“Well, then, understand once for all that I never shall or can be comfortable – or anything but miserable – there, Biddy – unless I can lead a very different sort of life from the life I lead now.”
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 17. Pip has become ashamed of and grown to resent his humble upbringing. Speaking to Biddy, he reveals his ambition to have a better life than that of a blacksmith’s apprentice.