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During The Mid.-Nineteenth Century, Victorian England Was

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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

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