The setting of Satis House flabbergasts Pip so much, he can barely explain everything around him, “satins, and lace, and silks all of white…” The description brings to mind a very rich, selfish and stagnant person which is how Dickens represents all the rich and upper-class people.
Pip is confused of how to prepare himself for his first visit to Satis House, “I was not at ease regarding the manner in which I should acquaint myself under that lady’s roof.” This shows that the poor scarcely get in contact with the rich and are bewildered with how to present themselves.
On the other hand, Estella proudly calls Pip by the name “boy” and mocks his clothes which in turn makes Pip realise his “lower class” so he therefore begins to clean and pamper himself after the suffering.
Dickens builds up tension by describing Satis House as unkept and decayed which is a reflection of Miss Havisham’s odd personality and it’s a bit bias to be honest, because all Dickens’ fantasies about the rich being evil, rude and a bit crazy are fitted into one character especially and her eerie house. One time, Miss Havisham questions Pip in such a way at one point, that he gets scared out of his wits and his answers to her spiteful questions are all monosyllabic, “who is it?” “Pip…”
In essence, Dickens’ disrespect to the upper-class is such, that he represents them all in one lady that is so low, she bully’s innocent little boys and makes them feel ashamed for who they are and even makes Pip accept he’s lower then her which one may argue is a good thing as it inspires Pip to greatness later on but is atrocious, giving that status is not all there is to life.
Estella is the “lady” in the book. When she meets Pip, her presence with him clearly shows the enormous gap between their two respected classes. Of her first few words to Pip, she looks at his tatty state and says disgustingly, “come here, boy.” She judged him by his looks and clothes and instantly recognized his lower state and treats him like an animal and he follows reluctantly, falling for her looks, “being a girl, beautiful and self-possessed.” By being attractive, Estella has a power over Pip that she can allow herself to be rude and sly to him, yet he will still fancy her, ridicule him and he’ll still show respect, so Estella has the upper hand in all cases.
Dickens’ use of imagery glorifies Estella in every way as Pip is drawn to her, “like a moth to the light,” but in reality his desire to be good enough for Estella leads him to selfishness and being big-headed, just like the rest of the upper-class in Victorian England at the time, according to Dickens that is.
Estella is very lucky, in the sense she has access to food and wines while Pip’s struggling for bare bones with bread and water for snacks. Unfortunately, this was the case for everyone at the time it was rare for the lower-class to have luxuries even close to those of the rich and it all blatantly shows between the meetings of Pip and Estella.
“I wish my boots weren’t so thick nor my hands so coarse.” This is the moment Pip feels ashamed of himself for the first time. He accepts defeat in a cowardly manner and is disappointed at life and why he, amongst others, is a common, miserable and poor, weak boy. He even calls himself “ignorant and backwards,” in his defeat, which is quite the contrary really until after visiting miss Havisham and being in her household.
When we examine Pip, he was extremely satisfied with life in his hey-days prior to his life-changing experiences at Satis house, and he was contempt with who he was and what he had until he finally realised what the world had to offer. Pip changed his views, clothes, how he presents himself, everything he ever had that made him who he was, all in order to impress cheeky little Estella, the girl that toughened him up and fancied.
Before his visits, Pip and Joe were “fellow strugglers” in low classed society, but after he met Estella, respect for his heredity and Joe vanished. “I am afraid, and ashamed for the dear good fellow.” Here he presents himself as if he were an upper-class made man with links and money to spare. He’s been very spiteful and arrogant albeit in a polite way. It just goes to show how a few dreams and an invitation can change someone dramatically indeed as he suddenly became all self-centred and haughty after his ‘transformation.’
Pip feels aggravated about his status as a lower classed citizen and lashes out on Biddy, his future wife. “She was not beautiful, she was common, and could not be like Estella.” Here, pip is falling for his desires more then listening to his commonsense, which is a common sign of frustration in life. Instead of standing up for his future wife, he mocks her commonness and is disgraced with how she stands next to Estella in his “wish list” of desires. Essentially, it’s lower classed girl vs. upper classed girl and Pip doesn’t seem to notice Estella’s negative side and is fooled by her seducity instantly.
