'And what coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!' I have never thought of being ashamed of my hands before; but I began to consider them a very indifferent pair. Her contempt for me was so strong, that it became infectious, and I caught it"" (Dickens 46). Estella's antipathy towards Pip was so strong, that he began to feel it about himself as well. Before this meeting Pip had been satisfied with the way he was living, but now his paltry lifestyle becomes more apparent to him. He is depressed by the realization the he is "common"" and "course"" and that those he loves, possess the same faults. .
Subsequently, Pip begins to believe that a higher class status and their wealth is correspondent with one's values. When Pip is first introduced to Mr. Jaggers, a prominent London lawyer who represents Pip's benefactor, the idea that he is getting the opportunity to become a gentleman and to live as a wealthy young man swells his ego tremendously and he becomes all-consumed by this new development. Pip believes that his "selection " is a sign of his great personal worth and the people with which he's always associated with are now beneath them because they are too "common"." This idea is also illuminated by the way the townspeople controversially treat Pip and by the time that he is ready to leave the village, he doesn't want Joe to walk with them because of their contrasting classes. "I am afraid- sore afraid- that this purpose originated in my sense of the contrast there would be between me and Joe, if we went to the couch together. I had pretended with myself that there was nothing of this taint in the arrangement, but when I went up to my little room on this last night, I felt compelled to admit that it might be done so, and had an impulse upon me to go down again and entreat Joe to walk with me in the morning. I did not"" (124). .
Just within the short amount of time that passed between Pip finding out about his secret fortune and when he had to leave, his whole idea of the social system had become different.