“What would it signify to me, being coarse and common, if nobody had told me so!”
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 17. In his conversation with Biddy, Pip reveals the reason for his burning ambition to become a gentleman. It’s Estella and her criticisms of him for being coarse and common. Until he became besotted with the rude and insulting girl, he was happy to be a blacksmith’s apprentice. Now he wants to please her by becoming a gentleman and turning his back on his social class.