From offices to schools, there is always a trace of prejudice against others, made wholly from judging one's outside looks or stature. Even while I was in middle school, there was always something like "Stay away from him- he's the janitor's son" or "Whoa, look at her clothes! Let's go say hi." It turned out that the richly dressed girl was arrogant and obnoxious, but the other was actually kinder and also a lot friendlier. Obviously, the people that judged the girl and the boy were extremely biased and used a stereotypical image to make assumptions about others they had never met. These stereotypes, and all others, have their roots in social class and its divisions. Just as in school, social class in the world of Great Expectations provides an arbitrary, external standard of value by which the characters judge one another. Charles Dickens strongly implies that judgments made from unbiased positions are always more veracious than those deduced from social standards. He demonstrates this by constantly illustrating how characters place an unreasonably great priority on outside appearances, wealth, and profession when judging others.
It is everyone's natural instinct to be attracted to beautiful and handsome people. Dickens obviously meant to show that outside appearances can mean the complete opposite of the person's true nature by writing the original ending. In the first ending, Pip earned nothing from lusting for beauty without a heart, except a lifelong lesson, which he learned too late. Pip, even in his innocent childhood, was madly drawn to Estella's beauty and "wished if only [he] could be with but a few precious moments of affection with [her]" (98). His expectations only worsened his love situation by driving him to prioritize winning Estella over all other things. Pip's tension was built up so greatly because of his meetings with Drummle that when he finally discovered that Estella was not meant for himself, Pip was driven to open despair and tears.
