Estella’s parents were both criminals.
Estella owes her life with Miss Havisham to the Victorian English legal system. Her mother and father were both criminals. Her mother Molly was acquitted of murder, and her father Abel Magwitch was expelled to Australia.
Jaggers represented both Estella’s mother and father. He thought she was a beautiful little girl, and he had seen so many cases of children who were victims of the legal system or their parents’ crimes. He decided to save Estella by giving her to Miss Havisham, but had no idea what would result from that.
Estella’s father was on his own on the streets from a very young age. He had no chance to be educated, and eventually fell in with a bad crowd. He ended up with the conman Compeyson, a despicable character. When the two were finally arrested, Compeyson was a smooth talker and convinced everyone he was a gentleman. He placed the blame on Magwitch and got off with an easier sentence.
Estella’s mother was a very angry and jealous person. She believed that Magwitch was cheating on her and strangled the other woman she suspected Magwitch was seeing.
The murdered person was a woman… It was a case of jealousy. They both led tramping lives, and this woman in Gerrard-street here, had been married very young, over the broomstick (as we say), to a tramping man, and was a perfect fury in point of jealousy (Chapter 48).
Jaggers was able to get her acquitted through legal maneuvering and made her the housekeeper. Molly threatened Estella’s life, so Magwitch never knew if she was dead or alive. On his deathbed, Pip tells him Estella is alive and a lady.
Even though Estella was never arrested, the legal system altered the course of her life. She may not have had a happy life, but Jaggers is right that she would never have been a lady if he had not saved her. She probably would have ended up a criminal like her parents.
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