Fakhouri 1 Sarah Fakhouri Ms. Gardner English 10 Honors Period 1 11 March 2014 Social Status Great Expectations, a coming-of-age novel by Charles Dickens revolves around the
theme of social class. Pip — an an orphan who comes from a working class family — grows grows up to have the dream of becoming becom ing a wealthy gentleman. Being raised b y his sister, Mrs. Joe and her husband, Joe Gargery, who is a blacksmith, blacksmith, Pip‟s only role model was Joe. Joe. When a beautiful girl named Estella points out how common Pip is for being in a lower social class, he struggles to accept himself and his position in life. To be wealthy, to be in a high class, and to be intelligent is what Pip imagines a gentleman to be. Pip, the common laboring-boy, then rises in social class, moving to London to live his dream of becoming a true gentleman to gain the love of Estella. Through first- person person narrative, Dickens‟s purpose is for the readers to understand the value of the love from people who care for you, rather than leaving them for money. Before having met Estella and fallen in love with her, Pip was accepting to the life he had. He was not very ver y attached to his sister because of her violent wa ys with him, but he was proud of Joe. Joe was his role model and took the place of being a big brother to him. He never even dreamt of being a gentleman and never knew what it took to be one. “With this boy! Why, he is a common laboring- boy!” boy!” (Dickens 58) After Estella criticized Pip for being a “common laboring- boy,” boy,” Pip knew that if he wanted a beautiful, wealthy girl like Estella, he had to change his life and ambition. Being so young, Pip was confused by what she had said of him and then had a different goal of where he wanted to be in the future and with whom.
Fakhouri 2 After making his transition into a higher social class and living in London, Pip forgot what it meant to have feelings and to be sure of himself. him self. Pip was now a gentleman: he was wealthy and intelligent, but his self-esteem was just decreasing as his social status increased. “‟Well, sir,‟ pursued Joe, „this is how it were. I were at the Bargemen t‟other night, Pip‟— whenever he subsided into affection, he called me Pip, and whenever he relapsed into politeness he called me sir…” (222) Pip was different different to his loved ones. He stopped associating with Joe because he felt embarrassed of him now and left Biddy to improve himself for Estella. Estella. Pip‟s relationship with Joe is not as strong as it was before and Joe is also treating him differently by calling Pip “sir” instead of “Pip.” This indicates that Pip‟s social status is status is intimidating to his loved ones and he knows that things are different between them from now on. Because of the close relationship between Pip and Joe and how that changed because of Pip‟s newfound wealth, Pip acts differently towards Joe. Joe realizes that Pip is ashamed of him because of his job as a blacksmith and realizes that Pip‟s understanding of what a gentleman is is not accurate. “‟…and one man‟s a blacksmith, black smith, and one‟s a whitesmith, and one‟s a goldsmith, and one‟s a coppersmith.‟” (223) (223) Joe obviously knows that his job is not the most profitable, but he enjoys doing what he does. In his thoughts, Joe sees a gentleman as being a respectful and polite man, no matter how much money you have. Someone could be a blacksmith or a whitesmith, but it would not make them an y less of a person. Pip does not realize the true meaning of a gentleman and what it takes to be one until the end of the novel, which may be too late. Once Pip was exposed to such criticism by Estella, he starts to look at himself and his appearance from a different point of view. He looks at himself from the point of o f view as someone who is wealthy and sees himself h imself as a boy with common roots who wears common
Fakhouri 3 clothes. “I took the opportunity of being alone in the court-yard court-yard to look at my coarse hands and my common boots.” (60) The embarrassment Pip ha s of himself to have to be alone to analyze how he looks is sickening. The society Pip has been put through and the society today is similar because everyone is judged. People judge each other for how they look, what they wear, and how they act, which is exactly what Pip has been forced upon. At this point, the only thing going through Pip‟s Pip‟s mind is how he can be b e wealthy and gain pride back in himself, no matter what that is. Dickens actually teaches the readers a lesson b y letting them know that money, no matter m atter how much, will never be worth worth abandoning your family. This is taught by having Pip realize this at the end of the book. Leaving his family to become a gentleman for Estella, a girl he did not know well, taught him the true meaning of having your loved ones in your life. Although Pip struggled to become a gentleman, he never did. He did become wealthy, but his confidence decreased as his money and social class increased. Estella‟s beauty tricked Pip into thinking she would give her love to a gentleman, but in reality, she had no love to give to anyone.
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