Great Expectations: Interview Insights
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Estella
Role:
She is Pip's unattainable object of affection.  Raised by Miss Havisham, she is brought up to wreak havoc on the male sex. She is cynical, manipulative, and cruel. She breaks Pip's heart and plays with his emotions like a cat playing with a mouse. 

Motives:
Not really brought up to think on her own, she is merely a tool for Miss Havisham's revenge.  She and Pip are first brought together so that Estella can practice her heart-breaking techniques on the poor, naive boy. 

Her motive is her own suffering under the hand of Miss Havisham, and she cannot change her ways simply because she knows no other way to live. 

  Character Movie/Interview

Memorable Quotation:
(to Pip when he complains that she is attracting Bentley Drummle) "Moths, and all sorts of ugly creatures hover about a lighted candle.  Can the candle help it?"

Here, Estella excuses herself for encouraging young gentlemen to pursue her.  Although she has no intentions of becoming involved with any of them, she bats her eyelashes and flirts with nearly every eligible bachelor at the dance.  In the same scene, she confides in Pip that he is the only man she chooses not to toy with.