Dickens had worked in a London factory from the relative young age of twelve, while his parents and siblings were held in a debtor’s prison.
His brief stint working in such places haunted him for all his life, but the experience became a source both of creative energy and of the preoccupation with the themes of alienation and betrayal, which would emerge in many of his novels, most notably Great Expectations.
It was Dickens’ insight into this poverty that enabled him to develop his characters in such a way that will be discussed later.
Dickens knew what it was like to start from humble beginnings to become very rich at a young age and he could relate to his characters. Many of the feelings experienced by Pip in the novel would have been felt by Dickens, especially in the sense that money cannot buy happiness. This is acknowledged by Pip in the novel and this realisation had been felt by Dickens at the time he wrote Great Expectations.
Charles Dickens is succesful in creating characters and settings due to a combination of factors. The story is told by Pip in retrospective first person.
A quotation that supports this is,
“So, I called myself Pip and came to be called Pip.”
This gives the reader a feeling of involvment as we are informed of his situation. We, as the readers, are made to feel sorry for Pip.
The first chapter in the churchyard puts emphasis on this. Pip is small and young, and his comfrontation with Magwitch, a much older and ‘fearful’ man, as Dickens described him, also makes the reader sympathise with Pip’s situation.
Also, Pip’s name suggests that he is young, small and vulnerable, like a seed.
Dickens uses pathetic fallacy to show characterisation, reflecting the minds of both Pip and Magwitch, by creating a sinister atmosphere.
“... this bleak place, overgrown with nettles... and the dark, flat wilderness...”
During Pip’s encounter with Magwitch, a more opressive aura helps Dickens to portray Pip as being easily intimidated and weak by emphasising on Pip’s vulnerability.
Charles Dickens has used long descriptive passages to set the scene in many areas of Great Expectations, especially in the graveyard scene and where Pip meets Miss Havisham for the first time.
His detailed descriptions help the reader create a mental picture of Pip’s environment. Pip uses strong imagery to describe his first meeting with Miss Havisham. He describes ‘the wind blowing colder in the house than at the gate.’ This could be linked to Dickens’ view on social status at the time of Great Expectations being written.
Dickens has used strong imagery again to create character. This is evident in the scene with Miss Havisham’s introduction.
Upon Pip's entrance into Miss Havisham’s house, the initial description of her is both fascinating and jarring.
“Wax work and skeleton seemed to have black eyes that moved and looked at me.”
It is this immediate description upon which the rest of Miss Havisham's character is built.
Dickens uses a very distinctive technique involving the importance of the convicts. The scenes that concern the convicts are led to be important but Dickens does not explain to the reader why they are until the closing chapters. The readers realise there must be a link but we are not immediately told the reason for this.
In Dickens’ time there existed a clear cut classs system by which society was defined. This consisted of the upper, middle and lower classes. Class was determined by financial standing, regardless of intelligence, manner, morals or ethics. Despite this, the higher class you were, the better person society viewed you as.
Dickens objected to this system and the whole of Great Expectations can be read as a political attack on the class barrier.
Many characters support this theory- Magwitch, the convict, is an intelligent, resourceful person who is revealed as Pip’s benefactor mid-way through the novel. This shows how Pip’s actions helping Magwitch touched the man deeply and he felt enough of this to repay Pip.
However, whereas Magwitch is revealed to be a caring, clever man, Miss Havisham and Estella who are of a higher social standing treat Pip badly just because Pip is lower in class. There are numerous examples of this in the novel:
“... he is a common labouring boy!” Estella to Miss Havisham, upon Pip’s first visit.
“... gave me the bread and meat without looking at me, as insolently as if I were a dog in disgrace.” Pip speaking of his meal at Satis House, Miss Havisham’s home.
Mr. Pumblechook, who had been denounced as ‘wretched company’ was invited to Christmas dinner to eat with Pip’s family, as a guest of Mrs. Joe, Pip’s sister. Despite him having been described as being bad company, he is invited as he is considered to be of a higher social class.
Again, this is an example of society viewing social and financial standing as a means of measuring how good a person is.
Dickens was critical of the way poor people had no health service and a sub-standard education. He lambasted this system with his description of the school Pip attends.
“Mr. Wosple’s great aunt kept an evening school in the village; that is to say, she was a ridiculous old woman of limited means and unlimited infirmity, who used to go to sleep...every evening in the society of youth who paid... for the opportunity of seeing her do it.”
Also, at the beginning of the book Dickens shows Pip visiting the graves of his two parents and five brothers. This could also be an example of where Dickens has shed light onto the lack of hospitals. Although hospitals existed, they were not available for everyone- especially the lower classes. In poorer families, malnutrition and disease that could be easily treated killed many children in their infancy.
So, Dickens has characterised Pip to be an orphan as a symbol of the terrible health care the poorer people of mid-nineteenth century England recieved.
Although Pip’s sister took both of her husband Joe’s names, Pip’s household is anything but patriarchal. Usually the woman would take both names of their husbands to show that they had become property of the man. However, Joe is given little responsibility and it is Mrs. Joe who is the dominant figure of the house.
In comparison, Miss Havisham, who was jilted at the altar, has effectively given up on life. This shows how important marriage was percieved to be in the Victorian era. She is extremely bitter and angry as she feels she has missed a chance at life. That is how important marriage was viewed. It was seen in Victorian times that to remain unmarried was a loss of cachét and status, particularly if you were a woman.
Miss Havisham was said to be suffering “under the weight of a crushing blow.”
However, both Miss Havisham and Mrs. Joe both manage to be the most important and influential people in their households. They are both very strong, capable people regardless of their differing situations.
Chapters seven and eight mark a turning point in Pip’s development. It is in these chapters he meets Miss. Havisham and Estella. Their infernal, yet subtle, mocking of his roots and appearence lead Pip to aspire to a higher station.
With Pip losing his money and finding relative happiness afterwards, Dickens is saying how money cannot buy happiness. This is the main moral to his story. Charles Dickens himself was a workaholic who lived an often unhappy life. His many relationships and marriages all ended unhappily and he found himself depressed. He recovered to realise that money wasn’t the key to happiness. These are the reasons behind him wrting Great Expectations.
