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Themes in Great expectations by Charles Dickens
Themes in Great expectations by Charles Dickens
Themes in Great expectations by Charles Dickens
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Warfare was the most predominant threat that faced the Plains Indians which occured from the expanding American economy and the scarcity of horses. Knowing they would die, some Indians released their horses in the winter season and would collect survivors in the spring. The Crees and Assiniboines saw their horse population diminishing so they started to rely on the raids of neighboring villages to provide them with horses. Warfare also led to the overall decline of bison. Because bison were scarce, formerly allied tribes fought for resources.
Mr. Jaggers notes Pip’s clothes as “working” and that he needs “new clothes” (Dickens 141). Pip’s working clothes marks him as a member of a lower class society. By replacing his old clothes, Pip isolates himself from his old society. With Pip’s moral degradation from isolating himself from his old society, Dickens shows the regressive effects of isolation from society. With the removal from one’s society, he loses the support network the society provided along with teachings from that society.
In the Christmas Carol novella; Ebeneezer Scrooge, a wealthy and an old man, is conceptualized as an unapproachable and a solitary man at the beginning of the novel nonetheless throughout the story Scrooge slowly starts to reveal his hidden, past emotions. The novel was written by Dickens to show the differences between the class system and their overall attitude towards what they have. In stave one Dickens shows that Scrooge is a "wrenching, grasping, scraping,clutching conventious old sinner". This emphasises the fact that Scrooge is tightfisted and unholy.
In life some writers try to change society. Charles Dickens the author of A Christmas Carol and George Sims “A Christmas Day in the Workhouse” helped change people’s minds through their writing. There writing helped people realize that the poor was treated cruelly and would work for long hours, and that no one rich or in the middle class would help. Charles Dickens and George Gims wanted to make a positive change in society.
Taking place in the early 1800’s and published in the early 1850’s, Charles Dickens’ serial novel, Bleak House, captures the blights of Victorian England. Issues like disease, poverty, and government incompetence were prevalent in this society, and such issues were accompanied by a lack of social mobility and judgment towards the poor. The problems of Victorian society provided the perfect backdrop for the satire found in Dickens’ novel. Throughout Bleak House, Dickens critiques the Chancery, the government, or lack thereof, philanthropists, the class system, and more. Among his scathing critiques is that of religious officials.
These two cities forebode what is to come and allow the reader to see how the declination in social classes alters Pips decisions. In Dicken's Great Expectations the two cities that Pip lives and travels to are set contrary to each other. Pip's hometown of Kent is the setting for many important foundational events.
The "vagueness of class" thesis and the existence of stereotyping within the Victorian Era, ideas continually delineated by Dickens within his masterpiece, Great Expectations, are both calamitous occurrences that can only lead to events that are exponentially more disastrous. These resulting schemes are life-changing, and, due to the already existent prejudice within the social class system, those who are living on the fringe of the lower class are often targeted. Dickens continues to gravitate towards this unrealistic idea of social class, constructing a rhapsody in his indifference for an idea he believes is so intertwined with stupidity. Those who are already underprivileged, doubly from their lack of chances and seemingly bad reputation, have no way of digging themselves out of
Despite its Romantic lineage, the Victorian age failed to emulate Romanticism's revolutionary exploration of imagination and feelings. Instead, the period promoted a strict utilitarian ideology, which replaced the ideals of creativity and affection, with fact (Wwnorton). Due to this, iconic novelist Charles Dickens, argued that the reformed condition of England, critically underestimated the value of "Fancy" (Dickens Kaplan and Monod 9) within modern life (Dixon 278). Therefore, his ambiguous term, reveals more about Victorian society than just a lack of creativity (Pollatschek 278). It implicitly references the neglect of fables, compassion and religious belief from within the period's domestic and educational sectors (Pollatschek 278).
In Louisa May Alcotts novel “An Old Fashioned Girl” the main character, Polly Milton, finds herself struggling against a man versus society conflict, as she confronts the rich first class society that surrounds her. The fourteen year old country girl who ventures into the city to visit her good friend, is constantly being told she is old fashioned, poor, and too simple for the city. The basis of the conflict is that all the people Polly encounters during her time in the city, expect her to look and behave like the rest. When Polly cannot do this, people begin to tease and mock her all because she has no wealth.
Though there are a few characters in Great Expectations that show this idea of duality, and how our private selves can differ from our public selves this essay will be focusing on Wemmick, and how he changes from his office self to his home-self. Different people have different ideas about how one should act when at work opposed to at home. When Dickens first introduces Wemmick, he is presented as a to-the-point person. Whenever Pip asks him a question, Wemmick responds with short, simple answers, and seems to be trying to convey as little information as he can. When asked if he knows where Matthew Pocket lives, Wemmick responds very plainly with, "Yes…At Hammersmith, west of London" (172).
Dickens tends to explore the implications of doubleness: characters complement one another, though their connection may not be genetically or physiognomically apparent, nor need they even share the same gender.’ The doubling technique is not only used to compare but also to contrast, to distinguish ‘the normal’ from ‘the abnormal’ in order to emphasize the dual nature of men. Surely, we all have characteristics that we consider normal and for that reason we show them to other people, however, we also have traits and habits that we think others may not regard as normal, so we do not like to expose them and when we do, we do it very consciously. For that reason Miss Twinkleton, a prim schoolmistress, turns into a sprightly gossip only after dark, and Mr. Crisparkle makes fun of Mr. Honeythunder and philanthropists in general, behind the closed door, exclusively.
The power and knowledge that Pip’s uncle, Mr. Pumblechook has as “a well-to-do corn-chandler” is explained by Sewell’s classification of Victorians and the responsibilities that Sewell delivers upon the higher class (Dickens 60). Mr. Pumblechook, after accidentally consuming tar, acts like he “was omnipotent in that kitchen,...imperiously waved it all away with his hand, and asked for hot gin-and-water” (65). Mr. Pumblechook’s superiority is even apparent to a soldier who is not even familiar with the Pumblechook’s status. The sergeant, after receiving wine from Mrs. Joe, tells Mr. Pumblechook, “I suspect that stuff’s of your providing… [b]ecause...you’re a man who knows what’s what” (69).
The key to happiness entails being humble and compassionate rather than caring about appearance and status. That night after Jaggers, a London lawyer, offers Pip to go to London to become a gentleman, Pip struggles to not feel angry when Joe and Biddy show him genuine happiness for this opportunity. “I never could have believed it without experience, but as Joe and Biddy became more at their cheerful ease again, I became quite gloomy. Dissatisfied with my fortune, of course I could not be; but it is possible that I may have been, without quite knowing it, dissatisfied with myself.”
Social Class Social class assumed a significant part in the general public portrayed in Charles Dickens ' Great Expectations. Social class decided the way in which an individual was dealt with and their right to gain entrance to instruction. Yet, social class did not characterize the character of the single person. Numerous characters were dealt with contrastingly on account of their social class in Great Expectations. Seeing the difference between how the poor and the rich were dealt with will give a clearer understanding of the amount of social class mattered.
In the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Pip, an orphan raised by his cruel sister, Mrs. Joe, and her kindly husband Joe Gargery, a blacksmith, becomes very ashamed of his background after a sudden chain of events which drives him to a different social class. Pip's motive to change begins when he meets a beautiful girl named Estella who is in the upper class. As the novel progresses, Pip attempts to achieve the greater things for himself. Overtime, Pip realizes the dangers of being driven by a desire of wealth and social status. The novel follows Pip's process from childhood innocence to experience.
