She had adopted Estella, she had as good as adopted me, and it could not fail to be her intention to bring us together. She reserved it for me to restore the desolate house, admit the sunshine into the dark rooms, set the clocks a-going and the cold hearths a-blazing, tear down the cobwebs, destroy the vermin, – in short, do all the shining deeds of the young Knight of romance, and marry the Princess.
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 29. While he waits to go to Miss Havisham’s, Pip shares his thoughts of what he believes to be his patroness’s plans for him. The problem is that he deludes and deceives himself with this fairy tale-like dream. He imagines himself to be the young knight who will marry his love Estella and restore to life the decaying Satis House. And all this with the help and blessing of his fairy godmother Miss Havisham. That has certainly been Pip’s ambition and dream. But the theatrical imagery and language suggests it is all fantasy and a fairy tale that will have no fairy tale ending.