Dicken's Views on Victorian England's Class System

Great Expectations, a novel written by Charles Dickens during the Victorian era. This novel was set in early Victorian England at a time when great social changes were taking place. During the late eighteenth and nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution had transformed the social landscape, allowing industrialists and manufacturers to accumulate huge fortunes that would otherwise have been inaccessible. Aside from the political and economic change which occurred, a profound social change took place. The populace seeking to better their lives, sought after employment in newly-formed industries. During this era, the society was categorized into three classes: upper, middle, and lower class and this system was the called the social class system. In Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, the class system played an important role. These classes and the differences between them were clear in the interaction of the characters and in the plot of novel. Dickens had a negative view of this system, where the upper class is omnipotent, the middle class consists of those envious of the upper class, and the lower class who are unable to succeed due to their birth status. Charles Dickens was part of this era, he sprung from the lower middle class, and thoroughly acquainted with the life of the poor. Most of Dickens’s novels were shaped by the events that were taking place during that time. Throughout his novel, Dickens emphasizes the difference between appearance and reality through Pip's expectations of something better, social status, and settings in the book.

The consequences of Pip's actions shown in the novel allow us an insight into Dickens’s social ideals - Pip's life as a gentleman is no more pleasing than his life as a country labo...

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...hese classes and the differences between them were clear in the interaction of the characters and in the plot of novel. Dickens had a negative view of this system, where the upper class is all-powerful; the middle class consists of those envious of the upper class, and the lower class who are unable to succeed due to their birth status. People were categorized into classes and this was essential throughout the story, since Pip realizes that wealth and class are less significant than love, loyalty, and inner worth. The social class system that existed during the Victorian era caused a division between people. This difference in social class had brought upon separation between characters in the novel like Pip, Estella, Magwitch, Miss Havisham and Joe.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: Signet Classics, 1998. Print.