Great Expectations

Great Expectations

Not So Great Expectations
In the novel Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, social class plays an important role in the lives of the characters. Pip lives in the lowly marshes of Kent until he is transported to London into genteel society. Whilst in London, Pip becomes more enamored with the lives of the wealthy and respected. Dickens shows the change in Pip’s Great expectations towards social class through Joe, Magwitch, and Estella.
One way Dickens shows Pip changing his views of people and their social class is through Joe. For example, in the beginning of the novel Pip says to himself, “I always treated him as a larger species of child, and as no more than my equal” (Dickens 8). Pip says this because he thinks of Joe as his best friend and an honest man. Joe is kind to Pip unlike Mrs. Joe and because he is kind and does not reprimand him, Pip thinks of him as his equal and ally aianst Mrs. Joe. “I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and then I should have been so too,” says Pip after his first visit at Miss Havisham’s (68).   Estella makes fun of Pip’s ratty old boots and his coarse hands and before this moment Pip has never felt ashamed of who he is or what he has. He blames Joe for Estella’s rude remarks because Joe did not raise him in a genteel manner. “Let me confess exactly, with what feelings I looked forward to Joe’s coming. Not with pleasure, no; with considerable disturbance, some mortification, and a keen sense of incongruity,” says Pip after he gets a letter from Biddy informing him that Joe is coming for a visit (241). Pip is ashamed of Joe and he does not want his new acquaintances to see where he came from. He is embarrassed by the way Joe talks to him and by the way he dresses and he would do anything not to have Drummle see Joe.
Furthermore, Dickens shows Pip changing his views of people and their social class through Magwitch. For example, Pip says this to himself when the sergeant finds the two...