Social and Historical Background to 'Great Expectations'.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Social and Historical Background -

When the book 'Great expectations', was written a 'real' education was unachievable. Miss Woples School, which dickens uses in his book is a prime example of parents sending their children to 'school', to a teacher who knows little more than the child, Dickens is trying to indicate how negative the educational system was, maybe because it failed him.

Any crime had severe sentencing, which indicates that the legal system was still evolving. The character Magwitch, who played a role in Pips life, was sentenced to Australia, returned to England to help his savoir Pip, but is then executed for returning.

In Victorian times, family life for the middle and upper class was extremely important, as the families were large and living together in big houses, life was very comfortable for them and enjoyable.

Poor and working class families, such as Dickens's were forced to work in factories doing dangerous jobs. Children were being exploited, into doing harsh dangerous work, for little pay and no gratitude.

Families were forced to eat scraps of food and to drink water from drains.

The mother of