“Oh! I have a heart to be stabbed in or shot in, I have no doubt,” said Estella, “and of course if it ceased to beat I should cease to be. But you know what I mean. I have no softness there, no – sympathy – sentiment – nonsense.”
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 29. Estella is characterized as cold-hearted almost from the instant she appears in the novel. Her aloof demeanor with Pip and the way she toys with his emotions border on cruelty. While Pip is completely infatuated with her and clearly still is, she warns that loving her is a pointless exercise. Using heart as a metaphor for her feelings, she explains to Pip that she has no tenderness or sentiment there. Her adoptive mother Miss Havisham has clearly done a sterling job in raising her to be an emotionless heartbreaker and tormentor of men. We see the effective use of hyperbole in this passage.