Volume 2 Chapter XIX Page 277

Miss Havisham and Estella are intriguing, confusing and tricky characters. They are characters which are constantly talking ironically and the one time that they talk directly (the denotation is the true meaning) makes it even more ironic. In this section, Estella and Miss Havisham are arguing about what Estella has become and how she has come to this. When Miss Havisham says that Estella has a “cold, cold heart!” Miss Havisham is being ironic because she has created Estella’s cold heart and the denotation is that Estella’s heart is cruel and cold but the connotation could be that is that she is constantly ironic.