In addition, the two girls represent the two worlds Pip is torn between; “I should have been good enough for you, hadn’t I?” Here, Pip reckons he’s good enough for Estella, which is only his mind playing tricks on him, which in turn means he’s too good for Biddy, or so he thinks. It’s almost as if Pip has had an injection of arrogance into him and starts to take advantage of others, just because he so happens to have a little fortune in his timid life.
The thing about this book that strikes you the most is the structure of the novel; for Charles Dickens to even dare attempt creating a novel with dual narration, being narrated by both young Pip with older Pip feeding us his inner thoughts and regrets at the time, is amazing. Ultimately, it provides us an insight into the self development and maturity of Pip’s character. “I would feel more ashamed of home than ever, in my own ungracious breast.” Here, adult Pip refers to his young self as “ungracious,” suggesting that he regrets his dissatisfaction with life as a boy and had he not been so ill-tempered about his status as a lower-classed citizen, it may have led him to be more thankful in life for what it had gave him, instead of what he didn’t get.
Dickens’ own views are presented through dialogue, for example the convict who lives rough and is tatty says; “who d’ye life with? Supposin’ you’re kindly let to live.” Maybe Dickens believes that orphans don’t have a right to live and they deserve their rough treatment because they have no parents.
Furthermore, Mrs Joe shouts out to Pip in a proud way, “who brought you up by hand?” this tells us it’s something big and important to bring someone up by beatings and maybe Dickens thinks highly of it. The fact he includes it so early on in the book, shows that Dickens wants us, the readers, to gain sympathy for Pip. He sells it perfectly by bringing in a convict then an evil sister that bully and hassle Pip, an infant orphan who likes passing by the local graveyard to visit his family and is suddenly given the rough treatment for no reason at all.
On the whole, Dickens’ manipulation in allowing the readers to feel sympathy for the main character, then bringing in life problems such as class and poor education, coupled with mature and understanding views of older Pip, attracts applaud for the great structure of the book and just enhances Dickens status as a legendary writer.
Dickens’s views of the upper-class is a very poor one; he portrays them all in one beast of a character and puts them down in every possible way to a very low level, as the relationship between the upper-class and lower class is a very fearful one because of the selfishness of the rich. The upper-class all think very of themselves in front of the poor, while the poor look up to them and are well mannered and modest.
Dickens’ own experience may have formed this view of hatred towards the poor from the rich because he could clearly see the going-ons of these two sets of people every day since he came from a working class-turned rich background and was bewildered why it was happening.
The moral message of this novel is make sure your expectations of life aren’t too great otherwise they can ruin and corrupt you as a person though you may not realise it. Even if your dreams come true, like in Pip’s case, it might happen for the worst.
Dickens promotes love and affection through Joe, and how he struggles to live and care for his family, even though his wife treats him like dirt and his nephew ungrateful. We see Joe with his love, will always be more contempt with life than Miss Havisham with her money and class.
Dickens obviously has more sympathy for the poor as he was probably subject to abuse himself when being a child but you can never hide the fact he also feels sorry for the upper-class as even though they’re all good for nothing, wretched and self-centred in his novels, they too suffer trauma one way or another but it’s disguised as punishment for their wrong doings like in Miss Havisham’s case.
Overall, the theme of class is developed through Pip’s visit to Satis House through characters that put down the lower classed people and infuriate but inspire them to greatness. When Pip first arrives at Satis House, he is made to feel ashamed of himself by Estella and Miss Havisham which gets Pip thinking, and by the time an anonymous character gives Pip the once in a lifetime opportunity to experience being a gentleman, with his transformation partially completed, and he grabs the opportunity with both hands and doesn’t look back until he’s too old to be ungrateful.
