I loved her simply because I found her irresistible. . . . I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. . . . I love her none the less because I knew it, and it had no more influence in restraining me, than if I had devoutly believed her to be human perfection.

This declaration comes from Charles Dickens’s novel *Great Expectations* (1860–1861), spoken by the narrator, Philip Pirrip (“Pip”), as he reflects on his consuming attachment to Estella. Pip’s love is shaped by Miss Havisham’s manipulative upbringing of Estella and by Pip’s own social aspirations after receiving his “great expectations.” The passage occurs amid Pip’s retrospective self-scrutiny: he recognizes that his passion persists despite clear evidence that it brings him misery and that Estella is emotionally unavailable. Dickens uses Pip’s confession to dramatize how desire can be intensified by frustration, class insecurity, and self-deception.

The quote captures love as compulsion rather than choice: Pip portrays his feeling as irrational, self-defeating, and immune to moral or practical restraint. The repeated “against” builds a rhythm of mounting negation, suggesting that the more reasons Pip has to stop, the more inexorable the attachment becomes. Dickens also exposes the psychology of idealization: Pip admits that even knowing Estella is not “human perfection” does not diminish his devotion. The passage is significant because it frames Pip’s romantic fixation as part of his broader moral education—his eventual growth requires seeing how longing, pride, and fantasy can masquerade as love.