She adopted Estella when she was just a young child and taught her to act and believe that she was superior to all men. She was always so proud of the fact that Estella had grown up to be her mirror image, until a boy named Pip walked into their lives. He broke their barrier against feeling love and changed them forever. Pip was a loyal boy who had grown up to be a man with a burning passion to always love and cherish Estella, which was never returned or acknowledged by her. When Estella had revealed to Pip and Miss Havisham that she was to be married to Drummle, Pip's old roommate, they were both ashamed and heartbroken; "I dropped my face into my hands . . .when I raised my face again, there was such a ghastly look upon Miss Havisham's that it impressed me . . ."(Dickens 344). This reaction by Miss Havisham, shows her thoughts and feelings of disgust by Estella's decision, and also reveals her love for Pip and her regret for teaching Estella not to love. .
She reveals to Pip, . . . when she first came to me, I meant to save her from misery like my own . . . But as she grew, and promised to be very beautiful, I gradually did worse, and with my praise, and with my jewels, and with this figure of myself always before her, a warning to back and point my lessons, I stole her heart away and put ice in its place.(Dickens 378) .
This was Miss Havisham's way of apologizing to Pip for Estella's unrequited love.
and bad treatment towards him. She asked for Pip's forgiveness, which was the first time in the novel she had made herself vulnerable to a man. It took her years to realize how she was living was wrong, but it was too late for her to take back the damage she had caused to Estella.
Estella's inability to feel due to Miss Havisham, directly affects three main people in her life: Miss Havisham, Drummle and Pip. Estella had an inability to feel towards her step-mother, Miss Havisham, who should have been the one character Estella could have had a close loving bond with.
