Social Status in Great Expectation by Charles Dickens

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Social status can be seen in within the novel and in our own society nowadays. It is used as a way of separating those who are well off in life, upper class, versus those who work every day for a living, lower class. In addition social status tends to separate those who are educated versus those who are not. In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Dickens shows the reader the importance of being both in the upper class and the lower class and how it can change a person's moral.

In the novel, a low class citizen is represented as someone who could live life out of what they could get or earn themselves. Joe is a good example of a low class citizen because he is a skilled blacksmith and makes the most out of his life with the small income he receives. Joe is friends with Pip and their relationship is a close one because Joe is the type of person that would put others before himself, even if Pip forgot about Joe, Joe never left Pip's side. When Pip returns to attend Mrs. Joe's funeral, he does not say a word to Joe which really hurts Joe because Joe understands or knows that he will not mean anything to Pip. Since Pip is so surrounded by upper class citizens he won't understand the importance of friendship he had with Joe because the people he is surround by now are only people that will be with him because of his class and wealth. But once Pip goes bankrupt and falls in dept, no one comes to aid him except his old friend Joe. Even after all the pain Pip has caused Joe, Joe still comes back to help him pay off his dept, then he says this to Pip "Not wishing to intrude I have departed fur you are well again dear Pip and will do better without." (439) This quote shows that even though Pip does not need Joe anymore because of the di...

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...as they change from one class to another. Joe being in lower class shows how people at the bottom tend to help each other out more, unlike those at the top who only focus on themselves. Which is why if they were to be in dept or if anything else were to happen to them, there may not be anyone there for them. Pip shows how people change as they move up the social status, Pip left everything behind for a life in the upper class but when things didn't turn out the way he expected he had nothing to return to. He left everyone behind like he was never going to see them and even when he had the chance to see them he still didn't, which is why he can't return because of knowing what he did to them. Social status and wealthy can really change a person and control their life, but when they try to escape from it, like pip, there is nothing left for the person to return to.

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