Pip narrates his own worst behavior with painful honesty — the sign of a man who has processed his shame rather than suppressed it. His central failing is snobbery dressed as aspiration: he convinces himself that wanting to be a gentleman is about love for Estella, when it is also about rejecting the people who actually love him. His growth is not from poor to rich but from self-deceived to honest — and the cost of that growth is everything he thought he wanted.