I asked myself the question whether I did not surely know that if Estella were beside me at that moment instead of Biddy, she would make me miserable? I was obliged to admit that I did know it for a certainty, and I said to myself, “Pip, what a fool you are!”
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 17. Pip is aware that his attraction to Estella will bring him misery instead of happiness. Yet he seems unwilling or unable to free himself of his obsessive infatuation with her. Meanwhile he loses out on the opportunity to find happiness with Biddy, an intelligent and kind girl from his own class who is a better match for him.