Great Expectations: Motives of Mrs Joe and Estella towards Pip - Essay Example

Estella’s behavior towards Pip is rather based on an egotistical and pompous stance. She was taught by Miss Havisham, having faced a betrayal from a man, to think that all men are the same and that none of them is worthy of trust and believes. Since she was trained to be rigid in believing that men are deceitful, she also believes pompously that their feelings towards women should not be reciprocated. This is what she does to Pip although she knows that Pip is interested in her.Another motive for the behavior of Mrs.

Joe towards Pip is to demonstrate her supreme authority in the house. She, as we know, dominates even her own husband, Joe. Pip is just a child who is timid and fragile and Joe is all the more helpless. This further intensifies Mrs. Joe’s cruel authority in the house.Estella too desires to demonstrate authority, but her behavior is based on the supreme power of wealth and pride that Miss Havisham has taught her to believe in. We sympathize with her, though, for we know that she was dictated wrong attitudes.

The similarity between Mrs. Joe’s and Estella’s behaviors is that both are based on pride and demonstration of power. For Mrs. Joe, it is the authoritative stance towards her family that counts more, while for Estella it is the power of rigidity towards men that her aunt taught her. We can thus conclude that none of Joe’s relations with women succeeded.