Joe is not wealthy, well-educated, or worldly. Pip is also particularly concerned that Joe will shape other people’s impression of him, and cause others to think of him as lower-class. For these reasons, Pip is particularly ashamed of how Joe behaves in front of people like Miss Havisham, Estella, and Herbert.

Joe stands awkwardly, holds his hat as if it were a nest with eggs in it (even funnier since the hat keeps falling off the mantle and Joe has to snatch it from the air before it hits the ground). Joe’s eating habits make dinner uncomfortable, and Joe keeps calling Pip “Sir” as if they barely know one another.

Joe, Pip initially “feel[s] conscious that I was looking up to Joe in my heart.” However, once Pip becomes obsessed with measuring up to Estella’s lofty standards, he becomes increasingly ashamed of Joe. …

When Joe visits Pip in London, the meal they had together can best be described as: AWKWARD AND UNCOMFORTABLE. It is apparent by midway through the book that Miss Havisham raised Estella to: HIS BENEFACTOR WOULD MAKE HER/HIMSELF KNOWN TO PIP.

Estella likely rejects Pip’s love because she is incapable of feeling true emotion, and doesn’t understand what it means to love someone. Because of her lack of emotion, she prefers to marry Bentley Drummle, who can give her wealth and social position.

Despite Pip’s renewed affection, living in London makes Joe increasingly unhappy, and one morning Pip finds him gone. Pip rushes home to reconcile with Joe and decides to marry Biddy when he gets there.

THE TWO ENDINGS Wilkie Collins, a close friend and author of The Woman in White, objected to the not-happy ending Dickens first wrote for Great Expectations; Estella has remarried and Pip remains single. Dickens then wrote a more conventional ending, which suggests that Pip and Estella will marry.

Handel