During the Mid.-nineteenth century, Victorian England was divided into distinct social classes. The three social classes included the working, middle, and upper leisure class. As the Industrial Revolution advanced, the working class became very isolated from the leisure class and often had low paying jobs such as a blacksmith, tradesman, and farmer. The wealthy ladies and gentlemen of the leisure class lacked awareness that their frivolous lifestyle was built on the laborious work of the working class. Charles Dickens wrote Great Expectations to criticize the social classes during Victorian England. Great Expectations follows the story of working class Pip as he attempts to fit in with upper class society while coveting for the affection …show more content…
Herbert signifies that being a gentleman comes from within, and someone 's integrity, like the varnish of wood, can always be uncovered. Herbert and Matthew Pocket are true gentlemen because of their behavior and moral integrity, not their upbringing. Whereas Compeyson is a counterfeiter, who uses his wealthy leisure-class appearance to deceive others into thinking he is less guilty than the lower-class criminals. Additionally, when Herbert brings Pip to the Pocket household, Pip notices that Mrs. Pocket had been raised with high expectations herself but was “perfectly helpless and useless” (188). Dickens ridicules the social privilege and snobbery that is idolized in Victorian society when the self-centered Mrs. Pocket spends all her time reading books about titles and nobility. Due to the fact Mrs. Pocket is a negligent mother, her children tumble over her feet, and also play with dangerous toys, with the Pockets’ maid rescuing them from accidents. She has no skills, morality, and she lives her entire life fixated on the false idea that she was meant for greater things. Finally, when Pip and Herbert join a social club for gentlemen called Finches of the Grove, Pip mentions that the members would “dine expensively once a fortnight, to quarrel among themselves as much as possible after dinner, and to cause six waiters to get drunk on
Over the course of Britain’s centuries of history, events such as the industrialization of the Britain in the 19th century and many others proved to be pivotal events placing Britain as a pre-modern superpower. As described in the encyclopedia The History of World Trade Since 1450, “Britain’s mid-nineteenth century economy is often referred to as ‘the workshop of the world’ ” (Harley 396). Caused by the newly invented technological advancements, Britain began to export two-thirds of the world’s inventory made by advanced machinery. Bringing in the newly created steam engine, industries such as the iron and textile developed into major providers of wealth in the trade network of Britain. With growing industries and a source connection to
Charles’ father is a perfect example of this shift in power, more to the rich and less to the poor. “One of the important perceptions of Dickens’ fiction is of Victorian society as one in which the weak support the strong, the starving underwrite the satiated, the poor prop up the rich, the children sustain the parents- and the female holds up the male” (Houston 13). Dickens was leading a kind of social revolution, trying to reenergize the presence of the working class not only in politics, but in society as well. Pip in Great Expectations is a warrior used to fight in this social clash, showing that the true gentleman is not rich with money, but rich with satisfaction and happiness. Dickens is trying to show that when Pip is thrown into his expectations and becomes a “gentleman” he is not a gentleman at all, it is only by the end of the novel when the true gentleman is shown through Pip.
Mine came from Mark Cross, and they were genuine cowhide and all that crap, and I guess they cost quite a pretty penny” (Salinger 108). Salinger uses diction such as “pretty penny” to emphasize how Holden considers his own suitcases as less significant than how Dick views them. In G.E., Pip becomes overly influenced by Miss Havisham’s world and begins to deeply examine his “coarse hands” and “common boots” through the lens of the wealthy (Dickens 60). Pip gradually starts to become self-aware through his introduction to society’s value system. Society’s tendency to judge individuals’ intelligence and character based on the amount of wealth and status one has causes individuals to stoop down to desperate measures in hope to be part of the higher financial or privileged class.
Throughout time society as a whole has greatly changed and developed to what it is now. One major part of the society is the social class structure. In Charles Dickens’ novel, Great Expectations, Dickens expresses his beliefs on that structure in many ways. Since Dickens wrote the novel during the Victorian Era it reflects and evaluates the beliefs and values of the time. For the most part ones place in the social order was based on wealth and the reputation of ones relations. In general, the member of the higher class were unhappy and those in the lower class were joyful. He does this to show that wealth isn’t everything. He continues to display that idea throughout the book and he displays its
After William IV died, his niece, Victoria, became the Queen of England, starting the victorian era. In Victoria’s reign, the British Empire came to cover over ¼ of the world. The Industrial revolution is created during her reign, producing more products available to the common people of England. On the down side, people working in the mill had a hard life.
