Dickens explores social class in Great Expectations to draw attention to the times. I truly don’t think that Dickens is advocating the merging of social classes, but instead he is pointing out that money does not necessarily make a person great. For example, Miss Havisham has money, but she’s completely crazy. Then you have Drummle, who shows that you can be a complete jerk and still be a member of the elusive upper class.
Maybe what Dickens is getting at is that one should work hard and be morally responsible, instead of wasting all of their time on a pursuit that really won’t pay off in the end.
3 comments:
That makes complete sense. At times while reading the book, I sometimes feel as if Dickens is advocating the idea that money is an important key to freedom and power. For instance, Pip wasn't free from Mrs. Joe until he was given the chance to leave his town and make a name for himself. This entailed a great deal of money. Or when Pip acquired a great deal of money for his friend Herbert. Or even how Mr. Jaggers is this wealthy lawyer who can do whatever the heck he wants to and boss people around. Dickens goes into great detail to explain the loss of power when Pip and Herbert are beginning to see the great amount of debt they are in. Perhaps Dickens is not only describing the relationship between money and one's morals, but also the relationship between money and power.
Okay, so I agree with Allison, yet I don't at the same time. Dickens is clearly pointing out that money doesn't make the person worthy of status, but in doing this, he is also suggesting that the idea of social class is vastly skewed. Miss Havisham and Drummle are perfect examples of this. They have money and class, but morally are not the nicest of people by any means and don't deserve to be esteemed in society. Then you have those who, by their ability to simply be likable and genuine, should be worthy of status, but are merely common due to their lack of money, as seen through the characters of Joe, Biddy, and Herbert. Therefore, Dickens makes it abundantly clear that social status has got it wrong, even compeletely backwards, for those who should be deemed lofty by society are only slightly more than animals and those who should be the lowly are at the top of society. I think this is the idea he is trying to portray, the idea that the Victorian society is not correct in its dealings with social class and because of this, hard work and moral excellence are futile in comparison to wealth.
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I think that Dickens is saying something more along the lines of: gaining money and class should not be the ultimate goal that one strives to achieve.
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