“Estella,” said I, turning to her now, and trying to command my trembling voice, “you know I love you. You know that I have loved you long and dearly.”
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 44. Pip finally confesses his love for Estella. There is considerable evidence that his complex love is more a mixture of infatuation, fueled by her beauty and unattainability, and Miss Havisham’s manipulation of his emotions. Struck by her beauty and superior social status, Pip aspires to become a gentleman in order to win her.