Pip is disappointed when his "great expectations" do not develop into what he has hoped they would be. For example, he has idolized Estella as the most beautiful young lady he has ever met. In his infatuation with her, Pip fails to see her selfishness and coldness despite her warnings. Later, when he is hopelessly in love with her, Pip realizes that Estella has been brought up by Miss Havisham to have no heart.
The poem "When I Was One-and-Twenty" by A. E. Housman expresses this same disillusionment with one's love as in "Great Expectations":
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
"Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free."
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
"The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
'Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue."
And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.
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