Category: Great Expectations

In the novel “Great Expectation” by Charles Dickens, the main character Pip grows and develops into a young gentleman, who learns many valuable life lessons about himself. Along his path of development, Pip’s knowledge and growth are influenced by his friends and family who act as his guardians. Throughout the novel Great Expectations, Pip receives both spiritual and moral aid from Joe Gargery, Biddy and Herbert Pocket as exemplified through their dialogues and actions.

Joe Gargery has an influence on Pip’s life as seen through his actions and words. Joe teaches Pip the value of being truthful, as he describes lies as descendants from “The father of lies”(Dickens, 71). This signifies that when one lies it is as if they are listening to the devil himself and disobeying God. Pip’s lies derive from his visit to Miss Havisham’s house where he describes Miss Havisham as having “four dogs” (Dickens, 68) while Estella was “waving a blue flag” (Dickens, 68), Pip “a red one” and Miss Havisham “a gold sprinkled one” (Dickens, 68). These lies Pip told to Mr. Joe, Mrs.Joe and Mr.Pumblechook. It was a good thing that Joe was able to teach Pip about lies. This helped Pip because in the future he was able to be truthful in every kind of way, for example when he was telling Estella about his feelings and said “Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil”(Dickens, 364). Here Pip does not lie about having evil in him, he states it clearly to Estella. Additionally, his being upfront and honest to Estella regarding his feelings for her instead of lying. Joe offers help to Pip by teaching him manners which is a trait that Pip carries throughout his development as a young man. Joe explains “Manners is manners, but still your elth’s your elth’”(Dickens, 11) after Joe is under the impression that Pip hurriedly finished his dinner saying “you’ll do yourself a mischief… you can’t have chawed it” (Dickens,11). In this scenario, Pip hid the buttered bread “down his leg” (Dickens,11). This helps Pip morally as it contributes to his development and ideal of becoming a gentleman. Later on in the novel, Pip’s manners and development as a gentleman is shown through his conversation which Herbert stating that his life began in “a country place [as a blacksmith]”(Dickens, 178) therefore lacking “politeness.” (Dickens,178) This shows that Pip is conscious of his manners, and wants to portray himself as a true gentleman. This personality trait taught to Pip by Joe helps him morally in many ways. For example, it helped Pip make his own decisions in times where Joe could not defend Pip from Mrs. Joe.“When your poor sister had a mind to drop into you, it were notsermuch … that she dropped into me too, if I put myself in opposition to her but that she dropped into you always the heavier for it. I noticed that. …When that little child is dropped into, heavier, for that grab of whisker or shaking, then that man naturally up and says to himself, ‘Where is the good as you are a doing?”’ (Dickens,469 ). Joe morally impacts Pip which contributes to his development as a gentleman, which transpires in the third part of the book.

Additionally, someone else who helps Pip on his journey in becoming a gentleman is Biddy who he met while at Mr.Wopsle’s school. Biddy later becomes a confidant for Pip, which in turn allows him to feel free to tell Biddy anything that happens to him. This is especially seen when Pip states to Miss. Havisham his trust and guidance he receives from Biddy, stating confiding in Biddy “’comes natural to me to do so”, and that “Biddy has a deep concern in everything I told her, I did not know then”(Dickens, 96). Biddy is able to help him morally as she listens to everything Pip confides in her, paying close attention so that she may be able to offer him advice and guidance. Often what Pip shared he just could not say to Joe or anyone else, so it was good that Biddy was there to listen to him because it helped to feel better. Moreover, another way Biddy helps Pip is when Mrs.Joe got attacked and Pip and Joe were responsible for taking care of her “Biddy became part of [their] establishment”(Dickens,123) teaching Pip how to be a good caretaker and how to be caring towards someone. Biddy was able to be a caretaker and understand Ms.Joe. This was helpful for Pip because Biddy helped him understand what his sister was saying. She is also able to offer spiritual help because like Pip she too is an orphan which helps them connect with each other, as Pip has someone he can relate to who shares a similar experience. People such as Joe, Mrs.Joe, Estella and many more won’t understand the impact that being an orphan has on someone’s life. This leads to spiritual help because it helps Pip feel accepted in a way where there is someone who understands him and it gives him peace of mind knowing that he is not alone. Therefore Biddy offers Pip both moral and spiritual help through her support by listening to him, teaching him how to be caring and through her understanding being an orphan.

Herbert Pocket, another helpful character throughout the story happens to be Pip’s best friend. He is also described as “The pale young gentlemen”(Dickens, 93) that Pip got into a fight with earlier in the book. They later reunite in London where they become best friends. When Pip meets Herbert he asks him to help him be more gentleman-like,“I would take it as a great kindness in him if he would give me a hint whenever he saw me at a loss or going wrong”(Dickens, 178) and Herbert being a great friend he is said “With pleasure”(Dickens, 178). This morally helps Pip very much because his ultimate goal in life is to become a gentleman. Having a best friend that is already a gentleman, acts as a guide for Pip’s growth, as Herbert acts as an example for him to follow. Besides helping Pip to become a gentleman, Herbert becomes his best friend while in London which especially helps him since he meets a lot of odd people in London like Magwitch. Herbert is the only true friend he has who offers advice, support, love and kindness, as demonstrated through Estella and when she broke Pips heart when she said, “When you say you love me, I know what you mean, as a form of words; but nothing more”(Dickens,362) stating that she feels “nothing in [her] breast”. She concludes by stating “ I don’t care for what you say at all. I have tried to warn you of this; now, have I not?”(Dickens,362). Herbert helps Pip heal through this tough period in his life, and helps him spiritually as it helps to get peace with himself. This was necessary for Pip as he needed someone to emotionally support him since he never really had anyone to warn him that life can have tough moments like this and that love isn’t as great as it seems. Therefore Herbert acts as both a moral and spiritual aid through being a role model for Pip to follow as well as offering help through his love life.

In conclusion, in the book “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens, Pip learns a lot of lessons throughout his life. He receives moral and spiritual help from his friends and family including Joe, his brother-in-law, Biddy, his friend and his best friend, Herbert. These are some of the people that impact Pip’s life and helps him turn out the way he does. Throughout this novel, Dickens shows us how these characters help Pip in becoming the gentlemen he dreamed of being since he was a child. Even though he came across a lot of bad people who showed him that great expectations aren’t really great, he also met good people along the way that made an even greater impact on his life. Overall, help was what Pip really needed to understand how to act and to understand how people are. If it wasn’t for Joe, Biddy and Herbert Pip wouldn’t have been able to accomplish what he did throughout the novel.

Prose in literature demonstrates its beauty as well as complications when a narrator or third person reflector comes to play their role in narrating the story and molding the plot. There is a lot that depends on the writer’s view as well but the way a narrator communicates and comments upon the plot directly hits the reader and shapes their interpretation of the text. The more vividly an author tries to demonstrate his idea through the help of a narrator; the more distance is created between the author and the reader as there is a third party of the narrator to be relied upon. Charles Dickens has also made use of a narrator to narrate the plot of Great Expectations. The same idea applies to the plot of this story as the narrator takes a grab of everything and takes the reader to see what he is telling. The narrator is the protagonist himself and guides the story through the lens of his own eyes. The very indication is given when the story starts, and the narrator starts talking about him. Throughout the story of novel, one observes how every act is guided through the eye of the narrator who is protagonist himself and being a direct part of the novel; he influences the thought patterns of the reader directly.

The whole process of reading and grasping a literary text keeps rolling among the author, narrator, other characters of the plot and the reader. Sometimes, the author takes control and demonstrates his viewpoint dominantly. Other times, the narrator grabs the attention and manifests his thoughts, actions, and reactions in their own way (Mukherjee, 2005). As the text progresses, other major and minor characters also have the capability of taking over the mind of the reader, but the reader also has to conform to their own interpretation, and at times, they just rely upon their reflections of the text. Thus, the whole process of reading becomes an interesting experience not only for the reader but also for the author whose text is interpreted differently by different perceivers manipulating the themes according to their own contexts.

The characters, first, are multiple and it is incredible to discover that all, absolutely all, have a primary role in history. If there is one that seems very ordinary and of little importance a priori, we discover a few chapters later that it is a pillar of history. That’s really something that one appreciates, and that is found in a few books. From a reader’s standpoint, if it was necessary to highlight one of them, and to elect him as a favorite character – excluding the narrator, Pip, who becomes like a brother and who, if he were to enter the competition, would immediately relegate all the others well behind, the charm of the tender and faithful Joe cannot be ignored, ‘the best friend of the world’ of Pip with which ‘he plays royally,’ and no one knew how to dethrone him – though Herbert is adorable and endearing too. What is striking about this trio of characters is their humility and the values (especially those of friendship) which bind them to each other, and which dazzle the reader by declaring that friendship is so much less superficial.

The plot is perfect, both in terms of storytelling and a novelistic point of view. Besides the fact that the reading is catching and fluid – a real pleasure – the reflections, especially on the destiny – that it is modeled by the chance of a meeting, imagined and controlled by others, the author shows that it escapes us and will always escape us no matter what we do – are absolutely and divinely exquisite. The poetic writing of Dickens is an absolute delight; he handles humor and tragedy wonderfully. The author proposes two ends for us, which is quite original as well. The strongest idea of the book is that of disillusion, but not despair. Moreover, even if everything does not end as one would have predicted and many hopes have not turned into facts, the book ends all the same on hopes, new ones. And then, after all, all the beauty of hope, it remains forever.

The ‘hopes’ are those of the young Philip Pirrip, nicknamed Pip. Pip is a little orphan who has never known his parents. He is raised by an older sister, who shows no tenderness and considers him a burden. Fortunately, this shrew is married to a good man, Joe, the blacksmith of the village, the only adult to show a little affection to this poor boy. One night while he is lying in the cemetery, Pip meets an escaped convict who forces him to find him some food. Despite the fear of his sister, Pip runs down the ladder. But the next day, he attends the capture of the convict by the soldiers. Shortly after, he is asked to go and keep company with a rich old woman. Miss Havisham lives locked up for years in an obscure and dusty house, in the company of memories and mice. She has a goddaughter as pretty as arrogant, which Pip falls in love at first glance. From that day, everything changes for the young Pip who begins to dream of becoming a ‘gentleman’ to seduce Estelle. It is granted a few years later, when a generous benefactor, who wishes to remain anonymous, decides to make him a gentleman and sends him to London to educate him.

First, Charles Dickens is a great storyteller, who never bores his reader: no length at home. On the contrary, as the novel was serialized, the chapters are dense, and the author has an incredible talent to revive the wait of the reader. Then, this novel mixes all genres: autobiography (written in the first person, it is inspired by the childhood of the author); learning novel (since we follow the young Pip for almost twenty years and see him change a lot); social satire (with the portrait of a simple young man that money will corrupt and the denunciation of a certain class snobbery); Gothic novel (at Miss Havisham’s, an ominous figure frozen in a past as moldy as her wedding cake); police history (with the recurrent figure of escaped convicts); a love story, at last, as moving as it is hopeless.