The title of gentleman therefore denotes one who passes his time idly without and obligation or responsibility besides remaining socially amiable. The emergence of the middle class in the nineteenth century allowed people not of noble birth to enter the ranks of gentility. Becoming an educated and morally noble gentleman had come within the reach of those who had previously been excluded. Industry made it possible for someone of the working class to elevate his social position through his own efforts. This new definition of the gentleman "had a great appeal among the emerging middle class because high birth, the traditional passport to recognition as a gentleman, could be side-stepped-at least in theory" (Platz 152). This new opportunity created a split between the traditional upper classes and the newly established English bourgeoisie. Dickens recognized the paradoxical aspiration toward the position of an idle gentleman through labor. Obtaining the appearance of a gentleman became more important than the means by which the facade is constructed. Platz writes, "Dickens' Great Expectations can be interpreted as an attempt to dismantle both the legitimacy and symbolic authority of the gentleman" (162). Pip deceives himself by accepting the old
To begin with, Pip shows the danger of only pursuing class, as he realizes that money does not make him happy. To illustrate, Charles Dickens begins Pip’s awareness of social class in his novel, Great
The settings of Great Expectations are Pip’s homes, one home that he lives in during his childhood in Kent, England, and the other that he lives in when he is grown in London, England. Social status was a big deal in the mid-nineteenth century. The rich were highly respected and liked by all, and the poor were treated unkindly and were sometimes made fun of. The rich could have any job that they liked, but the poor would almost always take over the job that their father had. The narrator of Great Expectations is Pip. If the novel were narrated from any other point of view, it would not have the same effect as it does now.
Charles Dickens, author of Great Expectations, provides a perfect example of the hope of class mobility. The novel portrays very diverse and varied social classes which spread from a diligent, hardworking peasant (Joe) to a good-natured middle class man (Mr. Wemmick) to a rich, beautiful young girl (Estella). Pip, in particular, elevates in the social pyramid from a common boy to a gentleman with great expectations. With his rise in society, he also alters his attitude, from being a caring child to an apathetic gentleman. During this process, Pip learns how he should act and how to become a real gentleman. Social mobility and wealth, furthermore, carves a disposition and how a character is looked upon.
Great Expectations was a novel written by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form from 1st December 1860 and then further on was released in book form in August 1861, although was previously issued by David Copperfield in 1849. This novel reworks his own childhood as a first-person narrative; Dickens was fortunate and had an advantage of writing Great Expectations due to him living in the Victorian times, and he related his life experiences with the main character of the play, ‘Pip’. Charles opened the play with the character Pip; his name was short for his Christian name Philip. In the Victorian times there were 3 different classes, these were known as the upper class, middle class and lower class. Pip belonged to the
The next class during the Victorian Era was known as the middle class. This was the class to which novelist H.G. Wells was a part of. The middle class consisted of factory owners, lawyers, engineers, merchants, traders and other professionals (Bishal, 2008). While the individuals within this class received more money and more rights as citizens, they were still considered to be of no importance compared to those of the higher class.
‘Great Expectations’, written by Charles Dickens during the Victorian era while England was adapting to the industrial revolution, is a life-long story of a boy called Pip. This was a period where England was experiencing major social and cultural changes, and society was unstable – there were clear hierarchies and a gulf between the rich and the poor, and children were not treated with respect or care. Despite the fact that England was a powerful and a formidable nation, Dickens criticises English society throughout this book. Pip in ‘Great Expectations’ grows up later to suddenly receive a huge sum of money. He also fulfils his expectations of being what he thinks is a ‘gentleman’, only to later realise how foolish he has been and how wrong
When Pip first meets Estella it begins Pip’s extremely interesting journey up the social ladder. Pip wants to show Estella that he is a gentleman with class; he does not want to be known as a common boy. This is an example of trying to impress people with their social status and class. Pip is ashamed of his “thick boots” and “coarse hands” because they make him just a “common labouring boy” (Dickens 61, 62). These decisions show Pip’s ungrateful and ashamed of who he is and where he came from.
In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens rejects conventional Victorian class stratification, using Pip 's Bildungsroman to demonstrate that social mobility can be achieved through moral education, experience and personal development, rather than the simple acquisition of wealth. The compassion Pip learns from Joe leads him to assist Magwitch, which ultimately results in Pip becoming a gentleman. The secondary characters in Pip’s Bildungsroman help him to find a place within society where he can finally feel happy and fulfilled. Although Pip receives wealth from Magwitch, Dickens demonstrates that his success in migrating from the poorer working class to the newly developed middle class is actually the result of his more educated view of the
Today, there are not many demographics that marginalize society as much as socioeconomic status. An individuals social status not only supersedes their apparent values or intellect - characteristics that truly attest to the worth of an individual in the context of social membership - but also seemingly establishes a societal dichotomy, one that divides the population into that of the rich and the poor. Whether it is due to increases in inequality or the poor status of the economy, social mobility does not seem to be occurring at high rates, with the poor getting poorer and rich getting richer. Despite this, social mobility is alive and well, and has been for centuries. In his novel, Great Expectations, Charles Dickens voices the concerns of many that lived in Victorian England during the 19th century by promoting such a desire to live life in a more prosperous social class. One of the most fundamental and reoccurring themes in the novel is that of social class. Throughout the novel, the reader examines the protagonist, known as Pip, as he transforms from a poor working boy into a wealthy gentlemen. Similarly, in 1998, Alfonso Cuaron created a film adaptation of Dickens’ novel and - despite being drastically different in some aspects - embraced the theme of social class as well. In doing so, both works were able to promote the Victorian concept of social class through the utilization of plot line and characterization.