Estella is a character who darkly undermines the notion of romantic love and serves as a bitter criticism against the class system in which she is mired. She was raised by Miss Havisham since she was three years old and brought up to torment men and "break their hearts". Pip is infatuated with Estella and although to him she seems like the longed-for ideal of the upper classes, she was born even lower-class than he. She is the daughter of Magwitch, the convict Pip helps at the beginning of the novel.
Miss Havisham destroys her ability to express emotion and interact socially with the world around her. She marries a cruel noble man Drummle, who beats her and makes her miserable. Some say Dickens uses Estellas life to reinforce the idea that ones happiness and well-being are not deeply connected to ones social position.
In the final scene of the novel, she has become her own woman for the first time in the book. As she says to Pip, “Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching. . . . I have been bent and broken, but—I hope—into a better shape.”
Nail and Rockett Blog. (no date) Available at: http://www.nailandrockett.com/Nail-and-rockett-blog.html
Dickens, C. (no date) SparkNotes: Great Expectations: Analysis of Major Characters. Available at: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/greatex/canalysis.html
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