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Society and class in Dickens novel
Analysis of great expectations by Charles Dickens
The relevance of the novel Great expectations by Charles Dickens
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After growing up in London with a long history of social, legal, and economic struggles, Charles Dickens has a lot to say about it. He insinuates his opinions regarding London and its aspects by taking taking shots at the subjects he has problems with. The social classes, legal system, and money problems Dickens grew up with have greatly influenced his views and they show in one of his many novels, Great Expectations. Three paramount issues transpire quite regularly throughout the novel. Dickens is particularly fond of mocking London’s social conditions thanks to economic standing of the residents and the criminal justice system that comes with it.
“If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.” Charles Dickens once said this in one of his novels. If one quote could summarize Jaggers, this would be it. This quote wasn’t from Great Expectations, but sounds like it’s what he had in mind when he constructed the soapy smelling man young Pip met one day in a stairwell. Regardless of if a crime had been committed or not, if you could manage to get Jaggers on your side, you basically won your case. The people of Pip’s time paid Jaggers to make their lies into the truth. If Wemmick received the money, in return Jaggers would supply the false witnesses needed to win the case. Dickens repeatedly writes on how the court system is based on money and influence, not on guilt or innocence. Pip’s first encounter with Newgate is not one to brag about, either. Upon walking up to the prison, Pip is offered a spectacular view of the courtroom, for just a small fee. This is offered to him by the very drunk minister of justice whom Pip makes the inference that his clothing had just been bought from the executioner right off a dead man....
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...at they are in fact in debt. They don’t actually solve anything, they just total their debts to see how much it is they owe. Pip himself almost gets sent off to Debtor’s jail, and would have had he not gotten ill. Wemmick tries to teach Pip about portable property and the importance of it, but Pip is off buying boats. Magwitch turned out the way he did, simply because of wealth. Even from his first memory all he ever knew was how to stay alive on his own. He was pushed into a life a crime with no parents, home, or schooling. He had no money and did not know what else to do. He stole and did odd jobs here and there that were not totally legal, but only to see his next day. As Estella told us, “quote about statis house being enough” Except this doesn’t seem to be the case for the residents. The house itself means enough, but the inhabitants are discontent and empty.
Dickens used his great talent by describing the city London were he mostly spent his time. By doing this Dickens permits readers to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of the aged city, London. This ability to show the readers how it was then, how ...
...eturning from the penal colonies, Magwitch wants to start anew and chooses Pip as his benefactor.
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.
Overall, Pip transforms morally throughout the book by realizing the limitations to fortune, the truly transcendental nature of social class, and understanding the balance of self-interest and consideration essential to a good life. Some may argue that this is no longer relevant, as the world has come to transcend social class. However, the reality is that money is still a symbol of worthiness. It is not until wealth and nobility are separated that true progress can take place in the world.
Charles Dickens is considered a great leader for, not just for the novels or short stories he wrote, but for the emotion he put into them. Dickens held an amazing talent for creativity and self expression. He was optimistic and mastered the resilience to overcome many setbacks. His gift for self expression could be a great inspiration force in the world. Dickens didn’t have the easiest life and he put his raw emotion into his articles and that is what made him a potential leader for most.
Readers of Charles Dickens' journalism will recognize many of the author's themes as common to his novels. Certainly, Dickens addresses his fascination with the criminal underground, his sympathy for the poor, especially children, and his interest in the penal system in both his novels and his essays. The two genres allow the author to address these matters with different approaches, though with similar ends in mind.
“Charles Dickens: Great Expectations.” (2 Feb, 2006): 2. Online. World Wide Web. 2 Feb, 2006. Available http://www.uned.es/dpto-filologias-extranjeras/cursos/LenguaIglesaIII/TextosYComentarios/dickens.htm.
Edgar Rosenberg. New York: Norton, 1999. French, A.L. "Imprisonment: The Case of Great Expectations. " Discussions of Charles Dickens, 82-92.
Charles Dickens is well known for his distinctive writing style. Few authors before or since are as adept at bringing a character to life for the reader as he was. His novels are populated with characters who seem real to his readers, perhaps even reminding them of someone they know. What readers may not know, however, is that Dickens often based some of his most famous characters, those both beloved or reviled, on people in his own life. It is possible to see the important people, places, and events of Dickens' life thinly disguised in his fiction. Stylistically, evidence of this can be seen in Great Expectations. For instance, semblances of his mother, father, past loves, and even Dickens himself are visible in the novel. However, Dickens' past influenced not only character and plot devices in Great Expectations, but also the very syntax he used to create his fiction. Parallels can be seen between his musings on his personal life and his portrayal of people and places in Great Expectations.
George Orwell once said, “[p]olitical language . . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murders respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to a pure wind.” (1) This phenomenon describes the Victorian court system fairly accurately. Thus, it is unsurprising that in Bleak House, Dickens chooses to satirize this practice through his own usage of language. In Bleak House, Dickens provides a social criticism of the Victorian court system through the Chancery Court with his use of language surrounding it.
In the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Pip's struggle and ultimate failure to become a gentleman was due to social pressure. Dickens comments the stratums of the Victorian social class system. The novel shows that money cannot buy love or guarantee happiness. Pip's perspective is used to expose the confusing personality of someone transcending social barriers. Dickens also shows a contrast between both class and characters.
Many choices the characters make have a negative effect on their lives. The characters of Magwitch and Pip make bad decisions, but throughout the novel they realized their wrong doings and strive for improvement and better understanding. In the beginning of the book, Pip ventures into the marshes around the forge. As he encounters Magwitch, a convict, he is asked to bring back some “wittles” or food and a file to break free from the chains (Dickens 25). Magwitch informs Pip that if he were to disobey orders, a man would sneak in to his house and eat his heart. Afraid, Pip takes Joe’s file and Mrs. Joe’s cake instead of alerting them about Magwitch and the threats; this displays Pip’s low level of trust in his guardians. The guilt he feels “on the score of this minor theft is only part of a larger guilt,” leaving him to believe he is not only thought of as a burden to his sister, but also a delinquent (Barnard 109). Pip would rather go behind Mrs. Joe’s b...
The death of God for many in the Victorian era due to scientific discoveries carried with it the implication that life is nothing more than a kind of utilitarian existence that should be lived according to logic and facts, not intuition or feeling – that without God to impose meaning on life, life is meaningless. Charles Dickens, in Hard Times, parodies this way of thought by pushing its ideologies and implications to the extreme in his depiction of the McChoakumchild School.
However, the strong, yet subtle implications that Charles Dickens introduces to his novels, particularly “Great Expectations”, has made a strong impression during his time and even in the modern day. Dickens explores the wide gap among the “most wretched criminals (Magwitch), the poor (Joe and Biddy), the middle class (Pumblechook), and the very rich (Miss Havisham)” (Gupta, 18), a social hierarchy resulting from the Post-Industrial Revolution. “Great Expectations” demonstrates the role of social class in the society by emphasizing that social class does not define the character of the individual, the relationship with in the characters, and the value of the characters.
While the novel does act as a social commentary on the disparaging treatment of the poor in England, Dickens fails to do more than comment on the situation. The fact that the social classes are fighting for survival against one another provides for the establishment of a further embedded social caste system of us against them. The very poor in David Copperfield, are at times overlooked by even the middle class characters in the novel. While some of the middle class characters do look out for a few of the lower class characters, these actions are taken as a result of their need to feel needed by others. My paper will examine the desire for the author to write a social commentary on class inequality, survival, and the search for happiness at all costs in David Copperfield.