The main themes in the novel Great Expectations are that there is more to life than money, Dickens likes to promote the under privileged in society. Dickens came from a well off family, but his father got into debt and was put into prison, this made Dickens very ashamed and from being a happy boy with no worries in the world, he found himself being sent to work in a blacking factory in London This is where many of his descriptions of London came from in the book. Later he began to do well at school and realised that he could actually be something, this was encouraged by his father. Dickens fell in love with a young actress just like Pip fell in love with Estella, however as with Estella and Pip the full truth of their relationship remains a mystery.
Dickens portrays Satis House as a dismal, gloomy old house which has great potential to be beautiful if only it was looked after properly. From the outside Satis House looks abandoned, the windows are walled up or rustily barred. There is a brewery at the side of the house, however it looks old and unused ‘no brewing was going on inside it and none seemed to have gone on inside it for a long time’ Looking at the outside of Satis House, Pip feels uncomfortable as if something isn’t quite as it should be ‘the wind seemed to blow colder’
When Pip enters Satis House, he meets two people, Miss Haversham who is the owner of Satis house and her daughter Estella. Pip feels that Miss Haversham is ‘the strangest lady I have ever seen or ever shall see.’ She is dressed in all white, her hair has also turned white. She is wearing lace, satins, jewels and a veil. Pip notices that all the watches and clocks in the house have stopped at twenty to nine. He doesn’t understand what is going on, therefore he is extremely confused. Everything in Miss Haversham’s room seems to be untouched, however Pip doesn’t know why.
Estella, despite being young is very mature, ‘she seemed much older than I of course’. She has no tact and she doesn’t care what other people think about her, Miss Haversham has brought her up to break men’s hearts, this is because she feels that men should suffer for her being jilted at the altar. She wants to get back at men so taught Estella to feel no emotion. Pip feels that Estella is arrogant and rude ‘what coarse hands he has and what thick boots.’ She is very confident and knows that she is beautiful.
Visiting Satis House represents a turning point and a very significant point in Pip’s life. It is ’a memorable day’ and it’s where Pip begins to question his life and his dreams in life. Pip begins to think that he can do better than his family and turns his back on them and eventually looses everything. This is when Pips moral decline begins.
In the novel as a whole, Satis House represents wealth and society, it shows the reader how society and social classes were driven and motivated by wealth. Miss Haversham represents fake values. ‘Sham’ also means fake, this is a way Dickens could wind how fake she was into the story. Both her and her home had decayed and become like a shell, this shows what happens when you allow yourself to value money above the more important things in life like people and morals. Satis House shows how money can corrupt people, their lives and their future, Miss Haversham and Estella portray this very well. By using Miss Haversham and Estella, Dickens is able to put across the fact that along with money, comes responsibility, which is something he felt very strongly about, because of what happened to him earlier in his life.
London represents the stage in Pip’s life where he values material wealth above that of family values and friendship, He becomes selfish and thinks that he is better than everybody else. He becomes a snob and loses contact with Joe and Biddy; ‘his old life’. He begins to think himself as a superior to them. Financially Pip is dreadful with money, he is extremely reckless and ends up in huge amounts of debt.
Pip describes London as a ‘shameful’ ‘rather ugly’ place. It is very busy and there is straw on the roads to deaden the noise of passing vehicles. The people around are strange and were ‘smelling strongly of spirits and beer’. Even the minister of justice who Pip saw was ‘exceedingly dirty’ and ‘partially drunk.’ There is a place where people are publicly whipped and a ‘debtor’s door out of which culprits came to be hanged.’ Pip felt that this was ‘horrible’ and ‘sickening.’ This is parallel to chapter one with the images of death recurring.
Mr Jaggers isn’t a friendly man He is important to people and he knows it so he speaks down to them and doesn’t treat them well, ‘you infernal scoundrel, how dare you tell ME that?’ People are scared of Jaggers because he can make a difference to their lives, he can determine what happens to them and Mr Jaggers loves the fact that he has so much power. People want to be on the good side of Mr Jaggers ‘the suitor, kissing the hem of the garment again’ He is extremely threatening and patronising. He is powerful because he has two things which he and many others see to be very important, money and knowledge. Despite being such a bully, he isn’t unpleasant to Pip.
The chapters where Pip is in London is the time in the novel where Pip has to learn the true values of people, and through being spoilt by riches as a ‘gentleman’ he must learn the hard way. Through Dickens’ own father being put in prison for getting into debt, he has a true insight to what feeling tainted by criminals is like and therefore he is able to show how Pip feels tainted by the criminals with which he comes into contact with. Dickens promoted the underprivileged in society such as Joe and Magwitch who are ‘common’ or ‘criminal’. We like them in the story, however those who are considered ‘respectable’ like Miss Haversham and Mr Jaggers are disliked throughout the novel.
Wemmick lives in Walworth, which contains ‘a collection of black lanes, ditches and little gardens’. Amongst these gardens is Wemmick’s house, it is a little wooden cottage with ‘gothic windows.’ There is a chasm about 4 feet across and ‘at the back there are foals and rabbits’ Wemmick calls his house his ‘castle.’
Wemmick’s castle is a contrast to many of the other places which are described so far in the novel because it represents true values as opposed to the false ones shown in Satis House Through Wemmick’s home, Pip realised the genuineness of Wemmick’s home life and recognises its value, ‘I was heartily pleased with my whole entertainment’ Wemmick lives in ‘a little cottage’ which Pip at first thinks is small and boring, however in the reality, Wemmick has created a ‘castle’ out of an old cottage. Like Satis House, its not what it seems, but it’s a real home which is beautifully looked after and lived in by happy people (quite the contrary to Satis House) Satis House has no purpose, however Wemmick’s castle is productive with animals and vegetables growing, unlike the disused brewery at Satis House.
Wemmick’s relationship with ‘the aged’ is positive and very affectionate, Wemmick treats his father like a child, showing his real loving personality which is different from how he is at work. He likes to keep the two different lives separate so that he doesn’t get emotionally involved with the clients he deals with, enabling him to have a happy life at home with his father.
Wemmick recommends that Pip doesn’t allow the filth and squalor of London to affect his personal life, which is why Wemmick cuts himself off physically and mentally from the outside world, ‘the office is one thing and private life another’
Pips journey comes to an end when he finally returns home to make his peace with Joe. However he falls ill I think this is a reflection of the ‘illness’ of society at that time, he is nursed back to health by Biddy.
Pip has to learn what true friendship and honestly mean in comparison to money and other false values to which he has become accustomed. Once he is happy with who he is on the inside, he can be truly happy, ‘my humble thanks for all you have done for me and all I have so ill repaid.’
He returns to the marshland to accept his background instead of thinking he can rise above it. He learns that being a ‘true gentleman’ takes more than just money. This connects to how Dickens felt at the time, he thought that everyone and everything was far too money orientated and that there was more to life than how much people had in the bank. People at the time thought that as long as you had money you would be happy, however this isn’t the case as Dickens knows from experiencing both well off life and poor life. I think he manages to illustrate this very well in the novel, it shows that money isn’t everything, and it certainly doesn’t buy happiness.
