People
...she would have derived only pain, and no pleasure, from giving me pain; she would far rather have wounded her own breast than mine.
— Charles Dickens • Great Expectations
Behind the line May contain spoilers.
Our reading
An editorial interpretation.
The narrator imagines that hurting him would bring this woman pain rather than pleasure. The following comparison makes her concern more emphatic: she would sooner suffer herself. The passage conveys tenderness through the narrator's account of how strongly she would resist causing him distress.
Context reviewed