In the novel, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, a young man is overcome by the burden of love; he falls for a cold hearted, beauty that he knows will hurt him in the end. He presses on, believing the two of them are destined to be together. “The unqualified truth is that, when I loved Estella with the love of a man, I loved her simply because I found her irresistible. Once for all; I knew to my sorrow, often and often, if not always that I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. Once for all; I loved her none the less because I knew it, and it had no more influence in restraining me than if I had devoutly believed her to be human perfection.” (pg 232-233) Even though Pip felt a great sense of unhappiness after each time he was acquainted with his subject of love, he still went on to think of her and dream of her—wishing she was his. It’s not that he was lonely and looking for something to fill that hole, it was only that he had found himself caught in a deadly trap. As a man he fell madly in love with a vision. He didn’t see through to the heart of the situation—this heart, cold and careless. I suppose he thought loving this girl was worth it, but was it really worth getting himself hurt in the end? What he saw was simply a form of beauty of which he thought to be perfection, though that perfection pushed him away at a constant rate and grew to be a wounding matter upon poor Pip’s heart.
