From a young age, Pip went to the Satis House and played cards with Estella. That's where he fell for her and where his desire for nobility began. Parkinson submits that while games are typically played for enjoyment, Pip did not enjoy playing cards, or his life as a gentleman. Pip's approach to his life as a nobleman is similar to his approach to cards. He does neither for enjoyment, he does both to impress Estella, and in the end fails to do either. Pip's wealth brings him no happiness, only discomfort and debt. Parkinson suggests that economic standing is determined by chance in addition to skill, which is accurate in Great Expectations, Pip and Estella get rich through luck, while Magwitch gets rich through mostly hard work and only a little help from luck. In addition, Pip loses at every game, no matter how hard he tries, and he blows through his fortune and ultimately loses it all. Life is just one big game, and playing for the wrong reasons can leave you destitute.

Estella is generally viewed as a mean and heartless character, which is what she was raised to be. She was cruel to him, as she was to all men. Though, according to Lucille P. Shores, Pip fails to realize that Estella really shows her affection for him in her own way. Pip is subject to her constant mockery and insults, and yet when he fights over her with Herbert she rewards him with a kiss. Estella knows all too well that she has been warped by the demented Miss Havisham, this is why she warns him away from her. She has strong feelings for him, maybe not of love but certainly of admiration, and that is why she cannot subject him to her grating personality. Shores submits that Estella "knows that she cannot make Pip happy, and she has too much affection for him to link her unhappy life with his", she refuses to ruin his life by her presence. Therefore her rejection of him is possibly her greatest gift to him, at least in her own eyes. When Pip sees hatred and scorn, Estella is really trying to show her admiration and fondness of him. When Estella and Pip first meet as adults, Estella looks at Pip, looks at her shoe, and then back to Pip and laughs. Shores states that at this point Dickens perfectly captures a woman's subconscious feelings toward a man she feels attracted to, and yet to the naïve Pip it is just more rejection from Estella. Shores, Lucille P. "'The Character of Estella in Great Expectations." Massachusetts Studies in English (Fall 1972): 91-99. Rpt. in Novels for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Web. 23 Jan. 2011.

Critical Analysis of "The Conversion of Scrooge: A Defense of That Good Man's Motivation" The story of A Christmas Carol is one of redemption and change. Yet, the term Scrooge still carries a negative connotation. William E. Morris notes that the public has been reluctant to recognize the change Scrooge experiences. However, Scrooges' change is the foundation for the entire story. Morris submits that the change could have come from within Scrooge, and that the visits were actually dreams, brought about by his desire to change deep down as well as the cold, moist, and dark setting in which Scrooge lives. Throughout his childhood, Scrooge was subject to economic hardship and loneliness, thus affecting his personality. He was originally caring but then grew cold and distant in order to secure monetary stability, but his inner goodness laid dormant chipping at his hard shell from the inside. In Scrooge's dreams, he imagines games of hide-and-seek, possibly shedding light on Scrooge's feelings of loneliness and his desire for companionship, "it must be the case with Scrooge that he is lost yet struggling to be found" (Morris). Morris submits that the change had to originate inside Scrooge for it to be effective and that there was significant reason for him to desire change. Scrooge believed in marriage and Christmas and overall happiness, but became bitter as he aged and alienated himself from the people. "He can no longer find life enough to breathe in isolation; he must break out into the world" (Morris). Subconsciously, he still believed and he had to either change, or else be completely consumed by his cold, hard self.