Dickens has a wonderful gift for creating sets, characters, and atmospheres. He walks us from a country village, with his shopping street and inn, to Newgate Prison, and the dark streets of London to the cabinet of an enigmatic lawyer. He never ceases to surprise us with tragic or burlesque characters, ridiculous or moving. He makes us laugh, he moves us, he scares us, he makes us cry. We start to like all the protagonists (even if we often want to flank a good trowel to this ungrateful Pip!) because few are those who are irretrievable. Dickens adores his characters; he gives them all a second chance; he believes in the human being, in his capacity for redemption. And after shaking his reader for 600 pages with the most varied emotions, a great sigh of happiness.

The moral theme of Great Expectations is very simple. Love, loyalty, and consciousness are more important than social progress, wealth and class. Dickens defined the theme and Pip this lesson by exploring the ideas that are primarily ambition and self-improvement, both at the center of the novel’s theme and the psychological mechanisms that constitute a fundamental element of the development of Pip Promotes and who show how to learn (Morgentaler, 1998). Basically, Pip is an idealist. If he offers something better than he already has, he wants improvements soon. When I saw Satis House, he wanted to be a rich gentleman. He loves it when he thinks of his moral defects. He wants to learn when he realizes he cannot read. Pip’s desire to self-improve is the main source of new titles: he believes in the rising potential of life and therefore has great ‘expectations’ for his future.

At high expectations, ambition and personal development take three forms. These are the best motivations for Pips and the worst behavior of the whole novel. First, Pip wants to improve morally. If he undertakes immoral action and feels strong guilt that encourages him to do better in the future, it is very difficult for himself. For example, when he goes to London, he is unfortunately tortured with Joe and Biddy. Second, Pip wants to improve the business. In love with Estella, he wants to be part of his social class, encouraged by MM. Joe and Pumblechook, to encourage him to become a gentleman.

Sophisticated fantasy is the fundamental act of the novel. This gives Dickens the ability to slowly fill his system with time classes and say something about his sullen nature. It is important to emphasize that Pips’ life as a gentleman is not as satisfying or even moral as his previous life as a blacksmith (Meckier, 1993). Thirdly, Pip wants to improve education. This aspiration is closely linked to his social ambition and the desire to marry Estella. Comprehensive education is a prerequisite for being a gentleman.

As long as he is an ignorant peasant, he has no hope of social progress. Pip understands this as a child when he learns to read Aunt Alois at school and as a young man when he takes lessons from Matthew Pocket. Finally, in the example of Joe, Biddy, and Magwitch, Pip learns that social and educational improvement is tied to current values and that consciousness and affection are valued through illusion and social status.

Of all the high expectations, Dickens is the worst crime (Magwich) of the poor peasants of the marshes (Joe and Biddy), the middle class (beggar) and the very fortunate (Miss Havisburg). I am exploring the Victorian class system in England. The theme of social class is at the center of the plot of the novel and the book’s final moral theme: the recognition that wealth and class are less important than affection, loyalty, and intrinsic value. Pip understood this idea when he finally realized that, despite Estella’s gratitude, Estella’s social status was irrelevant to the real personality. For example, Drummle is a big talk, but Magwitch condemned and persecuted has deep inner value.

The most important thing about the treatment of social class by the novel is probably that the class system he wrote is based on the model of Victorian England after the industrial revolution. Dickens generally ignores the aristocratic aristocracy and genetics in favor of characters whose property has been conquered by corporations. Even the happiness of Mademoiselle Hibisham’s family has realized thanks to the brewery. And it’s always related to his villa. Dickens reinforces the dominant theme of the novel on ambition and personal development, combining themes of social class with ideas of work and personal development.

The themes of crime, guilt, and innocence are explored through novels written by the characters of Jaggers, criminals, and prosecutors. Handcuffs attacked by Joe to a blacksmith at the gallows in a London prison, images of crime and criminal justice enter the book and Pips of civil war that harmonizes institutional, legal systems and his inner moral conscience. This will be an important symbol (Jordan, 2001). Pip must learn the externalities of the criminal justice system (police, courts, prisons, etc.) so that the social class is a measure of the superficial value that Pip must learn to find a better way to live. Ignoring its naturalness must be a superficial moral standard. For example, Magwich begins by scaring off Pip because he was convicted, and Pip feels guilty for helping him because he is afraid of the police.

However, at the end of the book, Pip can discover the noble interiors of Magwich and ignore his diplomatic status as a criminal. For reasons of conscience, he helps Magwich escape the law and the police. Pip trusted his conscience and learned to understand the intrinsic nature of Magwitch. He, therefore, replaced the external value scale with the internal scale.

Great Expectations belongs to the big family of the Bildungsroman, the learning novel, which traces the entry of a young boy into adulthood through a whole bunch of encounters and adventures. Great Expectations is still inspired greatly; Pip will rub shoulders with all layers of society and thus form an incredibly detailed picture of the mores of the time. The annoying side of some characters is largely overtaken by the phenomenal amount of detail about English society in London or the countryside in the 19th century. Dickens has a formidable talent for descriptions and for pinpointing the woes of every social milieu, and it is, once again, a pure delight to be carried away by the painting that the author paints.

This is a very nice lesson in life that these ‘Great Expectations,’ anchored in solid and invigorating human values, and suffused with a delicious disuse, light years of ambient cynicism that tends to tax any production involving naivety good feelings (Gold, 1972). There’s no point in this hectic story, though, with Dickens’ subtlety, wit, humor, and irony, making it possible to make notions such as generosity, friendship and simple happiness the alpha and the omega d an initiatory journey pleasant for the soul, of a timeless character and rich of lessons. Thanks to a gallery of characters beautifully incarnated and each of which will play for the hero his score in the symphony of human ambitions, it is indeed a learning loop that Dickens gives life to the very young Pip (a kid to whom it almost impossible to do not focus on the beginning of the novel as it is crisp) by taking him on the path of his ‘great hopes’, those where one places his dreams of love as social elevation. This loop will bring him back years later, after many adventures and revelations in the London of the beginning of the 19th century, the author of which offers a striking painting, at its starting point, richer of a human capital that he will still have stained throughout his adventures to grow.

“Great Expectations ‘ is the story of the rebellion of a young pride, that of the young Pip, which leads to the emptiness of adult vanities on the basis of wealth, shared love and notoriety, that is all of what is usually grouped under the term ‘hope’, in the very 19th century meaning of the word. As always at Charles Dickens, storyteller among the storytellers, all the characters are strong, in the sense that they durably mark the reader. From one novel from Dickens to another, they become familiar to the reader, these figures a little archetypal but never stereotyped, always full of surprise or fantasy, the orphan, the disinherited gentleman, the grumbling and interested trader, then a man of law buried in his bubble, the stepmother, the light-hearted companion, the man of honor, the opportunist, the old lady, etc.

Realism is an imperative theme across Middlemarch and Great Expectations. “The primary aim of realism is to represent real life for the time it is written, and it is the job of the author to create a number of different techniques in order to do so” There is a substantial variety surrounding the number of truth claims used throughout George Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch’ and Charles Dickens ‘Great Expectations”. These truth claims represent reality in their own ways. In this essay, I will be discussing how the truth claims of marriage, gender, and social class represent realism across both novels and how they can also contrastingly be discredited.

The first truth claim made in George Eliot’s Middlemarch is the difficulties and hardships in marriage, particularly on women. The Victorian time period is known to be the era of Romanticism but there were also a lot of very unhappy marriages during this time. The ideology of marriage across Middlemarch differs over Great Expectations, as the women in Middlemarch primarily conformed to their conventional roles as women, whereas the majority of female characters in Great Expectations did not, with the exception of Biddy. Across Middlemarch, we are portrayed with the realities of marriage. Whilst many Victorian novels consider marriage as the ultimate source of happiness, Eliot portrays it to be the contrary. Marriages in the Victorian era were acclaimed by society to be more of a business transaction than an actual act of love. Victorian women needed to find husbands in order to gain financial and social stability and as Philippa Levine puts it, “for the women who did not marry, whether by choice or by chance, spinsterhood marked her as one of society’s unfortunates”. In the case of Middlemarch, Dorothea marries Casaubon because she naively believes he will help her achieve her highest potential as she says, “marriage is a state of higher duties” (38). Casaubon further demonstrates the unromantic portrayal of marriage as he writes in his proposal letter that “for the first hour of meeting you, I had an impression of your eminent and perhaps exclusive fitness to supply that need”. This sentiment resonances as if he is completing a business contract as opposed to romantically attempting to court Dorothea.

Throughout the start of the novel, the female protagonist Dorothea is ambitious with her dreams: she dreams of building cottages for farmers and enjoys horse riding – she is described to be “enamored of intensity and greatness”. When Dorothea decides to marry Casaubon, we, as readers, can see her character slowly start to suppress her own nature as she believes she can access the same “intensity and greatness” she craves through her husband. Dorothea claims she wants a husband that can be a father figure to her and teach her about things, even if she is a strong-willed woman herself because a woman living in her time period only had the option of living vicariously through her husband.

Dorothea’s reality of her marriage is exposed in Chapter 81 when she confronts Rosamond about her affair with Ladislaw: “I mean, marriage drinks up all of our power of giving or getting any blessedness in that sort love. I know it may be very dear, but it murders our marriage”. In this quote, Dorothea is expressing how marriage and love have no correlation and in fact, love can ruin a marriage ultimately. George Eliot further evaluates this when she says “but we insignificant people with our daily words and acts are preparing the lives of many Dorothea’s, some of which may present a far sadder sacrifice than that of which may present a far sadder sacrifice than that of the Dorothea whose story we know”: Eliot presents the consequences of accepting the role of the conventional role of a woman in the Victorian society can lead to women accepting their suffering from their marriages and further reinstates the historical facts that women had very few rights indeed.

Marriage in Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations additionally portrays a similar truth claim about the unhappiness that comes with love and marriage. As a social reformer, Charles Dickens was very critical of Victorian society and only had wishes to improve it. Through his narrative of Great Expectations, the theme of injustice is a truth claim to how the majority of Victorians felt during the time. Dicken’s aim was to collect these social truth’s into showcasing the realities of the Victorian time period. The first marriage to prove the truth claim of marriage wrong in the 19th century is Mrs. Joe. She is immediately portrayed to be a violent woman and even unconventionally oppresses Joe and Pip in the house. She is described to have gained a “reputation with herself and the neighbors because she had bought me (Pip) up by hand” suggesting she is violent towards her son in her disciplinary methods. Surprisingly enough, she is also the same with her husband, Joe, as Dicken’s describes on page 39 of the novel: “she pounced on Joe, and, taking him by the two whiskers, knocked his head for a little against the wall behind him” – this quote in the novel strongly demonstrates her rough character, as she is not described to be the stereotypical ‘angel of the house’ of the Victorian period. ‘Angels of the house’ were described to be gentle, loving, obedient mothers and wives’ and Dicken’s proves Mrs. Joe is the polar opposite. Moreover, she is not feminine and does not have the trait of a proper housewife or wife to her husband. Michael Slater also finds in his critical analysis of the female characters in Dicken’s novel, that “Dickens sees women only as they have been typecast by men – as angelic ministers of grace and inspiration, as tormenting characters, as threats of male liberty”. Considering the fact Charles Dickens was anti-feminist, it is served as a warning when he portrays the majority of the women in Great Expectations to be rebellious and un-womanly. His book serves as a reminder to women to not break social laws and orders as he creates characters like Mrs. Joe, Estella, and Mrs. Havisham and essentially ruins their lives in the novel.

