The Importance of Social Class: Charles Dickens's Great Expectations

The industrial revolution in England in the 18th and 19th centuries altered society's social, political, and economic elements. By establishing the class structure, the revolution created a division in society. This led to the swift establishment of increasingly distinct groups, including the middle and upper classes. The lower class was directed at improving their social standing, whilst the upper class was obsessed with retaining their social standing. Eventually, throughout the Victorian era, social status became a high priority. The themes of social class and social inequality have been extensively explored in Victorian literature. The tremendous changes that occurred during industrialization are portrayed in Victorian literature.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens highlights the social strata in post-industrial Victorian England via a variety of characters, ranging from the lower-class desolate Magwitch to the rich Miss Havisham. Many characters in Great Expectations were treated differently due to their social standing. He establishes the theme of social class and ambition when Pip visits the Satis House. Before visiting Satis House, Pip was perfectly content with the life he had with Mr. and Mrs. Joe. At Satis House, he discovers the significance of social standing and the benefits of having money. The novel revolves around this desire and jorney of getting educated and becoming a gentleman.

He realizes the stark divide between them for the first time, when Estella calls him an 'ordinary working boy' and mocks him, 'And what coarse hands he has!  And what thick boots!' Pip takes offense to Estella’s comments and thinks to himself, ‘They had never troubled me before, but they troubled me now, as vulgar appendages,’ he had never considered being embarrassed by coarse hands but Estella’s mockery embarrassed him and... Pip observes the contrast in his coarse hands, and clothing, which together symbolise his lower social position. Pip's perception of himself changes when he sees himself through Estella's eyes. Estella never misses a chance to insult pip. Pip on the other hand finds himself at fault and feels embarrassed for lacking that grace.  For the first time, he sees Joe, his only true role model, as inadequate, ‘I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and then should I have been too.’ Estella exerts her upper-class status and social position over Pip by mocking and humiliating him. Her comments instilled in him 'great expectations,' as he desired to go up the social ladder in order to win Estella's love. Estella and Pip's relationship reflects the actual Victorian era. It depicts the relationship between the working and upper classes. Estella's attitude of scorn towards Pip reflects the mentality of all rich people. 

Dickens illustrates the chasm between the working and aristocratic classes by exposing Pip to a completely different society. “I thought how Joe and my sister were sitting in the kitchen, and how Miss Havisham and Estella never sat in a kitchen but were far above the level of such common” Pip has a fresh and unfavourable perspective on his family's way of life. He had never considered sitting in the kitchen to be anything but usual; but suddenly, it seemed to be low class. He's just discovered that only servants walk into the kitchen in upper-class houses; their masters are served upstairs. Pip's family, without servants, lived an entirely different lifestyle, which Pip now considers 'ordinary,' and hence terrible. And hence, he describes his visit to Satis House as, 'That was a memorable day for me, for it made greater changes in me,' (Dickens 100) he feels compelled to better his social standing.

The theme of social class continues to be crucial throughout the novel and becomes a measure of value by which the character assesses one another. The narrative of Compeyson also illustrates the novel's recurring theme of class inequalities. Magwitch is an orphan of humble birth, while Compeyson is a well-educated man. As Magwitch says, “He set up fur as a gentleman, this Compeyson . . . He was a smooth one to talk to, and was a dab at the ways of gentle-folks” (Dickens 489). As a consequence, Compeyson was able to bargain a moderate sentence during his trial, whereas Magwitch received a harsher term. 

Because of his poor treatment at Satis house, Pip believes that a “true gentleman” must act in the same way as Estella. Pip's sole ambition to become a gentleman is influenced by his belief in superiority.  Pip's longing for Estella, an upper-class well-bred girl, makes him realize that he has to become a gentleman to gain respect and love from Estella. “Biddy,' said I, after binding her to secrecy, 'I want to be a gentleman.'  This indicates his intense desire to improve his standing in society. The theme of self-improvement, notably economic and social self-improvement, becomes essential to the plot as the novel develops. In this way, Pip's strong sense of moral duty, which is first shown in this section, serves as a psychological parallel to the novel's subject of societal development.  

Pip realises education is important if he wants to go up the social ladder and improve his economic stature. Pip desires educational improvement. This goal is inextricably linked to his social aspirations and desire to marry Estella: being a gentleman necessitates a thorough education. He has little chance of social development as long as he remains an uneducated rural kid.

