Editing Great Expectations (section)

===London as prison===
[[File:"Look here", said Herbert (Herbert Pocket.jpg|thumb|Herbert Pocket and Pip in London, by John McLenan]]
In London, neither wealth nor gentility brings happiness. Pip, the apprentice gentleman constantly bemoans his anxiety, his feelings of insecurity,<ref name="Suhamy11">{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=11}}</ref> and multiple allusions to overwhelming chronic unease, to weariness, drown his enthusiasm (chapter 34).<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1993|p=101}}</ref> Wealth, in effect, eludes his control: the more he spends, the deeper he goes into debt to satisfy new needs, which were just as futile as his old ones.

His unusual path to gentility has the opposite effect to what he expected: infinite opportunities become available, certainly, but will power, in proportion, fades and paralyses the soul. In the crowded metropolis, Pip grows disenchanted, disillusioned, and lonely. Alienated from his native Kent, he has lost the support provided by the village blacksmith. In London, he is powerless to join a community, not the Pocket family, much less Jaggers's circle. London has become Pip's prison and, like the convicts of his youth, he is bound in chains: "no Satis House can be built merely with money".<ref name="Suhamy13">{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=13}}</ref><ref group="N">From Latin ''satis'', meaning "enough".</ref>