Additionally, another truth claim made by Middlemarch is the role of women and general gender roles. During the early 19th century, there was a very hostile environment in England surrounding typical gender roles that were very strictly enforced within society. George Eliot demonstrates how the expectations that were held on women were particularly suffocating and restrictive in contrast to men. George Eliot’s real name is Mary Anne Evans but used the male pen name of George Eliot as she had full knowledge that she would be taken more seriously if the public knew she was a male writer, showcasing how society viewed women in the early 19th century. In Middlemarch, readers are similarly continuously presented with the stark contrast between the male and female characters and their roles within the novel. From the very beginning of the novel, Eliot highlights these realities on what the male characters really think of women. “I don’t pretend to argue with a lady on politics, your sex is not thinkers, you know”. This quote strongly demonstrates the realities behind not just what the male protagonists think in Middlemarch but the general idea that women knew nothing of politics and were deemed to be uneducated is a truth claim from the Victorian era as a whole. The novel itself has received much criticism from female writers as its protagonist, Dorothea is presented to be a woman with an intelligent mind and a noble soul and it is disheartening when at the end of the novel, she does not break free from societal pressures of her gender role as a woman in the 19th century.

Furthermore, the truth claims of gender and the role of women are surprisingly deflated as demonstrated in Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations. In the 19th century, women were considered to be physically and mentally inferior to men and were more suited towards a more domestic and motherly role, the ‘angel of the house. In Great Expectations, the female characters are portrayed in opposition to their confined roles as women in this century. Great Expectations as a whole, lacks female characters that fully conform to the ‘angel of the house’ duty that they were placed into, all except for the character of Biddy. Mrs. Joe is manipulative, Estella is seductive, and Ms. Havisham is a misandrist. However, whenever readers were introduced to a female character, they are in their homes with the exception of Estella, who travels from Satis House to London. Contrastingly, the men, such as Pip, are introduced to be in the privacy of his own home or roaming the streets of London and the same goes for Joe Gargery who has a social presence at the local tavern. Michael Slater says that “Dickens is subscribed to the bourgeois construction of femininity and domesticity” and that he, like the majority of Victorians, had an idea that men and women had dissimilar natures but came together eventually. However, for some of the novel, both male and female characters maintain their gender identities subject to the Victorian time period and live with the appropriate social space for each sex to an extent. Dickens writes Estella to be the polar opposite of a 19th-century ideal woman. Estella is raised by Mrs. Havisham to torment men and to “break their hearts”. This demonstrates the determination the female characters had to break out of their spheres in society and as their conventional roles as women and to also break out of the truth claim that women were delicate and sensitive.

Social class is also another truth claim that portrays Middlemarch to be a realistic novel. The novel’s subtitle “A Study of Provincial Life” demonstrates that Eliot has purposed to provide the reader with an insight as to how “provincial life” during an era where the systematic element of class is an important element in structuring society. The “provincial life” Eliot mentions is defined by the fact that all of her characters are somehow intertwined with one another in a complicated professional web and this then results in an intense social hierarchy throughout the majority of the novel.

Class apprehension is a theme that runs through the novel but also through the Victorian period itself, it is a true claim that many people had the same ideas of class and the system was not particularly liked by the working class as no matter how hard they worked if they were not born into wealth, it was increasingly difficult to get there. According to Dale H, common laborers, a common job of the working-class, was 3 shillings for a 10 hour day across 6 days of the week.

In Middlemarch, family reputation is an obsession led by class nervousness, leading to obsessive behavior as to who the women in the novel marry. The only way to rise up the social ladder was through marriage, which is why the characters in the novel hold it to such a serious extent.

In Chapter 12 of the novel, we are given a glimpse into how Rosamond and Lydgate bond over their shared distaste of the provincial way of living in the town of Middlemarch. Rosamond, for example, is eager to marry Lydgate strictly due to the fact he comes from an honorable family as Eliot describes “Lydgate had a profession and was clever, as well as sufficiently handsome; but the piquant fact about Lydgate was his good birth, which distinguished him from all Middlemarch admirers and presented marriage as a prospect of rising in rank”. In the novel, Rosamond is so fixated and obsessed with her social standing that she does not realize that Lydgate in fact does not have any money, and it ultimately becomes one of the key factors that destroy their marriage. Eventually, the obsession with social class in the small town of Middlemarch showcases that its community is stuck in a self-deprecated and prejudicial way of living and the truth claims about social class and money further reinforce the realism in Middlemarch.

These ideologies are also demonstrated in Great Expectations. With the novel being set near the end of the Industrial Revolution, there became a time period where the dramatic improvement in manufacturing thus created new job opportunities for those born into lower and poorer classes, in order to move up to wealthier classes. Generally, the lower classes were looked down upon by the upper classes. In Great Expectations, characters were treated differently dependant on their class, showcasing how much social class really mattered. There is a section of chapter 4 of the novel where Mrs. Joe attempts to impress her guests by showcasing the most lavish part of the house, presenting her family’s wealth to be more luxurious than it actually is. Although Mrs. Joe is worried for her reputation and feels ashamed of her class, Pip and Joe are less interested in appearing refined and wealthy and appear to be more comfortable when they arrive in their “punishingly stiff Sunday clothes”. Further on in the novel, class is further represented when Pip and Joe attend one of Victorian England’s working-class schools run by Mr. Wopsle’s great-aunt where it is portrayed that although Joe is complimented on his intelligence, it is then discovered that he cannot actually read. Further on in the chapter, Pip is asked to play at the wealthy Miss Havisham’s house, to which Mrs. Joe is incredibly excited, merely due to the fact that her being middle class and Miss Havisham being upper class, they fantasize about the idea that associating with her somehow will bring them social graces in society and get the financial gain. Toward the end of the novel, Joe comes to see Pip in chapter 27, he treats Joe differently due to his social class and there is an awkward tension between the two characters. Pip describes Joe’s arrival as “not with pleasure, I had the sharpest sensitiveness as to being seen by Drummle” – portraying that Pip felt awkward and embarrassed that Drummle would see him differently for associating himself with a lower-class person such as Joe. The encounter becomes increasingly tenser between the two classes when Joe calls Pip” sir” and the strain on their once friendship is appearing strained. When Joe leaves early, he leaves Pip with “Pip, dear old chap, life is made of ever so many partings welded together, as I may say, and one mans a blacksmith, and ones a whitesmith, and ones a common blacksmith and ones a coppersmith. Divisions among such must come”. This quote suggests to readers that Joe is acknowledging that he is a common blacksmith and Pip is a goldsmith, and the differences in their social class have now bought about the end of their friendship and their separation.

To conclude, there are numerous truth claims used by the novels Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and Middlemarch by George Eliot. These truth claims were true in some retro respects but further proved to be false in others. The truth claims of marriage, gender, and class were all used by both novels in their best efforts to represent reality. As both novels were written in the Victorian time period, the general consensus on marriage was that the wife had towed for financial and social security and follow the ‘angel of the house role’ in being the best wife to her husband. Middlemarch showcases the realities of how unhappy women were in this position as they were expected to live in a domesticated sphere whilst their husbands could do whatever they wanted. Great Expectations showcases the opposite as all of the women with the exception of Biddy, are fearless and disobedient and Dicken portrays in his novel the terrible consequences of women that act this way. Furthermore, the presentations of gender and class are also truth claims made in the early 19th century as women again, had zero rights. Class in both novels showcases how difficult life was for working-class people and society’s viewpoints on them. Both novels use these points to showcase truth claims that were made in society at the time the novels were written, and it is these points that help demonstrate Great Expectations and Middlemarch to be ‘realistic’.

This excerpt belongs to the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. It is a novel set in the 19th century in London. The style of the narrative has three different levels of fiction which are the narrator that tells the story (Pip), the character called Pip and finally, the one who creates Pip who is Philip Pirrip.

The main theme that is repeated throughout the novel is guilt. The fortune of Pip started with guilt as well as it is the origin of his success, and therefore the origin of his great expectations. Since he was a child, he felt blamed since he was taught in guilt. He was an orphan and his sister, Mrs. Joe, adopted him, and took care of him with his husband Joe. So, he was taught to be grateful even for being alive. In addition, he suffered a trauma with a convict called Magwitch that caused him to feel bad for helping him even though he hadn’t other option.

In this excerpt, it is explained that Pip was ill and suffered a series of hallucinations, and he focuses in two things. In the first place, he talks about the confusion of identities. Pip feels confused at this time of the novel because he has no clue where he belongs. He belonged to the low part of society but knew since he was living in London with the money of Magwitch that he was lost, so this is why Pip explained in this excerpt ‘I was a steel beam of a vast engine, clashing and whirling over a gulf, and yet that I implored in my own person to have the engine stopped, and my part in it hammered of’. In addition, Pip was in debt, and felt responsible for it and disoriented because he has lost his place.

In the second part, Pip mentions something about different faces surrounding him, and at the end he talks about Joe. As it is mentioned, he is confused, and he sees different identities, faces. Thus, he is out of his mind because of this feeling of disconnection and guilty.

Basically, the illness that he is suffering is guilt. In this part of the novel, this feeling is compared to disease because it is infectious as an illness. Guilt leads to bad conscience and then, to feel responsible for what you had done thus punishing yourself for that, and at the end, it gives a body response and Pip feels the need to compensate for that and to pay for it.

So, the whole novel focuses on guilt, and characters are affected by it, fortune comes by going through this feeling. Pip talks about guilt along with the novel and this topic is very clear in this part of the story. The protagonist feels ill because all this guilt that he suffered and also, feeling lost because his position in society is not clear.

Charles Dickens is considered by Dr. Diniejko of Warsaw University to be England’s first “great urban novelist” (par. 1). When the Poor Law of 1834 was established, poverty escalated in the streets of London and the lower class citizens were forced to work in the egregious conditions of the workhouses. Through his traumatic childhood experiences, social involvement, and understanding of Industrial England’s flaws, Dickens was able to expose the “economic, social, and moral injustices” of the Victorian Era by drawing the attention of the public to the “deprivation of the lower classes”, which in time, inspired reform (par. 5). Furthermore, Charles Dickens successfully critiques the social environment of the Victorian Era in the novels Oliver Twist and Great Expectations by incorporating intrinsic themes of society portrayed through his use of biting satire and the motif of relationships, respectively.