But this pursuit of being educated wouldn’t have been possible if he hadn’t got a large fortune from an unknown benefactor who had but one condition attached to it which was that all that money should be used by Pip only to acquire education and the habits of a gentleman. And so Pip leaves for the city to fulfil his dream to get the real education as before that as a child he received no such formal education. He didn’t gain much at Mrs. Wopsle’s Great Aunt’s School. Dickens describes mrs. wopsles school as Though Biddy, the family’s helper teaches him some basic knowledge that raised him a little above total illiteracy. it is observed that all the themes are somehow connected to Pip’s education. Pip as a social outcast, wealth, morality, Pip’s conscience etc., all of these are either the cause or the effect of Pip’s education. It is Pip’s education that makes him a mature person and it is this education only that promotes the idea of self-improvement. This idea of self-improvement was very prominent during the fifties and sixties among the working class who held values such as thrift, diligence and hard work.

Great Expectations is a bildungsroman (meaning education novel when translated into English), a story of the growth and development of its main character Pip. Pip’s desire for self-improvement is the main source of the novel’s title: because he believes in the prospect of advancement in life, he has “great expectations” about his future. Dickens presents Pip as an idealist; whenever he sees something that is better than what he has, he immediately wants it. When he sees Satis House, he yearns to be a rich gentleman; when he thinks of his moral shortcomings, he wishes to be good; when he realizes that he cannot read he wants to learn. 

As he begins to be inspired by Miss Havisham and Estella, Pip is mortified by Joe's blacksmith status and lack of educational abilities. Joe, according to Pip, must be more deserving of the upper-class society to which he has recently been admitted. When Pip begins to feel humiliated by Joe, he shows that money and cruelty are beginning to take control of him. Despite the fact that Joe was previously a close friend of Pip, their socioeconomic classes have divided them. Pip not only wants to be rid of Joe, but he also wants to change his identity. ‘I wanted to make Joe less ignorant and common, that he might be worthier of my society and less open to Estella’s reproach.’ Joe’s lack of education makes Pip embarrassed. Pip was so engrossed in his ambition of becoming a gentleman that he even attempted to improve his surroundings by trying to teach Joe to read. 

As pip matures, he comprehends his faults, “As I had grown accustomed to my expectations, I had insensibly begun to notice their effect upon myself and those around me. Their influence upon my own character, I disguised from my recognition as much as possible, but I knew very well it was not at all good.' Pip is successful in discovering the harm he has done to himself and the people he cares about. The people he is referring to are those who have assisted him in becoming affluent. In the novel, the harsh demands of the upper class have led Pip to be ashamed of his poverty. He was eager not just to become a gentleman, but also to feel superior to members of the lower class. Pip is very repentant for the pain he caused Joe. Pip eventually realized that forsaking his family to become a gentleman for selfish motives was horrible and unjust. As a result, he admires Joe as much as he did when he was younger.

Dickens gradually exposes the superiority of wealthy people over lower-class people, Pip's reliance on and need for money in becoming a gentleman, and the revelation of identity and truth over expectations in a vulnerable time. Pip's ascension underlines the value of wealth and power in Dickens' period, as well as the typical desire to climb to higher social class.  Dickens’s coming of age novel is founded on the idea of social classes, and through Pip’s journey to achieve the title of “gentleman”, Pip, however, comes to recognize social class for what it is after being risen to the position of a gentleman: an unfair, capricious norm that is mainly irreconcilable with his own principles. Dickens explains that money is not the only thing that distinguishes a gentleman. Pip's perspective shifts at the end of the narrative, when he understands that having social etiquette and a family is more important than being wealthy. The most essential lesson Pip learns in the novel, and probably the most important theme in Great Expectations, is that no external measure of worth can substitute one's own moral judgments. Dickens offers a story of a young boy who is blinded by the significance of social status, only to uncover that his true identity was, and always will be, in the marshes, he came from.

Works Cited

• Haque, Farhana. “Depiction of Victorian Era in the Novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.” International Linguistics Research, vol 1. July 2018, Pp 17.
• Dickens“How do Great Expectations Reflect the Victorian Era?” UK Essays, November 2018