How Does Charles Dickens Use Of Social Class

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is a coming-of-age story written from December 1860 to 1861. Great Expectations follows the life of Phillip Pirrip, self-named Pip; as his “infant tongue could make of both name nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.” (I, Page 3) The story begins with Pip as a young child, destined to be the apprentice of his blacksmith brother-in-law, Joe Gargery. After spending time with an upper-class elderly woman, Miss Havesham and her adopted daughter, Estella, Estella, with whom he has fallen in love, he realizes that she could never love a person as common as himself, and his view on the social classes change. Pip’s view of society grows

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is much more than a story about a boy who falls in love with the idea of a part of the being upper class, it is about the faults Dickens sees in upper class society. During the time this novel took place, (the 1800s), the behaviors of the upper class were much more strict and conservative than they are now. Men and women were expected to have thorough educations and behave appropriately in social situations. Throughout the novel, Dickens uses satire and his knowledge of social classes to emphasize his feelings of the upper, middle, and lower class. By portraying Pip as a young boy in the lower class who works with upper class people every day, the novel conveys the marxist lens of social classes that

The difference in class structures of Victorian England was dependent on the lifestyles and jobs of individuals. The Victorian era of England lasted from 1837 to 1901. The Victorian England hierarchy was divided into three different classes; the upper, middle, and lower class and was reliant of occupational differences. The hierarchy was very rigid and there was little social mobility, because of the fact that normally a person was born into their class and even their future career. In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens displays the model of class structure through the character Pip Pirrup. Pip struggles to find his place within the hierarchy. Throughout the novel, Dickens writes about the different classes in England. Pip belongs the working class due to his family and is set to be a blacksmith, but finds himself in the societal shift that occurred in England in the nineteenth century. Pip wants to achieve his great expectations and change the path that his life was going on. He wants create a better life for himself than what he would have had if he followed in the footsteps of his family. Dickens also creates various characters in the different classes to expose the relationship between each class. An individual’s class was a dominant factor in creating an identity. People of the upper classes thought very little of the people “below” them. Throughout his journey, Pip reveals information about how the different social classes lived and how members of each

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

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

Great Expectations can be correlated to Dickens own personal life where Pip works unhappily in a forge while struggling to better his education. This is something Dickens did himself at the age of 12 , and again at 15 when he was forced to work to support his family, putting his education on hold. As a young boy, Dickens dreamed of being a gentleman just as Pip did. The great success Dickens accomplished in his later life may have been a source of guilt, as he started off with nothing to his name. Dickens was born in the same time period, and in the same place as Pip. When Pip works for Joe, the blacksmith, he despises the job and thinks himself too good for it. Early Charles Dickens felt this same way, when his mother forced him to work in a blacking warehouse for three months. Pip moved to London in order to continue his education, just as Dickens had done around Pip’s age.

Charles Dickenss’s novel Great Expectations occurs during Pip’s period of transition from adolescence into adulthood when others’ opinions matter far more than his own. Because of Pip’s acute awareness of societal views and expectations, his first meeting with Estella results in lasting change that drives Pip to change his social standing: “...and that there had been a beautiful young lady at Miss Havisham's who was dreadfully proud, and that she had said I was common, and that I knew I was common, and that I wished I was not common…” (Dickens 70). Before Pip’s introduction to the wealth Miss Havisham experienced, he felt no shame in his identity and background. Additionally, although Pip recognizes Estella’s own flaws, Estella’s obvious privilege and his own

“No varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself” (Dickens 191). Herbert Pocket, the close friend of the main character, Pip, in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, shares with Pip his father’s beliefs that a gentlemanly appearance cannot hide a dishonorable disposition. While Pip struggles with his conscience as he gains social status, he finally discovers how the content of one’s character matters more than one’s outward appearance. Charles Dickens’s use of irony in the storylines of Pip, the two convicts, and Estella helps to convey the theme that social class does not define character. With Pip’s rise in social status causing him to develop superficial ideals and

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.

There is a high contrast between certain characters in “Great Expectations”. Pip’s brother in law, for example, who is a blacksmith has not been yearning for more money and although he belongs to a lower social class he still is content with his life. Whereas Miss Havisham who is described as “immensely rich and grim lady who lived in a large and dismal house,” is an example of a character who’s happiness depends on money. Dickens purposely used characters from different social classes and backgrounds to intrigue the readers towards finding out the plot of the

One significant example is Pip and Estella who has a significant difference with regards to class. Pip is raised by his poor sister, while Estella is raised by her aunt Miss Havisham who lives a good life. Through their differences, the two character need to separate and aim for a better life. This depiction shows that British films from the past want to explain the culture of the society as it pays significant attention to the status of people. Based on the depiction of the characters, the British society does not accept the marriage of rich and poor. Instead, poor people should search for poor partner, while rich people need to find rich partner in order to become fairly acceptable in the society. Therefore, it is true that “Great Expectations without fail is a brilliant evocation of a time and place, a view of the English class system that is both realistic and critical” (Majumdar, 2012, p.106). This statement is justifies from the way the characters are depicted, judged, and explored throughout the

The overall central idea of social class is a constant theme of the novel Great Expectations. During one of Pip’s first encounters with Estella, he comes to the cold truth of who he truly is in society; a common boy. Pip has never thought much of his appearance or where he came from before Estella had rudely informed him of the common and labor intensified personal and attire he

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.

In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens satirizes the upper class’s view of the lower class and how easily it could change by showing how Pip is treated during and after he receives his wealth and status of a gentleman.

In the book, The Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, is about a young man named Pip who is from a lower class status who suddenly inherited wealth from an unknown source. After inheriting the money, Pip experiences many challenges to his personal growth. He struggles with many relationships throughout his journey and the specific relationship I'm going to focus on is his relationship with Joe. Pip and Joe's relationship helps me understand the overall meaning of the novel by pointing out their relationship from beginning to the end, and classism.