The “vivid descriptions” of life in the Victorian Era in Dickens’s novels were primarily influenced by his childhood experiences (“Influence of Charles Dickens” par. 1). Born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England, Charles John Huffman Dickens was the second child and eldest son of John and Elizabeth Dickens. Dickens enjoyed a rather comfortable lifestyle in the lower middle class; his father was a clerk for the Navy Pay Office and his mother was educated, which was an anomaly for lower-class women. Due to John Dickens’s job, the family was very accustomed to moving and in 1817, they moved to Chatham, Kent where young Dickens enjoyed the happiest years of his childhood which “permanently affected his outlook on life” (Leone 14). Dickens enjoyed blissful times in Chatham where he spent time with friends, put on magic lantern shows, and sang duets with his sister, Franny. Due to his poor health, Dickens often spent much of his time reading which contributed to his exceptional performance at the School of William Giles. His education at this school laid “the groundwork for his lifelong hope and vitality” in which Dickens desired to graduate college and enter into a profession (14). However, Dickens’s bliss was interrupted on February 20, 1824, when his father was arrested and imprisoned in the Marshalsea Debtors’ Prison under the Insolvent Debtors Act of 1813. With the family in financial turmoil and his father in debtor’s prison, Dickens’s prospects only continued to blacken. When Dickens was merely twelve years old, he was sent to work at Warren’s Blacking, a shoe polish factory, where he worked for a brutal 12 hours a day earning only six shillings a week. While he was working at the factory, Dickens reached an epoch which he described as “the secret agony of my [his] soul” (15). Dickens felt as if he had fallen through the social hierarchy to the lowest depths of the laboring class, ‘utterly neglected and hopeless” (“Childhood of Charles Dickens” par. 12). After four months, he was rescued by his father and allowed to resume his education, but the humiliating stigma cast a permanent shadow on his life which he “never afterward forgot” (par. 13). As a result, Dickens sustained “deep philosophical wounds,” yet was able to utilize his poignant childhood as a “springboard” for future social reforms (Diniejko par. 17).

After surviving his father’s imprisonment and working in the factory, Dickens wrote Oliver Twist to expose the innate problems of society to provide for the lower class, more specifically, about the failure of the workhouses. In the opening chapters of Oliver Twist, society is defined as a world of “poverty, oppression, and death” which represents the conditions of the lower class (qtd. in Slater 54). Additionally, Dickens uses sarcasm to suggest that “we [society] are the villains,” thereby urging the middle class to feel sympathy for the poor by establishing the theme of the callousness and apathy of society towards the lower class (Kincaid 119-120). He expands upon this accurate view by incorporating the motif of the victimization of innocent children portrayed when Oliver is forced to join Fagin’s gang and the characterization of Nancy, a prostitute.

According to Michael Slater of the University of London, Oliver Twist “begins with satire” which stemmed from Dickens’s outrage at the Malthusian chatter about the “surplus population” and the government’s “workhouse as deterrent policy” (53). Dickens satirically characterizes the philosophers whose “blood is ice, and whose heart is iron” that run the institutions as no more than executioners who will kill off the “inconvenient poor” (53). However, this system of “prolonged hunger, physical punishment, humiliation, and hypocrisy” is ironically challenged when Oliver is born into a workhouse, contradicting its entire purpose (Diniejko par. 8). Dickens sardonically writes, had Oliver been surrounded “by careful grandmothers, anxious aunts, and experienced nurses and doctors of profound wisdom, he would most inevitably and indubitably have been killed in no time” (4; ch. 1). In fact, Oliver’s “good sturdy spirit” only gets plenty of room to grow “thanks to the spare diet of establishment” on Mrs. Mann’s baby farm “without the inconvenience of too much food, or too much clothing” (4; ch. 1). Thus, the satirical beginning of the novel starts with the birth of Oliver Twist and is further developed when Oliver is moved to the workhouse operating under the Poor Law of 1843.

On Oliver’s ninth birthday, he is taken by Mr. Bumble, the parish beadle, to the workhouse where the board decides that he will be “educated” in the craft of “picking oakum” which Dickens satirically describes as such:

The members of this board were very sage, deep, philosophical men; and when they came to turn their attention to the workhouse, they found out at once, what ordinary folks would never have discovered–the poor people liked it! It was a regular place of public entertainment for the poorer classes; where it was all play and no work. ‘Oho!’ said the board, looking very knowing; ‘we are the fellows to set this to rights; we’ll stop it all, in no time.’ So, they established the rule, that all poor people should have the alternative (for they would compel nobody, not they), of being starved by a gradual process in the house, or by a quick one out of it. (13; ch. 2)As a result, Oliver receives only three meals of the As a result, Oliver receives only three meals of thin gruel a day, with an onion twice a week, and half a roll on Sundays. Since the purpose of the board was to solve the problem of the surplus population through gradual starvation, Oliver’s “request for more” shocks the workhouse to the point where “horror was depicted on every countenance” (15; ch. 2). As punishment, Mr. Bumble, Dickens’s satirical creation who is “totally identified with his institutional role,” `beats Oliver until he is “within an inch of his life” (Slater 54). Eventually, it is decided that Oliver will be apprenticed to the cruel chimney sweep, Mr. Gamfield, “whose villainous countenance was a regular stamped receipt for cruelty” (24; ch. 3). In this scene, Dickens satirizes the “half-blind and half childish magistrate” who represents societal law and will decide whether Oliver is to be apprenticed by Mr. Gamfield (24; ch. 3) (Slater 54). Ironically, although Oliver is saved from a horrible fate and allowed to return to the workhouse, it is done so “only by accident”; the magistrate sees Oliver’s terrified countenance because the inkpot is not in the usual place (Slater 55). At seeing Oliver’s face, the magistrate has a fleeting human reaction as he declares, “Take the boy back to the workhouse and treat him kindly. He seems to want it” (25; ch. 3). In this, Dickens is criticizing the large institutions who govern society; they fail to see the people they govern as beings, rather, only as abstractions of society. Later, when Oliver is apprenticed to Mr. Sowerbury, he witnesses a funeral for a pauper that reinforces Dickens’s view on the corrupt societal institutions. The clergyman reads “as much of the burial service as could be compressed into four minutes,” thus, revealing the indifference and apathy prevalent in Victorian society (Slater 55).

Oliver escapes from this society in chapter eight only to be imprisoned by the criminal underworld in London. At the center of this “sinister labyrinth” is Fagin, a master criminal, who like Mr. Bumble, embodies a corrupt aspect of Victorian society (56). Furthermore, from this point onwards, the novel “ceases to be satirical” and focuses more on the perception of Oliver as “the principle of Good surviving through every adverse circumstance,” and depicting criminals “as they really are” (56). Dickens describes Fagin as a literal “emanation” from the streets: “the hideous old man seemed like some loathsome reptile, engendered in the slime and darkness through which he moved” (qtd. in Slater 56). Dickens characterizes Fagin as such in order to emphasize the prevalent motif of the victimization of innocent children in society. For example, when Fagin trains Oliver to be a thief, Oliver suspects nothing and only “wondered what picking the old gentleman’s pocket in play, had to do with his chances of being a great man. But thinking that the Jew, being so much his senior, must know best, he followed him quietly to the table; and was soon deeply involved with his study” (72; ch. 9). Thus, Fagin exploited Oliver’s innocence by corruptly “instilling into his soul the poison which he hoped should blacken it and change its hue forever” (152; ch. 18). Similar to Oliver, Nancy, who is a prostitute in Fagin’s gang, is victimized by England’s society, though more because of her vulnerability than her innocence. Due to the poverty and corrupt environment in which she lives, Nancy is left with no other means of survival than prostitution, a profession she abhors. Thus, although Oliver and Nancy are victimized in different ways, they are both exploited by the same corrupt society which fails to provide for them.

Unlike Oliver Twist, Great Expectations explores the theme of the existing conflict between love and money through the development of the main character, Philip Pirrip. In the novel, Philip, nicknamed Pip, uncovers the true nature of love in society, which Dickens traditionally portrays as the only means of escape from the solitude Pip experiences. From its inception, the reader can clearly distinguish Pip’s desire for love from his visit to his parents’ grave. However, after Pip’s sister, Mrs. Joe, angrily confronts him following the encounter with the mysterious Abel Magwitch, to whom he gave food, Dickens reveals that Pip needs love, but only that which is freely given, not bought with money or extorted via threats (Selby 38). Thus, throughout Great Expectations, Dickens emphasizes that true love is selfless and requires sacrifices; Pip must relinquish his desire for wealth and social status in order to attain personal and moral development.

Although Great Expectations is a work of fiction, its narrator, Pip, has a lot in common with Dickens. Like Pip, Dickens experienced deprivation and shameful childhood, had great expectations of moving up in society, and suffered terribly in love. Both Dickens and Pip became disillusioned with their success and recognized the shallowness of their high expectations (Leone 26). Furthermore, in Great Expectations, Dickens portrays the conflict between love and money through his extensive use of the motif of relationships. Pip’s best friend, Herbert Pocket, hides his relationship with Clara from her mother because Herbert is not from the “right status”. Miss Havisham and Pip finance Herbert’s aspirations but keep it a secret. Most importantly is Pip’s relationship with his brother-in-law, Joe. While in London, Pip expresses, “Not with pleasure, though I was bound to him by so many ties; no; with considerable disturbance, sober mortification, and a keen sense of incongruity. If I could have kept him away by paying money I certainly would have paid” (211; ch. 27). Thus, in each case, money obscures the expression of love and happiness is found “not in seeking its (society’s) approval or in embracing it, but in escaping it” (Grant 62). Also, by endeavoring to involve himself with society, Pip inadvertently falls into the upper class’s selfishness. This theme is demonstrated in the conversation between Joe and Miss Havisham, a member of the rich upper class whom Pip is ashamed to come into contact with when Joe is present. When Miss Havisham inquires about Pip’s apprenticeship to Joe, Joe speaks solely to Pip in an effort of refusing to turn his love for Pip into a “commercial transaction” (Selby 43). In contrast, Miss Havisham and her daughter, Estella, both share in a materialistic view of Pip and Joe as a servant and master. However, this new relationship, which is forced upon Joe and Pip by Miss Havisham, causes tension between them as Pip suddenly starts to accept Miss Havisham’s views and see Joe as a “socially inept fool” (43). Thus, it is evident that money destroyed the simple love Pip once felt for Joe, proving the effect it has on people and relationships.

Four years later, Pip is visited by Jaggers, a lawyer, who brings him promises of “great expectations” (35). Although Pip is hesitant to enter the coach that will take him to London and away from Joe, he ultimately chooses a life as a gentleman and abandons his closest friend for this pursuit. Even Joe’s visit to London to see Pip ends in failure because Pip would rather not be seen with someone from such a low class as Joe. Thus, Dickens shows how Pip is seeking approval from a society where power is derived from status and wealth; Pip, possessing both, has completely severed his relationship with his oldest friend, Joe. In contrast, at the end of the novel, even when Pip has lost everything, Joe still provides compassion and friendship, thereby demonstrating that the true gentleman is lower-class Joe, not middle-class Pip (Wilden 32). In fact, Dickens emphasizes the motif of relationships to portray that aspiring to be both happy and socially successful are incompatible ambitions, writing that “no man who was not a true gentleman at heart, ever was, since the world began, a true gentleman in manner. He says no varnish can hide the grain of wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself” (Grant 60).

