Biddy is Pip's childhood tutor, friend and confidant. She is always the person he unloads onto; no one else is continually there for him. Perhaps Pip gets along so well with Biddy as they are both orphans. They have also both been brought up by hand, and know what it feels like to be unloved, and treated harshly. Mr Wopsle's great-aunt raised Biddy, and she owned a little general shop, as well as the school Pip attended. Although she seemed to have owned so much, she was still considered low-class, possibly because she didn't know what stock her shop held, and that Pip didn't really learn anything from her. (She wasn't a good teacher, it was Biddy who taught Pip to read and write.) In Pip's opinion, Biddy has very noticeable looks. 'Her hair always wanted brushing, her hands always wanted washing, and her shoes always wanted mending and pulling up at the heel.' (Great Expectations, Chapter 7, page 42). Biddy is only a few years older then Pip.
             Estella is also an orphan, which is interesting, as this means the three characters (Pip, Biddy and Estella) have something in common. However, different from Pip and Biddy's situations, Estella has been adopted by a rich, higher-class lady, Miss Havisham. The only reason Estella's past is forgotten is that no-one knows who Estella's parents are, or what social class they were part of. Miss Havisham suffers from being dumped on her wedding day, so many years ago. She repeatedly lives her wedding day over; nothing in the house has been changed since that day, even all the clocks were stopped. By adopting Estella, Miss Havisham now has a little girl to love and take care of, as well as someone to mould into a beautiful lady, with a respectable education and very refined tastes. Miss Havisham wants to take her revenge on the male species, for ruining her life, by raising Estella to have no feelings. Later in the novel we see that Estella fin...