‘With this boy! Why, he is a common labouring-boy!’ – Estella, page 57
Later it becomes apparent that Miss Havisham cultivated her to become a man hater like herself after she was stood-up on her wedding day.
Charles Dickens himself, born in 1812 had a childhood like many of those portrayed in his novels, not a particularly happy one. Due to his father’s imprisonment he was sent to work in a blacking warehouse, memories of this time haunted him for the rest of his life.
Oliver Twist another well-known character created by Dickens portrays a slightly more typical poor Victorian childhood; being driven into crime at such an early age in order to survive in Victorian London.
Working class children were sent out of the house early in the morning, and not allowed to return until dusk, and children of wealthy parents were brought up by nannies and governess’ and sometimes only saw their parents for a few minutes a day. Pips sister, Mrs Joe Gargery is very proud of the fact that she has raised Pip herself, or by hand as she is constantly reminding him.
‘If it warn’t for me you’d have been to the churchyard long ago… who brought you up by hand?’ – Mrs Joe Gargery, page 11
Mrs Joe Gargery has established a great reputation with herself and the neighbours because she has brought Pip up by hand. But in this case, by hand means to be brought up using violence. Mrs Joe used Tickler to beat Pip.
‘Tickler was a wax-ended piece of cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame’ – Pip, page 10
This certainly worked to beat fear in to him as shown on page 15; Pip and Joe are trying to communicate without speaking so that Mrs Joe doesn’t get angry.
Using violence to teach children to behave was not uncommon in the Victorian era, particularly in schools. In fact, if the child had been naughty at home the parents would often tell the headmaster so that he would be punished in school.
It was not compulsory to go to school in Victorian times, but for those who could afford it, it was seen as a great privilege to be getting an education, today it seems more like a chore! Pip was badly educated as a child, although he could read he did not always comprehend what had been written.
‘ Also Georgiana, wife of the above’ – Pip, page 5
Pip thinks that his mother is called ‘also Georgiana’ because this is what is written on her grave. Pip finds it difficult to learn and claims he ‘struggled through the alphabet as if it were a bramble bush’. This quote also shows that Pip has only had very basic education.
‘My first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones. The shape of the letters on my fathers grave gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair.’ – Pip, page 5
This shows just how childish Pip is in making decisions and conclusions on such very simple and broad evidence. Joe encourages Pips education by his desire to make him his apprentice. Apprenticeships in this era were very different to the modern apprenticeship. The master of the apprentice had full control over his scholar and often imposed harsh rules upon him and punished him severely for any bad habits or behaviour. The apprenticeship was very much similar to a prison sentence and involved long hard hours of labour. However in this story Pip and Joe are good friends.
‘I always treated him as a larger species of child, and as no more than my equal. – Pip, page 10
A blacksmith would be a very skilled trade in a village in the Victorian era and would be a good craft to learn for Pip.
Mrs Joe does not encourage Pip’s education as she sees it as a source of inquisitiveness, which irritates her. Most adults had very little respect for children in the Victorian era. Here the sergeant asked everybody if they had seen the convicts.
‘Everybody, myself expected, said no, with confidence. Nobody thought of me’ – Pip, page 31
Children had none of the ‘ready made entertainment’ we have today and far fewer toys. Working class families could not afford toys, so the children made up their own games out of everyday objects, and invented songs and rhymes, Upper-class children played cards, and basic board games.
‘Let me see you play cards with this boy’ – Miss Havisham. Page 57
As Estella is an upper-class rich child, she can afford cards to play with.
I have found out many interesting facts whilst exploring Victorian childhood both through my own research and by reading about the characters in Dickens’ book Great Expectations. Compared with today, there has clearly been dramatic changes during the past 200 years in many areas including; home life, education, health and work. Although the characters in this book do not show a necessarily typical portrayal of Victorian childhood as both children were reasonably well brought up compared to many other children of this time, you can clearly see the differences with the modern day and how fortunate we really are.
