Great Expectations is considered one of the most successful and popular novels of Charles Dickens. It was published in 1860. The period of this novel is from the early nineteenth century to the middle of the nineteenth century. In other words, it deals with the Victorian period from the beginning to the middle age. It was the time of social change in England. Many things were changing very rapidly. The thing that was changing very rapidly was the social class of the people. As a consequence of the industrial revolution, a new class was made.
If we look at the beginning of this novel, we can see that Pip who is the hero of this novel stayed in a village along with his sister and her husband. There was a class division in that village. For example, Miss Havisham was rich, Pumblechook was the bourgeoisie, Joe was lower-middle class, Pip was an orphan and prisoner Magwitch was poorer than poor. In this way, the class division was injected into Pip’s mind from the beginning.
This class division was not changed in the city. Rich boys neglected Pip because he came from a village and he was not a real gentleman. This class division was put into his mind so much that he only wanted to become a gentleman. As a result, he insults and neglects his brother-in-law Joe and is separated from his root.
Though Pip was aware of class division, he did not have his own class. At first, he was an orphan. Then Miss Havisham allowed him to play at her house. Estella did not like her. He could not cope up in the city. This is how he spends his life.
Many people had the same condition as Pip in the Victorian era. Due to the industrial revolution, many people came to the city from the village, and their origin with the village terminated. Like Pip, they lost their own identity. Many of them lost their everything under the illusion of being a gentleman.
It is very common to raise the question that who put class consciousness in Pip’s mind. In response to the question, it can be said that many characters are responsible for this. Pip was a playing toy to Miss Havisham. Estella did not like Pip because he was not rich. Magwitch put Pip towards destruction by giving money secretly to make him a gentleman. However, Pip was also not less responsible for this. He was so much doomed in the dream of being a gentleman that other things seemed to him less important.
Class consciousness is such a problem that is visible to many people in our country. Most of the people in our country were farmers before three generations. In the last forty years, many children of farmers tried to become gentlemen like Pip after being educated and then stayed doom in the dream of a rich, educated and beautiful girl. As a result, some of them destroyed themselves after being spoilt in order to become a gentleman. So, Great Expectations is coherent with the society of our country.
In the end, Pip could realize that he brought his destruction by being class conscious. However, he tried to solve this problem, and in the end, he became successful. He again develops a good relationship with Joe. Even he got Estella in the end.
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