she cannot respond to his emotions, and her gentle familiarity, show that
at least she looks upon him as a friend or brother, and would not like to
see him hurt. Her rejection of Miss Havisham is, in comparison, much colder
and emphasizes again the inability to love a loveless parent. There is a
mixture of resignation and resentment in: !I must be taken as I have been
made. The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together
make me' (XXXVIII,292)Like Pip, she blames her pseudo-mother for her
confusion and punishes her by showing what a good pupil she has been.
What is more, she thoroughly believes she has been perverted beyond redemption.
So weary is she of being used as an instrument of revenge, and especially of
frustrating Pip's feelings, she decides to marry the least likeable of her
suitors, Bentley Drummle, to create least harm:
'On whom whould I fling myself away she
retorted, with a smile. 'Should I fling myself
away upon the man who would the soonest feel (if
people do feel such things) that I took nothing to
him There It is done. I shall do well enough,
and so will my husband. As to leading me into what
you call this fatal step, Miss Havisham would have
had me wait, and not marry yet; but I am tired of
the life I have led, which has very few charms for
me, and I am willing enough to change it. Say no
more. We shall never understand each other
'Such a mean brute, such a stupid brute I
urged in despair.
'Don't be afraid of being a blessing to him'
said Estella; 'I shall not be that! Come Here is
my hand. Do we part on this, you visionary boy,
or man (XLIV, 344-5)
One wonders after this last ambiguous remark whether Pip would not have been
a more successful wooer if he had been more active, aggressive and protective,
instead of being passive and protected by Estella. Drummle is indeed more of a
'man' than Pip, especially in a sexual sense. To my mind, Pip's failure as a
lover touches the heart of the novel, the eternal dilemma between nature
and civilization, between passion and self-restraint. Pip, for instance,
fights his many impulses to punish Uncle Pumblechook, Orlick or Mrs. Joe,
and, for all his wretched longing, he cannot declare his love because he
feels 'it was ungenerous to press myself upon her, when she knew that she
could not choose but obey Miss Havisham' (XXXVIII,287)Robert Garis put the
matter well, when he said: t
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