, the rough, common boy whose heart she wounded even then. She has been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever known. To the last hour of my life she cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil. But you may dismiss me from your mind and conscience. But Estella is a different case. And if you can ever undo any scrap of what you've done amiss, in keeping part of her right nature away from her, it will be better to do that than to bemoan the past through a hundred years.
Great Expectations Quotes
Extended Reading
