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Ryan Chavez Ms. Gardner Honors English 10 1 4 March 2014

From Marshes to Marshes: The Significance of Social Class in Great Expectations The desolate marshes of Kent resemble the bare, simple life that the working class inhabitants of the marshes lead. However, these working people often strive to become a part of a higher social class, and they work hard to achieve a greater social status. Beginning with the absolute lowest class, the convict Magwitch, to the upper class characters of Jaggers and Miss Havisham, Dickens shows the importance of social classes in the Industrial Revolution in his coming of age novel, Great Expectations. Through the perspective of Pip, a boy who dreams to become a gentleman, Dickens exemplifies the power of wealth over lower social classes, Pips importance of wealth through an ambition to become a gentleman, and the ability to uncover true identity in moments of social instability. In the exposition of the novel, Pip is seen as an innocent, young boy who is nave to the world outside of the marshes. His understanding of social status and society quickly broadens: Pip meets Estella during his first encounter with an aristocratic social class at the Satis House. Estellas beauty contrasts with the dark, long passages of the Satis House, and while Pip sees her as a star of human perfection (Dickens, 233), she views him as a common labouring-boy (58) with coarse hands and thick boots (59). Estellas predominant image is the beginning of social class discrimination in the novel, as well as the start of Pips realization that higher social classes have superiority over him. Estella forms Pips understanding of a higher social class, and

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using her beauty and wealth as a method of control and power, Pip is immediately disgusted with [his] calling and with [his] life (128). When Pip returns to the Satis House and asks Miss Havisham where Estella is, she says Estella is educating for a lady and she is far out of reach (116). Higher social classes are elevated to an exclusive distance from the rest of society, and this causes Pip to feel immediately dissatisfied with [his] home and with [his] trade and with everything (116). The upper classs distance from lower classes shows dominance and power, which is further signified through Miss Havishams power of wealth and Jaggers importance in criminal law. Through wealth and education, Estella is elevated to a nearly unreachable place, and Pip, who feels inferior with his background at the forge and his common disposition, want[s] to be a gentleman on her account (129). With Estellas love as his ambition, with wealth at his assistance, and with hope for the future, Pip, now a young fellow of great expectations (139) was determined to be removed from his present sphere of life (138) and be brought up as a gentleman(139). Before meeting Estella, he had believed in the forge as the glowing road to manhood and independence (106), but Pips new road to adulthood had nothing to do with the forge, it focused on the importance wealth and social status. Beginning with his benefactors gratuitous sharing of wealth, Pip is absorbed by an affluent lifestyle, and when Joe comes to visit him, it is clear that Pip has distanced himself to the best of his ability from the forge. Joe, however, notes that one's lifestyle and belongings do not construct the identity of a person, and he explains to Pip that he (Joe) is wrong in these clothes. [Hes] wrong out of the forge, the kitchen, or off th marshes (223). This is also true with Magwitch, because the more [Pip] dressed him, and the better [Pip] dressed him, the more he looked like the slouching fugitive on the marshes(336). Joe, and later Pip with Magwitch, recognize that wealth cannot completely change a person: putting on lavish

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clothes will not hide one's preexisting identity. In fact, when defining a true gentleman, Matthew Pocket said that no varnish can hide the grain of the wood, and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself (179). The grain of the wood symbolize Pips past on the marshes, while the varnish represents his newfound wealth and abundant lifestyle. The grain of Pips common upbringing and Magwitchs criminal past still expresses itself through behavior and identity, however, the more wealth Pip tries to obtain to become a gentleman, the more the identity of the rough common boy (364) is covered up. This proves to Pip, who at this moment is blinded by his recent wealth and expectations, that becoming a gentleman is ultimately based on what is on the inside -- morals and values-- rather than wealth and importance. During his upward mobility, Pips identity traveled from a boy who was in mortal terror of [himself] (12) after helping a convict, to a young man whose values are based on social status. But after realizing Magwitch was his benefactor, Pip loses fixedness in his social standing and experiences his first moment of social instability. When Pip realizes that the truth of [his] position (320) was a man who was being paid by a criminal to become a gentleman, rather than an aspiring aristocrat being supported by the wealthy upper class (Miss Havisham), an element of false identity rushes into his body along with thoughts of disappointments, dangers, disgraces, [and] consequences of all kinds(320). Through Magwitch, Pip is once again exposed to a lower social class, and his expectations and dreams of becoming a gentleman for Estella are quickly shattered and diminished. Pip discovers the clear reality of the situation, but Magwitch is still a dreadful mystery (337) to him. Pip, disgusted at his relations with a convict, exposes his true identity as a young man who is dependent on wealth to win a girls heart. The young boy who once dreamed of becoming a gentleman has to face the reality of his hopeful ambition. Pips

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moment of vulnerability unveils his true feelings towards his expectations, and proves that his identity is corrupted by his newfound wealth and social class. Dickens begins the story with a common labouring boy (58), and through the prominent theme of social class, slowly reveals the superiority of people of wealth over lower class people, Pips dependence and importance of wealth to become a gentleman, and the exposure of identity and reality over expectations in a moment of vulnerability. Pips upward mobility exemplifies the significance of wealth and power in Dickenss time, as well as the common desire to rise to higher social class. Dickenss coming of age novel is founded on the idea of social classes, and through Pips journey to achieve the title of gentleman, Dickens offers a story of a young boy who is blinded by the significance of social status, only to uncover that his true identity was, and always will be, in the marshes he came from.