‘This was horrible, and gave me a sickening idea of London…’
Once Pip meets Jaggers, we see breaches in the whole system of justice as, if you have the money, it seems that you can often buy your innocence, especially when someone like Jaggers is prepared and unashamed to concoct lies and change the evidence for someone in court, just to win the case. This unfair system gave an inequitable benefit to the wealthy and made it almost impossible for a lower class and poorer citizen to be proven innocent, and more obviously, it made it impossible to determine true justice in a case.
Victorian society was very money orientated and materialistic, and I imagine that Dickens himself was very cynical about the structure of one’s life depending on your wealth, background, property and possessions. It worked out that the rich had endless advantages over the poor – they were able to get better education, jobs, respect and status. Further more, as you were almost certainly given a higher opinion the wealthier you were, better services would be have been offered to those, and again they would, without hesitation, be given priority over the poor in any circumstance.
The poor were more often than not very badly educated, and from the novel we can see that Joe was illiterate which was common for others like him. When Pip lived at the forge, he was only tutored very basically by Biddy.
‘I struggled through the alphabet as if it had been a bramble-bush; getting considerably worried and scratched by every letter.’
Even though the rich had enough money to spend on education (and they did as it was the decorum to be well-educated), and that they could therefore have achieved the more respectable jobs, it is ironic that one was given more approbation if you didn’t work as it was a sign that you didn’t need to because your money was plenty already. Girls would very rarely work in the upper class as they were expected to marry a gentleman with ample money. Money was additionally spent on girls for such things as ‘finishing school’ to educate them in etiquette, which is what Miss Havisham sends Estella to, abroad.
However, those who did work in the upper class would generally have had service jobs, such as being a lawyer like Jaggers, unlike the more manual jobs the lower class would have had such as a blacksmith like Joe. It was accustomed for women to be house wives, though some of the lower class women worked, for example as a teacher.
As well as working, the poor did have social lives too – though not much like that of the rich. For the lower class, their main social event was church, and another point in the village where people would have met, would have been the pub – similar to today. The only other social occasions would have been meals at Christmas and perhaps other celebrated days like birthdays.
The rich would have often had very busy social lives, especially people like Estella who attended many affairs so to become acquainted with others. Pip was present at all of them with her, though he did not quite enjoy them as much as she did because of his constant rejection from her.
‘I used often to take her and the Brandleys on the water; there were picnics, fête days, plays, operas, concerts, parties, all sorts of pleasures…’
There were also places like the ‘Finch’s club’ where men ‘spent their money foolishly’ and got drunk. It was found in Covent Garden, which at that time was not a very respectable place, and the men supposedly had a good time there but Pip points out that in truth they never did.
Pip was living the life of a gentleman properly, though he was not a typical Victorian gentleman as his background was not what would be expected. Throughout the novel the most obvious genuine gentleman is Herbert, who also shows qualities of a modern day gentleman too – as does Joe, though he does not have the traits of a Victorian gentleman. However, Bentley Drummle would have also been one as even though his personality is very disagreeable, he has a good background, is well educated, well-known, he talks and dresses appropriately and, most importantly, he has lots of money – which is undoubtedly why, to Pip’s despair, Estella marries him.
Though Pip lives the life of one for a while, he is not a Victorian gentleman as he does not have a suitable background. The proper background would have been a family in the upper class, with their children brought up in the correct way and with a respected name or title that they can claim to be theirs. However, though not having this background may be a disadvantage to Pip, it means that the reader can see both ways of life at that time as Pip has lived both lifestyles. Because of Pip’s dramatic change in his way of life, it also seems that Dickens is showing how easily someone like Pip can become quickly corrupted and forget about everything they had before – a fault both in those times and nowadays.
