Great Expectations - Clothing Does Not Make the Man

Great Expectations - Clothing Does Not Make the Man

In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens explores the perception that the value of a man increases with his attainment of material wealth. Dickens probes the truth of such a system of values through Pip's quest for material gain. This quest is the literal pursuit of a better suit of clothing but is conducted without regard for the kind of man wearing the suit. Thus Dickens poses the question: does it profit a man to gain the world at the risk of losing his soul. It is clear, we see, in Great Expectations, that the answer to Dickens's question is no.

As the book opens we find seven-year-old Pip paying remembrance to his deceased family members, now all "dead and buried," then moving towards a concept of his own small place in the world:

...the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes; and . . . the low leaden line beyond, was the river; and . . . the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing, was the sea; and . . . the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip. ( 24; ch. 1)

Pip gains a moment of clarity wherein he apprehends a sense of his circumstances. In the next instant he is assaulted by, as we learn much later, his soon-to-be benefactor. This seems in contrast to Pip's revelation, for it seems to be an act of chaos and disorder. It is, in fact, completely in keeping with Pip's moment of revelation. In the next instant this boy's world, as well as his body, is turned completely on its head as Magwitch, "a fearful man, all in coarse grey . . . no hat, and with broken shoe...

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...nishment. We see now that this is a lesson Pip knows also from first hand experience. It is the lesson Dickens has intended to impart to his reader. Thus, Dickens has a delightful time reminding us not to judge a book by its cover or a man by his clothes. One must read the book to know its contents, one must know the man, likewise, to see his value. Only through knowledge, study, and experience, Dickens might remind us, can one be certain of "the identity of things."

Works Cited

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. 1861. Ed. Janice Carlisle. New York: St. Martin's, 1996.

Inglis, K. S. Churches and The Working Class in Victorian England. London: Routledge, 1963.

Porissien, David. "Literature's 'Eternal Duties': Dickens's Professional Creed." The Changing World of Charles Dickens. Ed. Robert Giddings. New York: Vision P, 1983.