Estella

Estella is the beautiful and accomplished ward of Miss Havisham, raised from infancy within the decaying grandeur of Satis House. Trained to be exquisite in every accomplishment—music, drawing, manners, deportment—she has been deliberately cultivated to captivate and betray men's affections. Her beauty is undeniable but cold, her manner graceful but emotionally distant. She moves through the novel with an air of detachment, treating Pip (Philip Pirrip) with alternating condescension and occasional warmth, yet never permitting genuine connection. Her past and true parentage are obscured, and she exists partly as a tool of Miss Havisham's vengeance and partly as a tragic figure trapped by her upbringing, unable to feel or give love as her maker intended her never to do.

Estella represents to Pip (Philip Pirrip) the ultimate prize—the visible marker of his success in becoming a gentleman—yet her essential coldness makes her simultaneously the source of his deepest pain. Her relationship with Pip (Philip Pirrip) is one of careful distance; she neither loves nor hates him, but regards him with the mild interest one might show a well-trained pet, even as he pours out his heart in devotion.