The theme of the conflicting nature of love and money is further developed through Pip’s relationship with Estella, the girl he loves, and Magwitch, his benefactor. When Pip’s love for Estella is repudiated, Pip becomes ashamed of his lower-class status, hence, his abandonment of Joe in his journey to London. However, Pip’s personal development occurs not through his love for Estella, but through the slow change in his relationship with Magwitch. (Miller 51). As Pip falls deeper into debt, he shamefully learns that the convicted criminal, Magwitch, whom he helped as a child, was the source of his wealth, his benefactor. In this, Dickens if offering redemption to Pip to find love in embracing “his act of charity” to the convict rather than pursue a superfluous, upper-class life with Estella (52). Thus, Pip is finally forced to choose between love and money: he either must give Magwitch up to the police or break society’s laws by harboring a convicted criminal. At this point, it is clear that Pip can only escape from his despair by accepting Magwitch, relinquishing his great expectations. After Pip’s failed attempt to smuggle Magwitch out of London, Pip states, “for now my repugnance to him had all melted away, and in the hunted wounded shackled creature who held his hand in his, I saw only a man who had meant to be my benefactor, and who had felt affectionately, gratefully, and generously towards me with great constancy through a series of years” (qtd. in Miller 53). In doing so, Pip is finally able to find happiness by isolating himself from the materialistic society. Thus, through accepting Magwitch, Pip transforms his once self-aggrandizing love to a selfless one in which money has no influence; he recognizes that Magwitch is the source of everything “he has and is” (54).

In conclusion, Charles Dickens, considered to be the greatest urban novelist, successfully expresses his views on the conditions of life in Victorian society through his use of satire in Oliver Twist and the motif of relationships in Great Expectations. By incorporating these techniques, Dickens relays his concerns about the victimization of innocent children, society’s inability to provide for the poor and the conflict between love and money, all of which revolve around 19th century London’s materialistic society.

Elaine Showalter suggests ‘In Jane Eyre, Brontë attempts to depict a complete female identity’ in the creation of the eponymous character of the novel (Showalter, 2013). The characterisation of Bertha Mason, however, provides a stark contrast to the autonomy Jane seems to possess over her life. Described by Mr. Rochester as ‘some strange wild animal’ that blurred the lines between ‘beast or human being’, Bronte’s attempt to depict realistic, representative female characters does not extend to Bertha. Beyond Jane’s description of Bertha’s voice as ‘demonic’ and ‘unnatural’ sounding, and although she is not reduced to silence, she is not given a voice capable of reason. Valerie Beattie, in her article ‘The Mystery at Thornfield: Representations of Madness in Jane Eyre’ builds upon Julia Kristeva’s theory of the semiotic, in which she posits that the emotional meaning of language is not found within words but rather in the spaces between words (CITE). Beatie states that Bertha exists within the ‘forbidden place inside symbolic language’, suggesting that although Bertha does not possess the ability to speak intelligibly, there is intention and meaning in her laughter and screams, and they function as a rejection to the silence Mr. Rochester forces onto her. The ‘same low, slow ha! ha!’ may have another purpose in making a mockery of Jane’s liberal, feminist thoughts. Even though Mr. Rochester cites Bertha’s ‘debauchery’ and sexual freedom as justification for his imprisonment of her, which could indicate that Bertha could agree with Jane’s stance on gender equality, Beattie suggests ‘it is surely ironic that Bronte reintroduces Bertha’s laugh when Jane is most overtly political in her aspirations regarding women’s status’.

This reading adheres to a position critics of Jane Eyre have taken, in which Bertha’s main narrative function is as a mirror to Jane’s innermost thoughts and beliefs. With repression of emotion being taught to Jane from a young age at Gateshead and Lowood, her hesitation and anxiety at marrying Mr. Rochester manifests in the form of Bertha breaking into her room and destroying her wedding veil. Sue Spaull draws attention to the importance of mirrors in ‘Gynocriticism’, in which she states, ‘Jane is constantly confronting her ‘truest and darkest double’ in reflections of herself’. Further evidence of Bertha being a reflection of Jane’s desires is clearly illustrated in the first meeting of the two on the eve of her wedding, ‘at that moment I saw the reflection of the visage and features quite distinctly in the dark oblong glass’. Another textual parallel between the two vastly different women is found in the confinement of Bertha in the third story of Thornfield Hall and of Jane in the ‘red room’ as a child. Sally Shuttleworth comments on the similarities between Jane being described as a ‘mad cat’ when imprisoned in the ‘red room’, and the constant characterisation of Bertha as an animal, also noting the Victorian idea that women were closer to animals than men (CITE). Jane’s feelings of imprisonment within Thornfield Hall, depicted in ‘my sole relief was to walk along the corridor of the third story, backwards and forwards’, also draws a clear connection to Bertha, especially since the two women are merely separated by a wall at this point in the novel. Shuttleworth also draws attention to this room, titling the third floor and the ‘red room’ a spatialized configuration of Victorian notions of female interiority’, in which both women are confined for showing passion, uncontrolled emotion. This act of imprisonment links back to the Victorian connection of woman to animal, locking Bertha and Jane in a room the way one would an unruly dog.

Female insanity is a topic Dickens navigates in Great Expectations through the character of Miss Havisham, a wealthy woman set on exacting revenge on men after being jilted at the altar over ten years ago. Miss Havisham’s confinement to Satis House, a ruined mansion, is self-imposed, unlike Bertha Mason’s. In the introductory notes to the novel, Dr John Bowen sympathetically comments on her characterisation, ‘Miss Havisham is the victim of a terrible trauma, which she condemns herself to repeat day after day, alone and friendless’. Even though Miss Havisham raises Estella, her adopted daughter and Pip’s love interest, to be a cold, unloving young woman, encouraging her to ‘break (men’s) hearts and have no mercy’, far more sympathy is extended to her than to Bertha Mason. This is because, despite her perceived madness, Miss Havisham is allowed a voice and is capable of reason and logic. She speaks with the diction of a civilized, mannerly woman and is able to communicate clearly with Pip and Estella. For this reason, Susanna Bennett, in ‘Representations and Manifestations of Madness in Victorian Fiction’, suggests that Miss Havisham’s plays the role of an insane woman suffering from heartbreak, in order to ‘to gain attention from and power over her relations’ (CITE). However, this reading of the text is overly simplistic and ignorant of the sincerity of Miss Havisham’s mental illness, of which there is more evidence that suggests it is not a performance in the slightest. She shuns social contact, disregards personal hygiene, is purposely oblivious to time and remains apathetic towards the feelings of Estella and Pip until her tragic death, clear indicators of what many critics have defined as ‘hysterical insanity’ (CITE).

Miss Havisham’s perspective on marriage is complex. She rejects and disparages the concept of love, as she perceives it to be the root cause of what she defines as her ‘misery’, defining it to Pip as ‘blind devotion, unquestioning self humiliation, utter submission, trust and belief against yourself and against the whole world, giving up your whole heart and soul to the smiter—as I did!’. Yet the preservation of her wedding dress and cake, however yellowed and rotten they have become, indicate that she holds onto hope that her deceitful fiancée may still reappear. The use of her white wedding dress, a symbol of virginity and femininity, becoming decayed and ‘all yellow and withered … in a state to crumble under a touch’ is a clear metaphor for Miss Havisham’s femaleness being destroyed. Alongside this, Satis House is also in ruins, and with the knowledge that during the Victorian era, a woman’s place was considered to be in the home, the indifference shown towards upkeeping her house exemplifies Miss Havisham’s rejection of femininity as a result of her insanity. L Raphael comments on Miss Havisham’s refusal to ascribe to feminine ideals, considering it to be the root cause of the disdain Pip feels towards her. She states, ‘she is the owner of Satis house and an authority over Estella … she represents the male Victorian figure: she owns property and she possesses a female’. Like Bertha Mason, the reason Miss Havisham is repulsed by the men that surround her is because of her adoption of masculine attributes, where Bertha is ‘tall and large’ with a ‘brow furrowed’, Miss Havisham’s physical appearance is feminine, but she is a dominating male presence.

The Victorian ideal of femininity is addressed frequently in both novels, with characters like Jane and Estella ascribing to it while Bertha and Miss Havisham are punished for rejecting it. Despite appearing to be distinctly different from one another, Miss Havisham and Bertha share a range of similarities. The first of which is the lack of a positive female figure in either woman’s life, with Bertha’s mother being ‘both a madwoman and a drunkard’ and Miss Havisham’s dying shortly after her birth. C Carson comments on this, stating that the death of Miss Havisham’s mother is the root cause of the denigration of her mental health, and had she grown up with a mother, her intelligence and empathy could have been nurtured, allowing her to deal with rejection and betrayal healthily (CITE). In Bertha’s case, Mr Rochester makes clear that he believes her madness to be genealogical. Curt Hartog, in ‘The Rape of Miss Havisham’, posits ‘women in Great Expectations are destructive primarily because they deny and are denied motherhood and since Dickens equates motherhood with feminine identity, this denial becomes an irreparable breach that eventually results in disaster’. This theory can also be applied to Jane Eyre, and the message is clear in both novels; the lack of a mother or maternal figure brings significant harm to women.

At first glance, the character of Jane Eyre contradicts this idea, since she is also without a positive maternal influence, but characters like Bessie Lee and Helen Burns take upon the role of a warm, guiding figure, one that is not extended to Miss Havisham or Bertha. The ‘disaster’ that Hartog references is the tragic fate of Miss Havisham, a fate that bears resemblance to Bertha Mason’s own. Miss Havisham is killed by fire and although it is Bertha’s jump from the roof of Thornfield Hall that kills her, she is surrounded by fire as she commits suicide. In literature, fire is viewed as both a destructive, punishing force and a ‘purifying, cleansing (force) that allows for the birth of a fresh new world’ (CITE). Unlike Bertha, Miss Havisham is forgiven by the main character of the novel for the destruction she has reaped in his life, and her death enables him to mature and continue on his journey. Because communication between Jane and Bertha or Mr Rochester and Bertha is not accessible, forgiveness is not available to her but her death allows Mr Rochester to pursue marriage with Jane, adhering to the idea that fire is ‘cleansing’ and allows progression. However, there are also distinct differences between Miss Havisham and Bertha Mason. Unlike Bertha, Miss Havisham is given the opportunity to justify her descent into insanity, and frequently speaks of her broken heart and lost love, while Bertha’s story is heard only from Mr. Rochester, a male. Her confinement to Satis House is also self-imposed and she doesn’t desire contact with the outside world, unlike Bertha who continually attempts to escape from the third floor of Thornfield Hall. In terms of appearance, Miss Havisham is dressed in ‘rich materials – satins, and lace, and silks’ while Bertha is dressed simply in ‘clothing’ and has ‘dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane’. This juxtaposition draws attention to Miss Havisham’s awareness of her body and appearance, there is intention behind her wearing her wedding dress each day while Bertha’s insanity has driven her past the point of self-consciousness.

Great Expectations was published weekly in the literary magazine called All The Year Round founded by Charles Dickens. It was published from the 1st December 1860 to August 1861. Later that year, in October, Chapman and Hall (that originally was a British Publishing house) published Great Expectations in three volumes. For a better understanding of the novel and the class and class mobility of the Victorian Britain we have to take a look at the book.

