Noble Pip

"' You acted nobly, my boy' said he. 'Noble Pip!" (Dickens, 317).

Although Pip is no longer the poor orphan he was at the beginning of the novel, he is still held back by societies standards. He has no blood to make him 'noble', so he can only really reach so far. As the story has unfolded, he has become more and more aware of this limitation. It is also interesting that Dickens chose to use the verb acted, simply because it implies that Pip doesn't truly belong where he is.