I drew away from the window, and sat down in my one chair by the bedside, feeling it very sorrowful and strange that this first night of my bright fortunes should be the loneliest I had ever known.
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 18. Pip shares his thoughts from the night he learned about his “great expectations,” the fortune from a secret donor that will propel him into high society. But despite his newfound wealth and upward social mobility, he is full of inner conflict and confusion. He is about to leave for London shortly to be educated to be a gentleman. While he watches from his bedroom window Joe and Biddy quietly talking about him, he feels strangely dissatisfied. Pip should be overjoyed on this first night of his “bright fortunes.” But a sense of irony and foreshadowing are created when he speaks in the same sentence about feeling “sorrowful” and “the loneliest I have ever known.” His future loneliness is hinted at here and also foreshadowed are themes of the corrupting influence of money and social class.