Pip is an orphan who lives with his sister Mrs Joe Gargery and Joe Gargery, her sister’s husband. They live in Kent in the mid 1800s[footnoteRef:1]. Joe is a blacksmith and her sister takes care of the house. With this little background we assume that they are not rich but middle-lower class. This will have a huge impact in little Pip’s life. [1: In 1834 The New Poor Law was renewed and poor people was send to workhouses were the conditions were awful. A recurrent topic in Charles Dickens’ novels. ]

In the firsts chapters we discover Pip visiting his parent’s grave. Suddenly, a convict (which Pip thought was a monster) approaches him with an awful attitude, scaring him to death and trying to make Pip liberate him. Pip says to Magwitch (the convict) that his sister’s husband is a blacksmith who could probably have the chain broken.

Much later, in chapter 8, Pip goes to play in Miss Havisham’s house, because maybe this will have repercussion on their future. Pip has discovered a new world going to Satis House. He thought himself being a middle-lower class boy, but while entering to Satis House, the image he had of himself radically changes. Seeing Miss Havisham daughter Estella being so proud of whom she was and being so confident, makes Pip want to be in the high class society instead of being a blacksmith for the rest of his life. Here is when Pip problems began, with the face-to-face of the lower-middle class and the high class.

We can connect these 8 chapters to how classes are represented in Great Expectations. On the one hand, the lower-middle class are represented as people with poor background who have to work to survive, but they are not bitter about it. On the other hand we see how high class people are represented. They are proud of their status and they don’t work because they don’t need to. Also, poor people are mistreated1; we only have to look at how Estella deals with Pip. She beats him and treats him awfully. Miss Havisham, on the other hand is bringing up Estella with the only purpose of making her cold and not capable of loving, because she wants her to torture men with her beauty for revenge.

In the Victorian Era, high class people were there because they had a background of wealth, but this term was beginning to change. Humble people could not become richer with time and effort, but thanks to looking at things differently and with the complaint of lower-middle class this statement was considerably becoming weaker. Middle class or even poor class people could be the same as wealthy people with a lot of effort, unfortunately not everyone was able to achieve it.

Continuing with the book, in chapter 12, “luck” starts to come into Joe’s life thanks to Pip, but Joe, on purpose, will cause a bad image to Miss Havisham. This could be because Joe is not stupid and he knows that Miss Havisham won’t take care of Pip.

Much later on, Pip is now a gentleman, but his life is not what he thought it would be. He is not the delighted high class man he aspired to be, he is depressed. Apart of no having a job and doing very little with his life, Pip discovers that Magwitch has been taking care of him sending him money. Pip is horrified with this situation because he cannot accept the money coming from someone who was sent to Australia for life. He feels betrayed and dirty. Chapters later he understands that Magwitch only wanted to take care of him because he owned him his life. He apologizes to the thief and makes a great bond with him. Afterwards, Magwitch die in prison and Pip gets a very rough fever. He then recovers from it.

At the end of the novel, we see Pip saying goodbye to Estella because she is leaving “forever”. Maybe if Pip was from high class he wouldn’t have met Magwitch and he wouldn’t have met someone (apart from Biddy and Joe) that cared so much for him. Magwitch is a great pillar in Pip’s life. But the most important person in Pip’s life was Estella. If it wasn’t for Estella, Pip wouldn’t have made the most important decision of his life, becoming a gentleman. Thanks to her, Pip has learnt the value of possessions and of things he didn’t know were important. Thanks to the convict we can understand a little bit more his decisions and guilt. Thanks to Joe and Miss Havisham we can understand the mentality of the middle and the high class from a different point of view.

In conclusion, what we can learn about how class is represented in Great Expectations is very clearly. Nobody can be pleased wanting what they cannot reach or wanting possessions they don’t own. First of all you have to be glad of what you have. You cannot move to middle class to high class if you do not appreciate everything you have in life. This is the moral of Great Expectations. Poor class is seen as very glad for what they have because that is the only thing they need; they are seen as a working class that owns what they deserve. In contrast, wealthy people are seen as awful creatures that only think for themselves and are nothing grateful for their belongings and their way of life. Mobility seen in Great Expectations might be a myth too; you cannot go to one place to another because it is impossible. Nothing is easy and sometimes it is better to stick to your background better than move to another class and be miserable. You have to be thankful of what you are, of your belongings and of your background, because nothing comes for granted.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. The British Library – https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-middle-classes-etiquette-and-upward-mobility (Accessed 29th December 2018)
2. Encyclopaedia Britannica – https://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Expectations-novel-by-Dickens (Accessed 29th December 2018)
3. Feminism in India – https://feminisminindia.com/2018/11/06/miss-havisham-choices/ (Accessed 29th December 2018)
4. History – https://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution/industrial-revolution (Accessed 28th December 2018)
5. The National Archives – http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/1834-poor-law/ (Accessed 29th December 2018)
6. The New Poor Law, The Workhouse, The story of an institution, http://www.workhouses.org.uk/ (Accessed 29th December 2018)

BOOKS on-line

1. Morrison, Peter, Serie Editors: Bennet, Sue and Stockwin, Dave. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Hodder Education https://www.hoddereducation.co.uk/media/Documents/English/Study-and-Revise_Great-Expectations_Sample-Pages.pdf [footnoteRef:2] (Accessed 30th December 2018) [2: It is just a sample. I coulnd’t find the complete one. I used this book for guidenes of the characters. ]
2. Lyon, Arthur, et al. Livelihood and poverty; a study in the economic conditions of working-class households in Northampton, Warrington, Stanley and Reading, London: George Bell & Sons, 1915 https://archive.org/details/livelihoodpovert00bowlrich (Accessed 30th December 2018)
3. Mackay, Thomas. Methods of social reform; essays critical and constructive. London: John Murray, 1896. https://archive.org/details/methodsofsocialr00mackrich (Accessed 30th December 2018)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Great Expectations by Charles Dicken’s and Middlemarch by George Eliot simultaneously display the notion that the form is one of the ways it can be understood in relation to the specific historical context from which it emerges. Additionally, they similarly have been shaped by the material conditions of production and reception set in the Victorian Era through social class and conditions. Although Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is a gothic novel, it relates to Great Expectations in its love major conflicts with love, the imperativeness of social class, and the role of women. Middlemarch by George Eliot also represents the desperation for the majority of women to wed into wealth and financial and social security due to the material conditions of the 18th century. In this essay, I will be discussing the debate as to whether the form of the novel can only ever be fully understood from its historical context and how material conditions have shaped Great Expectations, Middlemarch, and Wuthering Heights to highlight social class as they have. With all three novels based in the Victorian Era, they also all come head-on with the Industrial Revolution which additionally shapes the novel, as there was an increase in the production of better working conditions, higher wages, and shorter working days. It overall bought substantial social changes which then shaped Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations, and Middlemarch to have the high themes of society and class.

Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and primarily lived in poverty for the majority of his childhood. His father, incompetent and reckless with his finances, was sent to debtors’ prison when Dickens was only twelve years old. It is argued that Dicken’s life is reflected on his protagonist Pip in Great Expectations as they had a similar upbringing and found financial success in London at a relatively young age. Historically, the 19th century bought about substantial change for Britain. Great Expectations was set towards the end of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, which was a time period that provided substantial technological improvements. It is clear throughout the duration of the novel that social class is a prime theme in Dicken’s Great Expectations. In addition to this, Dicken makes it clear to readers his own personal disdain towards the Upper-Class, most likely due to his similar past experiences being raised in a working-class family. He showcases a wide variety of characters to showcase the historical context behind Victorian England whilst simultaneously portraying the large divide between the working class and upper class. As the novel begins, Dicken portrays to us Pip’s infatuation with Estella and his desire of becoming the ultimate gentleman. Being a gentleman during this era ensued with a man being well-groomed, well-spoken, and well looked upon within society. Pip grows throughout the course of the novel and becoming the ultimate gentleman in this era meant either being born amongst ‘gentlemen’ or being born into the upper-class wealth. As Pip is an orphan and lives with his sister and her husband, Joe, Dicken’s indicates to readers that due to the way society worked at the time the novel was set, it would be most likely and more realistic that Pip would be stuck as working class for the rest of the novel. This makes Pip’s sudden and ironic inheritance by Magwitch becoming his mysterious benefactor a shock to the audience as the beginning of the novel implies that if you are born into a certain class, you were most likely to stay in that class for the rest of your life or in the very best case, become a gentleman. Estella, as Pip’s love interest, initially looks down on Pip for his social status and looks down on the lower working class as a whole. Estella, being upper-class, made rude and snarky remarks towards Pip when they are initially introduced to each other. Being raised by the heartbroken Mrs. Havisham, it comes as no surprise to readers when she calls Pip “common boy” whilst picking at his social class. This upsets Pip as he critiques himself for his “common boots and coarse hands”, leading him to feel “humiliated, hurt, spurned, upset, and angry”. Due to Pip living within other lower working-class people for the majority of his life, it is clear that it comes as a shock to him to be treated this way by Estella and Mrs. Havisham as he was never in much direct contact with the wealthy beforehand. Pip’s sudden financial inheritance leads him to go through many character changes through the course of the novel. When Pip begins to dress nicer, he becomes embarrassed by his small town and particularly of Joe who is now much lower than him socially. When Joe visits Pip in his London home in Chapter 27, Pip feels ashamed and embarrassed of Joe. Simultaneously, Joe even refers to his old friend as “sir”, showcasing how Dicken’s portrayed the upper class to be even something that ruined long-standing friendships. During his visit, Pip even goes as far as to ironically judge the clothes that Joe is wearing as he makes a comedy of Joe’s “efforts to appear polished”. Pip can be described, “as Pip climbs the social ladder, he sinks lower on the human”, further reinforcing how a sudden change in material conditions has changed Pip’s character completely.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is another novel that demonstrates that has been shaped by the material conditions of its production and reception. Wuthering Heights’s form is not the only literary device that can only ever be fully understood in relation to its historical content as its characters and language do also. Heathcliff, one of the novel’s protagonists, represents how social class is an important factor within this novel. Similarly, to Pip in Dicken’s Great Expectations, Heathcliff is also born an orphan, which threw him into the worst social class societally possible. Having a lower social class meant similarly to Pip, he was not able to interest the woman of his dreams, Catherine, due to his social class not being adequate enough for her and not rich like the Linton’s were. In the chapter of the novel, social power is clearly highlighted when Nelly Dean narrates Heathcliff’s story of the time he and Catherine were caught trespassing the Linton’s property. She describes how Linton swiftly dismissed Heathcliff due to his social class and the way he was dressed ‘unfit’. Mrs. Linton even dramatically “raises her hands in horror” as she shouts at him saying “A wicked boy, at all events” and “you frightful thing! Put him in the cellar, papa” and that Heathcliff was “quite unfit for a decent house” whilst additionally making a comment of his language. Whereas Catherine was immediately welcomed as they familiarised themselves with their fellow upper-class neighbor. It was widely known that working-class people in the Victorian era typically spoke much differently in comparison to upper-class people, examples include the lack of pronunciations of the letter ‘G’ and lacking the posh accent that the upper class was known for. English author Nancy Mitford started an uproar within working-class society when she released an essay named Noblesse Obliged. Her essay contained a glossary of terms of ‘U and Non-U English’ – an abbreviation for Upper Class and Non-Upper-Class English. Examples from Mitford’s essay included the difference between saying a person had a nice home. She explained in her glossary that an Upper Class would use the language “They have a very nice house” in comparison to a non-upper-class person likely saying “they have (got) a lovely home”. The differences in these languages explain why the Linton’s immediately dismissed Heathcliff and recognized his social-economic status not just by what he was wearing, but the language he used as well. Terry Eagleton further argues that Heathcliff could possibly be a “purely atomized individual outside of the family and society of an opposing realm”. This passage portrays that the novel was predominantly shaped by the material conditions as social class is a theme repeated throughout. Not allowing Heathcliff to come into their home showcases that Dicken’s wants readers to believe the wealthy looked down upon those that were lower class, particularly as they mock the way he is dressed by calling him “frightening” – the use of hyperbole shows how far the upper-class went to mock those below them socially. Overall, Heathcliff’s treatment for a large portion of the novel showcases how Wuthering Heights is shaped by the material conditions of the Victorian period, as they look down on him for the appearance of his clothes and even the language he uses.

