His youthful love may be pure but he quickly understands that only a true gentleman can be successful and marry a beautiful woman, like Estella. Pip clearly acknowledges the fact that by an accident of birth, he is socially unworthy of Estella's affections: ""I was always treated as if I had insisted on being born in opposition to the dictates of reason, religion, and morality, and against the arguments of my best friends." (Dickens, 1996, p. 25). .
This inequality based on birth is certainly less apparent and less rigid in 21st century America, but it still exists even today. Those born to wealthy or famous families have automatic social privilege, while those born into poor families still have to struggle for an equality that is supposed to be guaranteed by our constitutional republic.
The factor that is most impressive about Pips character is based on what he chooses to do once he understands his social status. Rather than complain or rebel, he sets out to change that status. Pip's actions and thoughts are perfectly defying Victorian social expectation. .
In fact, his fight for upward mobility and his desire to improve his place in life, is a concept that now largely defines the American dream. However, in our own culture we admire this persistence and ambition, in Dickens era it was generally discouraged. In Victorian England it was expected that those born in the lower classes would stay there and learn their place: ". no man who was not a true gentleman at heart, ever was, since the world began, a true gentleman in manner. no varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself." (Dickens, 1996, p. 209.).
Pip defies this expectation and persists in his struggle to become a true gentleman. He just wants to return one day and win Estella's heart. He simply expects that he only needs to claim the ladder in society and develop a sense of similarity to other dominant characters to attain his dream.