Social Class In The Great Gatsby

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

F. Scott Fitzgerald presents many themes in his novel, The Great Gatsby. One of the

As the famous Brazilian scholar, Paulo Freire said, anyone can be dehumanized because “dehumanization, although a concrete historical fact, is not a given destiny but the result of an unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors, which in turn dehumanizes the oppressed.” In the book Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, upper class Victorians enforce their staunch values upon the lower class, engendering violent dehumanization against both the oppressors and the oppressed. In Great Expectations, Dickens uses Pip’s relationships with Estella, Mrs. Joe, and Joe to showcase how Victorians over value superiority, money, and self worth, and how those values trickle down through society to dehumanize people. Dickens questions the value of the Victorian class system by pointing out that lower class Victorians have upper class values instilled in them and internalize those immoral values, dehumanizing themselves in doing so.

According to Dictionary.com, a gentleman is a civilized, educated, sensitive, or well-mannered man. However, by Victorian definition, a gentleman was, perhaps most importantly, a rich man. “Charles Dickens…was an author of relatively humble origins who desired passionately to be recognized as a gentleman, and insisted, in consequence, upon the essential dignity of his occupation” (Victorian Web). In Great Expectations he portrays Pip, a poor boy turned rich through expectations, who must learn what true dignity is. A Christmas Carol, too, reveals Scrooge’s distortion of the gentlemanly role and the dire need to understand genuine goodness. In both Great Expectations and A

Dickens uses several characters to differentiate the different types of people within a social class. He shows that certain people may come to appreciate different things in their lives regardless of their financial situation. Whereas others, regardless of their social status come to appreciate the different experiences in life. Pip gave up his wealthy lifestyle because he was in pursuit of his own happiness, he won Estella’s heart and discovered the true love.

Charles Dicken’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, his opinion is superseded by Estella’s obvious privilege and his own embarrassment. Dickens reveals that the material benefits of becoming a part of higher society results in classism perpetuated by even the most negatively affected and causes the degradation of one’s identity to create conformity. To change oneself into the paragon of a corrupted system results in the contribution of further corruption and a lack of moral values. Dickens uses the insecurity of the masses to portray the willingness to compromise themselves for the illusion of more fulfilling life. Once Pip achieves the wealth and status he has desired, he must conform to the practices of the wealthy which involves the avoidance of the lower class including his own sister and brother-in-law. Once the news of his

Social class played a major role in the society depicted in Charles Dickens 's novel “Great Expectations”. Many characters were treated differently because of their social class in the story. Seeing the contrast between how the poor and the rich were treated will give a clearer understanding of how much social class mattered. During the nineteenth century, British society was dominated and ruled by a tightly woven system of class distinctions. Social relations and acceptance were based upon position. Charles Dickens utilizes “Great Expectations” as a commentary on the system of class and each person 's place within it. In the character of Pip, Dickens demonstrates the working class ' obsession to overthrow their limitations and re-invent

The class system exists in practically every country of the world and in any time period one can imagine; it is a staple of civilization and a socially constructed layering of order for its nation’s residents. With these premises arise the main three categorizations in the class system: lower, middle, and upper class. This essay focuses on aspects of the lower class within the novel Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, and how class change affects perceptions of others, particularly of those of different social status. According to Dictionary.com, “lower class” is defined as, “a class of people below the middle class, having the lowest social rank or standing due to low income, lack of skills or education, and the like.” In broad terms, they’re known as “the working class.” The beginning of Great Expectations finds the protagonist, Pip, as a young boy within this class. The story progresses when Pip’s longing to raise his social status is fulfilled, but his self-righteous opinion of his own character inflates and his regard for people who are “beneath” him degrades. Through Pip’s journey of self-discovery, Dickens demonstrates that power, wealth, and social standing are unimportant factors to one’s happiness and their personal virtue.

Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, represents the morality and ambition of self improvement in Victorian England. Dickens’s early life, which was during the Victorian era, has hidden connections with Pip’s situations and struggles. This paper will explore and be supported by the concepts of two literary criticisms, Himmet Umunç’s, “Class Mobility in Victorian England and the Social Rise of the Underprivileged” and Nicholas Shrimptons, “Dickens’s Muscular Novel”. Umunç’s and Shrimpton dive into the deeper meaning of Great Expectations and how it shows the triumph of morality over mobility.

Dickens, through Pip’s journey from a blacksmith’s family to becoming a gentleman, brings to light the class snobbery and atrocity that prevails in a so-called 'sophisticated society'. Throughout Great Expectations, Dickens portrays the class system of Victorian society from the lowest class of convict to the poor working class of Joe and Biddy and up to the wealthy class of Miss Havisham.

Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations was during a time where great social changes were sweeping the nation. Although social class was no longer entirely dependent on the circumstances of one’s birth, the divisions between rich and poor remained nearly

Dickens uses the portrayal of the gentleman to show one more of society's faulty and destructive values. The destructive potential of wealth in Pip's society is shown by his emotional and moral deterioration in becoming a gentleman. Pip’s misunderstanding of a gentleman is contured in his furtile, purposeless life, ruled by superficial and false values. He becomes discontent with his simple, 'ungentlemanly' background and upbringing and even ashamed with his old, poor friends, judging by the external criteria of status and wealth. He even joins the Finches of the Grove, a group of empty "gentlemen" whose only activity and purpose seems to be to spend money foolishly. When Magwitch comes along, everything that he believed in disappears and the world he tried to understand from a different perspective comes crushing down on him. There are two distinct voices of Pip which can be heard in the novel between the lines: The Mercantile Voice, of ambitious characters and social climbers. At first, when he realizes that the source of his wealthness comes from a scam of the society, he is disgusted by him, he wants to give him in. He realizes that his dreams were built in vain, based on a convict money and everything that he had hoped for was nothing but merely imagination. This is the first lesson Pip will get- The Lesson of

The Victorian idea of a gentleman during these times is based on birth, apparel, social status and wealth. On the other hand, Dickens portrays a gentleman as someone of generosity, humility, and kindness. The early life and the upbringing of Dickens allowed him to understand the perspective of those of low social standing and the effect of their poor upbringing keeping them in the lower social class. Dickens’ Great Expectations portrays a very class-mobile society in which fortunes can be made and lost equally suddenly, while by contrast Dickens portrayed the extraordinarily varied ways in small differences of dress, accent, and action by which people present themselves and act out their class identities and aspirations.

Dickens portrays characters in a particular way, he has a very narrow view of society and he places emphasis on class distinctions. "He has not a wide scope; he is always noticeably at his best in dealing with an ill-defined order of English folk, a class (or classes) characterized by dullness, prejudice, dogged individuality, and manners, to say the least, unengaging." (Gissing). Gissing thinks that even though we may remember the character 's names, that is all that they are to us. They have no depth and the characters do not leave a lasting

Dickens’ draws his characters from several different social classes. Most of the nobles suffered “the