Mrs. Havisham is a prime example of a bitter Upper-Class woman in the late 18th century. Charles Dicken has an interesting representation of her character as it leaves readers strongly disliking her whilst simultaneously feeling quite sorry for her due to the fact, she mourns her husband leaving her just as they were to get married. It is said that Mrs. Havisham was wearing her wedding dress and putting on her second shoe when she heard of her future husband Compeyson, leaving her. Heartbroken, she returns home, still in her wedding dress, still wearing the one shoe, and dramatically setting all of the clocks in her house to be twenty minutes to nine, as that was the exact time, she learned of the heartbreaking news. When Pip arrives at Mrs. Havisham’s home in chapter 8, he describes it to be of “old brick, and dismal, and a great many iron bars to it”. When Pip introduces himself to Mrs. Havisham for the first time, he describes her to be dressed in “rich materials” and described the bouquet of flowers to have had “no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes”. Similarly, to Wuthering Heights, Satis House has a gothic feel to it as it is described by Pip to be “old brick, and dismal” and that some of the windows had even been “walled up” giving it an eerie feeling of the unknown. However, one of the very first introductions of Mrs. Havisham in the novel comes from Pip, where he says in Chapter 7: “I had heard Mrs. Havisham uptown”. Dickens portrays the stark knowing differences between Pip and a woman who is upper-class as he describes her to be “uptown”, far away from the working-class village he was living in. He further goes on to describe her as the “immensely rich and grim lady who lived in a large and dismal house, who led a life of seclusion”. This portrays Dicken’s true representation of the upper class to him as he contrastingly describes her house to be “large” but still dismal” and “rich” but “grim” suggesting that although Mrs. Havisham does have a large house and is financially thriving, her house is still considered to be dismal and although she is rich she is still a “grim” character. Carol Ann Duffy wrote a poem that helped readers at that time understand where Mrs. Havisham was coming from in her mean-spirited character. Duffy is known for taking on the first-person narrative to better understand where the character is coming from and helps them feel less misunderstood. In this case, Duffy writes a poem about Mrs. Havisham named “Havisham”, a very angry and bitter, resentful tone is used throughout the majority of the poem, perhaps to imply how Mrs. Havisham felt being left by her fiancé. The 4th line in the second stanza says “the slewed mirror, full-length, her, me, who did this” insinuating that she is trying to find someone to put the blame on her fiancé leaving her. Overall, Carol Ann Duffy’s poem is an interesting and sympathetic way to perceive why Dicken wrote her character to be as bitter as she is.

Middlemarch by George Eliot is a novel full of English antiquity. Whilst Middlemarch focuses on particular protagonists through the duration of the novel, it predominantly gives readers insight into how the community was during this time period. The subtitle of the novel is “A Study of Provincial Life”, foreshadowing the book will go into detail about community and social class. Similarly, to Wuthering Heights with the characters Heathcliff and Catherine, Middlemarch has protagonists Dorothea and Casaubon who portray the importance of marriage when it comes to rising in social ranks. Much similarly to the other novels discussed, once you were set into a social class through your upbringing and family, it is incredibly difficult to get out of it and up into steady wealth. As Dicken’s showcases how a sudden inheritance and becoming a gentleman can rise your social rank, George Eliot shows us how marriage was also a means to get women into better social positions. Marrying into wealth was strongly encouraged. The novel showcases how it is shaped by material conditions in Chapter 12 when Rosamond takes a liking to Lydgate as she fantasizes over what a future would be like with him as she dreams of “impressing Lydgate’s high-ranking relatives” furthermore proving that she, like many women during this period, married for wealth and social status in the majority of situations. Marriage is a substantial theme throughout the novel as it links to social class, many marriages take place throughout the novel. George Eliot portrays marriage in a realistic manner and showcases it exactly how it would have been during the Victorian Era. According to Bennet, “marriage is the only conceivable career”. Women did not have many opportunities during the Industrial Revolution as men subsequently did, meaning they had no other choice but to marry into financial security and live their lives and wives and mothers. Another marriage that failed was the marriage of Lydgate and Rosamond, it is clear through the novel that Rosamond strictly marries Lydgate for a higher social ranking as when times became financially tough, Rosamond withdraws herself and becomes more bitter towards Lydgate. This further portrays that although they may have married for love initially, under the surface, Rosamond was only after Lydgate’s prospects of giving her a higher ranking within society and financial stability. This is due to her cold behavior once Lydgate starts to become financially unstable. Overall, Middlemarch is shaped by the material conditions of the Victorian period as Eliot showcased the realities behind marriage. Due to the Industrial Revolution providing more steady careers for men and hardly any for women, women then had to turn into marrying for wealth if they were ever going to keep themselves afloat.

To conclude, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, and Middlemarch by George Eliot both portray the ideology of the importance of form one of the literary devices in relation to the historical context from which it emerges. However, all novels mentioned also use other literary devices to showcase this, such as language, characterization, and structure. Additionally, Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations, and Middlemarch are all showcased by their authors to demonstrate the material conditions of production and reception through the hardships of the Victorian Era and the stark differences between the lower working class and upper classes. All novels contain a variety of characters from all backgrounds, such as orphaned children, those born into wealth from a young age, and those who inherit wealth later on. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations similarly portray the large divide between the working class and the wealthy and also the life-changing difference an inheritance can make to a working person’s life. Both Dicken’s and Bronte portray the ‘too good to be true’ notion as neither Pip nor Heathcliff ends up very happy with their sudden fortunes and it doesn’t end up solving all of their prior issues. Eliot’s Middlemarch is more focused on how form and other literary devices relate to the historical problems about gender and females’ place in society, as opposed to wealth like Great Expectations and Wuthering Heights, did. Overall, all 3 novels do showcase that form can be understood in relation to the historical context in which it emerges, but it is not the only factor, as language, structure, and characterization contribute also. All three novels have been clearly shaped by the material conditions of their times as social class plays a large factor across them all.

Pip’s Journey from Innocence to Experience

Charles Dickins ‘Great Expectations’ is a bildungsroman novel narrated by Pip who is an orphan. Dickins’ characterisation of Pip sets him out as an idealist who hopes and works for self-improvement. This serves as the catalyst for Pip’s progression from the innocence of childhood in Kent to the demands of adulthood in London. Dicken’s creates a motivational and attentive protagonist through the progression of his narrative who learns the true value of social status within Victorian Society and the triumph of good over evil.

Ambition and Self-Improvement: Pip’s Quest for Gentility

The theme of ambition and self-improvement are central to the novel. This can be seen through Dicken’s characterisation of Pip who falls in love with his benefactor Magwitch’s daughter Estella who was adopted by Miss Havisham in order to become a Lady. Dicken’s introduces Estella to the reader who serves as the first symbol of wealth and beauty for Pip. Despite treating him ‘coldly’ Pip falls in love with her whilst maintaining the hope of one day becoming a wealthy and honourable gentleman that would be deemed worthy of marrying her. The use of the bildungsroman literary genre allows the reader to create direct contrasts from the juxtaposition of the characterisation and beliefs of the young Pip to the older Pip. As Pip comes of age as the novel progresses the readers learn the lessons alongside him such as the concept of a social hierarchy within society is superficial and used as a façade for the rich to hide behind. Intrinsically Pip’s persona reveals that traits such as love and loyalty are valued more highly than social status within the class system of Victorian England. Dickens determines this through his title ‘Great Expectations’ as he utilises the first-person narration through the perspective of Pip to reveal the different types of self-improvement including moral, social and educational. At the beginning of the novel, Dickens reveals to the reader that Pip craves moral self-improvement. This is portrayed as feelings of extreme guilt when his behaviour does not meet his high personal standard of conduct towards the other characters specifically his family members such as Joe and Mrs Joe. Pip later craves social self-improvement in order to marry Estella whom he is in love with. He wishes to become a gentleman within society and therefore be socially equal to her character. Dickens’ uses this wish to expose the true nature of the superficial Victorian class system. We as readers learn that Pip’s new life as a gentleman with social and finical freedom is no more moral or noble than his life before as Joe’s apprentice. The juxtaposition causes a simultaneous contrast that reveals life in high society does not entail happiness or satisfaction by default as Pip previously thought. Finally, Pip craves education improvement which is rooted in his love for Estella, Miss Havisham’s adopted daughter. In order for Pip to become a gentleman, he must have an education which includes being able to read and write. Before moving to London his education was hindering his social improvement through the class system. In a romantic sense, we are encouraged by Dickens’ to admire Pip as his motivation to become a gentleman is rooted in his love for Estella. However, this is unrequited but his feelings are so deep and genuine he truly believes the ‘cold’ and ‘stark’ woman will fall in love with him once they are socially and financially equal. Dickens ‘creates’ the blunt contrast in their individual characterisation to portray them as complete opposites. Subtly the trope of unrequited love is placed into the narrative amongst the two contradictory characterisations. Dickens’ uses this to give the reader a glimpse of hope that Pip and Estella will end up together.

