At those times, I would decide conclusively that my disaffection to dear old Joe and the forge was gone, and that I was growing up in a fair way to be partners with Joe and to keep company with Biddy, – when all in a moment some confounding remembrance of the Havisham days would fall upon me like a destructive missile, and scatter my wits again… perhaps after all Miss Havisham was going to make my fortune when my time was out.
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 18. At times Pip appears to embrace the working class life with its promise of a partnership at Joe’s forge and close relationship with Biddy. But his head is quickly turned by the lure of the wealthy life he remembers from his visits to the upper class Havisham mansion. This memory, he says in a simile, hits him “like a destructive missile.” He goes on to fantasize that Miss Havisham will make his fortune for him, which there is no evidence of. This is an example of self-deception on the part of Pip and his overactive imagination.