Why? The reason is that with this story about Miss Havisham, the theme of social classes is introduced to the novel and Pip will be highly affected by this, trying to improve as a better person, no matter how. In this chapter we have learnt that Pip is trying to improve intellectually as he tries to learn to read and write in Wopsle’s school, but now, we are not dealing with education: we are dealing with the social ladder and Pip’s yearning to climb to the highest peak. As I have analysed in the previous part of this project, social classes in the Victorian Period a persistent issue throughout Britain, as it was so socially fragmented that social classes were so distant. Pip, belonging to the poor, yearns to the reach of the middle class (being no more than a orphan, common child) and he finds this opportunity in Miss Havisham.
Then, this reunion at Satis House in chapter 8, changes Pips’s mind and feelings towards his environment, as he starts to think about his origins and the people who surrounds him and feelings of embarrassment come to his mind, especially for Joe’s manners being so common to the eyes of the higher classes. However, Pip will later learn, social classes do not influence a person’s true character and way of being: what matters is honesty, sympathy, humanity, goodness and benevolence, and this is perfectly reflected on Joe’s words in chapter 9: “lookee here, Pip, at what is said to you by a true friend. Which this to you the true friend say. If you can’t