Great Expectations portrays injustices of British class system

A detailed Summary of Great Expectations portrays injustices of British class system

Dickens' provides the reader with scathing insight into the social standard of this time/era. How successful is Dickens in portraying the injustices of social class?

" In England the social fences, if left alone, grow like wild hedges."

The class system in England began with the introduction of feudalism which followed the Norman Conquest of 1066 and has been the social guideline for hundreds of years. The class system consists of an upper, middle and lower class. These classes and the differences between them, are evident in the plot and interaction of the characters in Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. Dickens paints a biting portrait of the English class system where the undeserving upper class is omnipotent, the middle class consists of those envious of the upper class, and the hard workers of the lower class who are unable to succeed due to their birth status. These injustices are personified through the outlandish characters of Miss Havisham, Mrs. Pocket and Magwitch, who satirize the upper, middle and lower classes. These characters embody many of the traits, which Dickens found to be indicative of the various classes. Through colorful narrations and descriptions, these characters come to life an

The lower class only held an awed contempt for the upper class as they knew that this status was out of their reach. The mass of England's population comprised on the lower class, to whom the upper and middle classes were indifferent. Magwitch, the escaped convict who is Pip's mysterious benefactor, exemplifies many of the qualities Dickens sees as being characteristics of the lower class. Dickens believed that the lower classes comprised of decent, hardworking people who, due to their lack of education and oppurtunity settled into the only life that was known and expected of them. Magwitch was never given a chance in life, even as an child, his first memory of "a-thieving turnips" is the commencement of a life of crime. Magwitch's eventual success in life only comes where he is given the oppurtunity to succeed while living in a penal colony. It is ironic that Magwitch, an outcast of English society was in fact the benefactor of Pip, who was courted by society. When Magwitch goes to visit Pip, Pip is ashamed of the convict as he does not wish to be associated with a member of the lower class. Pip referred to Magwitch as his "dreaded visitor" and was embarrassed of his uncouth manners and appearance. Magwitch's success is Dickens's commentary on the socio-economical limitations of those in the lower class. Magwitch, a representative of the lower class, was a great success, but only when he was living outside of England and not suppressed by the stigmas associated with his lower social status. Through Magwitch's success, Dickens conveys that it was not the supposed inherent inferiority that inhibited his success, rather the unjust class system.

While the upper class that Dickens portrays is of garish, childish and lazy individuals, the middle class at that time wished to emanate the qualities of the upper class. Those in the middle class were always envious of the power and wealth of the aristocrats and tried to be accepted into this elite class by flattering those in it. The Pocket family is

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Approximate Word count = 1355
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English