Social Class and the Illusion of Superiority

Social class is another theme that is central to ‘Great Expectations’ set in Victorian England as its structure was based on the post-Industrial Revolution model of the class system. Pip learns as the narrative progresses that a persons’ character is not related to a persons’ social status within society. This can be seen through Dickens’ characterisation of Estella’s husband Bentley Drummle. He is a member of the nobility and uses social status to abusive the other characters due to his own sense of self supremacy. This is a prime example to show that ones’ status does not correlate with their persona. Whereas Magwitch who is a convicted criminal makes his fortune in Australia and then becomes Pip’s secret benefactor and sponsors him to become a gentleman in London. He is a convict who redeems himself in the eyes of the reader for helping Pip. He does this as a repayment of the kindness that Pip showed him as a young boy by fetching him food and an iron file. Magwitch is the opposite of Drummle as he comes from a low social class but becomes wealthy through commerce and is a ‘invented; by Dickins as a kind-hearted, generous character. The readers are lead to believe that Dickens tends to disregard the inheritance of characters wealth and power within the nobility of society. He instead praises his characters that have made their capital through trading. Such as Magwitch making a fortune in Australia and Miss Havisham’s family making their fortune with the brewery on her estate. The brewery acts as a physical and metaphorical symbol of the connection and correlation between commerce and wealth. The fortune that Miss Havisham possesses is due to her families’ modern success within the market of industrial capitalism, not aristocratic birth which is what the reader is lead to assume. The concept of social class is linked to the conclusion of work as that inherently creates capital and simultaneously crystallises the main theme of the plot as self-advancement again.

Crime, Innocence, and Moral Redemption

Dickens’ uses the themes of crime and innocence throughout ‘Great Expectations’. The use of the binary opposition for the abstract concepts of ‘guilt’ and ‘innocence’ is reinforced through the portrayal of characters such as Magwitch representing ‘guilt’ in comparison to Jaggers, a criminal lawyer who represents ‘innocence’. However Dickens’ manipulates the reader to redeem Magwitch of his crimes through his role as a benefactor for Pip by supporting him to become a gentleman within high society. However, the concept of a gentleman was defined in the later part of the nineteenth century as a man who received a traditional and ‘liberal’ education based predominantly on the teaching of Latin and having attended an exclusive public boarding school regardless of their background. The symbols of crime are apparent throughout the narrative and symbolise a part of Pip’s battle with his moral principles and internal conscience in regard to the justice system. Just as Pip learns that the hierarchy of social class and its value, in reality, is a façade; he also realises that the justice system is also a façade of morality that he learns to look beyond the bounds of by trusting his instincts. This is demonstrated by Dickens through his characterisation of Magwitch whom Pip helps out of fear as he is a convict which causes him to feel guilt. Yet it is revealed to the reader that Magwitch is Pip’s secret benefactor who possesses the quality of nobility. This allows Pip to help him escape the police towards the end of the novel due to Pip’s ability to see past his label as a convict placed upon him by society. This reveals a modification within Pip’s conscience as he trusts his own judgement and subsequently replaces reinstates the external label of a ‘convict’ with an internal label of a ‘friend’.

The Destructive Nature of Wealth and Social Status

Dicken’s uses Bentley Drummle’s characterisation to serve as a contrast to Pips’. Drummle is symbolic of the whimsical nature of the social hierarchy. He is a member of high society and the predominant example that social advancement has no correlation with the moral value of a person. His characterisation is unpleasant and cruel and possesses a strong sense of superiority in comparison to his contemporaries. His obnoxious and thankless persona allows Pip to see the true value of the kind and compassionate characters such as his brother in law Joe and benefactor Magwitch. Drummle also serves as a symbol of a character who has inherited extensive wealth and does not work and is subsequently undeserving whereas Joe works long hard hours as a blacksmith but earns very little money. This foregrounds the subtheme of inheritance within society and how wealth is often taken for guaranteed by the least deserving members of society. Drummle also marries Estella whom Pip is in love with and has been since a child when they first met in ‘Satis House’ which is owned by Miss Havisham. They have an unhappy and miserable marriage and Drummle dies after eleven years. This marriage reveals to the reader the power and influence that Drummle possesses over Pip as by birthright he was a gentleman born into the aristocratic upper class of society. Therefore he was a more suitable and impressive match for a Lady such as Estella who married into an established family with an honourable reputation. Drummle has more financial and social power and influence in comparison to Pip who has once gained financial means through a benefactor and was born into the lower class of Victorian society as an orphan. Dicken’s creates Drummle’s dramatic construct to act as a potential warning of the greed and atrocity that wealth can cause. This then allows Pip to reject his childish dreams and fantasies surrounding his old beliefs of wealth; this encourages him to develop a new comprehension of class and wealth which is more realistic and charitable.

Satis House: A Symbol of Decay and Unfulfilled Expectations

The gothic symbol of ‘Satis House’ which is owned by Miss Havisham physically represent Pip’s romantic ideas and perceptions of the upper class. It was the first concept of the general decadence of the wealthy and powerful despite the house itself being dilapidated. It is also where Pip first meets Estella which I believe causes him to displace his feelings of love and adoration towards her onto the house itself. However, for the reader, the house causes a discomforting atmosphere to the narrative as it is a time warp where ‘time’ has literally been stopped by Miss Havisham on every clock in the house. This symbolises her attempt to stop time by rejecting any attempts to change the way her house was on her wedding day. Miss Havisham is permanently in her wedding ‘dress’ which she never takes off her decomposing body. It subsequently becomes a physical symbol of death and decay within the novel. It foregrounds the pain she suffered at the hands of Compeyson which was the man she loved deeply and trusted. Dicken’s states that’s she only wears one ‘shoe’ as this was when it was revealed to her that her husband-to-be was not going to attend the wedding. She was left emotionally heartbroken which has meant she has maintained everything the way it was on what was hoped to be the happiest day of her life. The readers are encouraged to feel a deep sense of sympathy towards her as she has never gotten over the shock and pain of the situation. Dicken’s has determined her to grieve the loss of her future forever and condemned to relive the pain and memories every day as she sees the table laid for the guests and the wedding cake. This is due to her being jilted at the altar. Her characterisation is used to demonstrate the risks of lacking the ability of forgiveness and hating men for the heartbreak caused to her. As revenge for this, she has raised Estella to be cold and heartless and intended for her to break Pip’s heart.

Dicken’s ‘invents’ Pip’s character to possess ambition which encourages him to desire and additionally work for the best outcome of his situation. At the end of the novel, Pip learns through the dramatic constructs and characterisations of Magwitch, Joe and Biddy that personal qualities such as love and conscience are valued more greatly to those that matter than social status. Pip finally learns throughout his life that moral self-improvement is more valuable to your own self-worth than social and educational self-improvement which in essence only benefit yourself. The overarching theme of the novel as a whole is self-improvement as it benefits ones’ self and the others surrounding you.

Literature can reflect society. Literature also points out what is wrong with the society. In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens exposes the dark side of Victorian era’s industrial age by making his novel a tragedy. Through the character, and structure, Great Expectations can be defined as a modern tragedy and with its tragedy characteristics, the novel reflects the Victorian society’s suffering.

First of all, Pip has many characteristics that belong to a tragic hero which is so crucial to a tragedy. A tragic hero has heroic traits or greatness to make the reader or audience feel sympathetic towards him. Pip also has the tragic greatness. When he is young, he is innocent and helps a hungry convict by stealing his family’s food to give him. This kindness of him leads to his rise in fortune as Magwitch tells Pip that, “You acted noble, my boy…noble, Pip! And I have never forget it!”(362). Later he also becomes guilty of being prideful to Joe and Biddy and of leading Herbert into debt. He further helps Herbert financially in Herbert’s business. Moreover, he helps Magwitch escape and sympathize him. However, Pip has tragic flaws too. He is prideful and condescending to his old best friend Joe. He sees Joe inferior to himself as he tells Biddy that, “ he is rather backwards in some things” (173). He is further snobbish to both Biddy and Joe since he accuses Biddy that she is envious of him and he hires the Avenger, a servant, to seem like a true gentleman to Joe. Besides Joe and Biddy, he does not accept nor is thankful of Magwitch but instead put him away and tells him to “stay!” and “keep off!”(362) when Magwitch is all loving to him. In Greek tragedy convention, the tragic hero has flaw of thinking himself superior to other people. But that means he is against God too so this hubris of him will bring about his own catastrophe. In Great Expectations, Pip’s pridefulness makes him lose his family and friends. Another tragic flaw is hamartia which is a tragic hero’s wrong move and comes from ignorance. Pip’s wrong move is that he enjoys thinking that Miss Havisham is his secret benefactor and that thinking of himself as a hero who will help Miss Havisham and Estella from Satis house: “She reserved it for me to restore the desolate house, admit the sunshine into the dark rooms…(267). Those false ideals hurt him greatly when he finds out that they are not true. Being irrational is one of tragic hero traits too. In Oedipus Rex, made even clearer by his foil Creon, Oedipus is irrational, blind, and persistent thinking that Creon plans to usurp his throne but Creon is already satisfied with his position. Similarly, Pip is not a rational character. He overly idolizes Estella although Miss Havisham’s story of idolizing someone can destroy us gives him a warn that he might be hurt too if he keeps loving Estella. He loves Estella so greatly but does not know why: “I loved her simply because I found her irresistible”(267). His irrationality brings about his calamity which is his heartache. Like Oedipus who is very persistent to know the truth, Pip is persistent in loving Estella. Another trait of a tragic hero Pip has is that he is not that afraid of death: “The death close before me was terrible, but far more terrible than death was the dread of being misremembered after death”(486). In Antigone, the tragic heroine Antigone decides to bury her brother even though it will trade with her life.

Therefore, Pip has heroic traits, tragic greatness, and tragic flaws, which makes him a true tragic hero. All those traits urge the reader to experience the feeling of catharsis which is a crucial element of a tragedy that purifies pity and fear among the reader. We pity Pip because he has a lot of nice traits and because his downfall is worse than what he deserves. For example, although he overly idolizes Estella, he just internalizes what Miss Havisham intentionally convinces him, so his punishment is too much. We also get to have sympathy to Pip when Orlick is going to kill him because Pip has more fear than death that everyone will not know that he has been unhappy—he feels guilty to everyone at this point. Obviously his change of attitude and guilt to those who love him earns him the reader’s sympathy that comes from mutual feeling. The reader feels that Pip is human like them too so they share the same suffering. For the feeling of terror, we have terror when Pip encounters his downfalls which are the disappointment and heartbreak from Miss Havisham and Estella, losing his family and friends, and being threatened to death by Orlick. After readers realize that Pip is also a human as them, they begins to fear that the calamity the tragic hero Pip has might happen to them. Thus, after they pity Pip and fear for what Pip encounters, they get to experience catharsis because their pity and fear in the mind are purified and purged.

Moreover, by plot analysis, Dickens’ Great Expectations can be a tragedy as it follows Greek and Shakespearean tragedy that is known to have five-act structure. The first act or the exposition provides background information of the protagonist Pip. In the very beginning of the novel, it introduces a young orphaned bot named Pip at his parents’ tombstone where he meets a convict. One day his sister wants him to go to play at Miss Havisham’s house hoping for money in return. At the house, Pip gets to see Miss Havisham’s adopted daughter Estella whom he falls in love with. He becomes to feel that he is lack of many things. The exposition hints the protagonist Pip’s dissatisfaction about his low born and social status. In Shakespearean tragedies, the exposition also ends with the tragic hero’s uneasiness and need to do something. For example, in Hamlet, Hamlet is told by his father ghost how he dies so Hamlet gets uneasy and feels like avenging his father’s death. Likewise, Pip is convinced by Miss Havisham and Estella that he is lacking so he feels uncomfortable and wants to be a gentleman.