While in London, Pip strives to become more like the upper class, but his previous life haunts him and prevents him from fully integrating himself into society. No matter how much he changes his mannerisms, style of dress, or spending habits, he still has, at his core, a large bit of the corse and common Pip he once was. He has emotionally invested himself in two completely dissimilar worlds, and this make it that much harder for him to fit in in either.
Because of his jump in station, Pip finds himself an outsider in his own hometown, no longer able to simply exist. He cannot stop constantly checking himself and making sure that everyone around him recognizes his newfound status. His efforts to ensconce himself in London upper crust both fail to make him part of his new world and remove him yet further from his original home.
One thing that struck me as an excellent example of Pip's double outsider status was his fear of the Avenger speaking to Trabb's boy in town. Though only a brief part of chapter 28, Pip's debate about the young man in his employ stands out because of the absurdity of it all. Pip has a theoretically useful servant, but his qualms about perception prevent him from taking advantage of a resource that he possesses. He's afraid both of Miss Havisham seeing his London excesses and of the Avenger, a part of his life in London, finding too much about his previous life. His unwillingness to cross pollinate what he treats as two separate lives or to completely divide them, as Wemmick does, means that he will never be able to be relaxed and at home in either. His constant fear of being found out about one thing or another and his inability to commit fully to either life both hamper his efforts to advance himself in society and contribute to his outsider nature.
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