In Great Expectations, the word "taint" describes Pip's tainted conscience and his shame for his identity, which he confuses with lower class status and physical dirt (Dickens 249). Pip's use of it in the passage about his feeling of "taint" shows how he confuses its multiple meanings. He acquires this stain on his morality and self-esteem in the swamps when he hands the file over to Magwitch, and he first begins to be consciously ashamed of this baseness when Estella insults him for his clothes and skin. The next decade of Pip's life sees him attempt to bury this contamination under fancy dresses and elitism so that he can physically eliminate the feeling of taint and win over Estella. However, Pip's coming of age occurs when he realizes the futility of substituting superficial scouring for the inner cleansing he finds at the novel's conclusion. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get the original essay Pip's experience with the convict in the swamps leaves a stain on his conscience that will stay with him until the adulthood. The incident not only causes him to feel a sense of guilt that follows him throughout the story, but also makes him view the crime itself as a literal contaminant that can taint his identity. As he grows, the guilt of having disobeyed his sister and Joe mixes with the shame of associating himself with the baseness of a convict. Even as Pip ages, prisons and their inmates still remember the mix of fear, discomfort, and regret he first experienced. to the marshes. In the passage about Newgate Prison, he says that the feeling he felt during his meeting with the condemned man had etched him "like a stain which has faded but which has not disappeared". He reappears at Newgate, indicating that in his mind he has linked the filth of the criminals and their living conditions to his personal shame. The convict's past overshadows all his generosity in Pip's mind because it means he is beholden to a common criminal, something he finds both morally and socially repugnant. Pip's tainted feeling is made even worse when he contrasts it with his view of Estella. His obsession with getting rid of physical dirt and rudeness grows when Estella insults him during his first visit to Mrs. Havisham. Before this, he was never aware of his low status or unkempt appearance, because he had no higher level of wealth to compare it to. Suddenly he discovers that he is rude and ordinary, that society finds this shameful and that the first beautiful girl he meets is disgusted by him. The contrast he sees between his own irregular appearance and that of Estella causes Pip to view his past with as much disfavor as she sees it. He is then bothered by any physical dirt that covers him, as when he feels "absolute horror" when contrasting its beauty with the soot and stench he picks up from Newgate. In his infatuation, he mentally transforms all his insecurities into impurities that he can try to physically get rid of or cover up. This attempt to literally remove dirt from himself is manifested in Pip's attempt to become a gentleman. Rather than confront his fear of the convict or his remorse for the way he separated himself from Joe and Biddy, he drapes them in clothing that society deems presentable. Ironically, it was at the forge that he was happiest, and his rise in social class only caused his morale to sink. The fact that this struggle to change one's nature by raising one's class is in vain is announced to.