Social Class in Charles Dickens Great Expectations Essay -- Great Exp

Social Class in Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" During the 19th century, Britain was entering a new era. The reign of Queen Victoria had brought about many exciting propositions, with industry leading the way at the forefront. Due to the Industrial Revolution and the fact that Britain was being ruled by a woman, the action of 'Great Expectations' was occurring against the backdrop of major social and cultural changes. Although Britain, as a whole, was becoming exceedingly richer, the Industrial Revolution that was taking place also spawned great poverty. The working conditions in the factories were deplorable. Child labour was prevalent and the slums of large cities, such as London, bred transgression, crime and disease. Only men of property had the right to vote, so the proletariats were excluded from the political system, impeding the aristocrats to take any action on the matters of lower classed citizens. Women had few rights and little choice but to marry and upon doing so everything they owned, inherited and earned automatically belonged to their husband. It was in this underside of society and the injustices of life in Victorian Britain that Charles Dickens' found the material for his novels. These injustices are exactly what link Mrs. Joe Gargery, a downtrodden and poor blacksmith's wife, to Miss Havisham, an 'immensely rich and grim lady who lived in a large and dismal house'. Mrs. Joe Gargery and Miss Havisham may be of totally divergent classes, but they both suffer the detriments of life in Victorian Britain. Although Mrs. Joe Gargery and Miss Havisham are quite idiosyncratic and eccentric characters, they are both examples of very inexorable and domineering women. The eccentricitie... ...dumbfounded and destroyed, beyond the point of repair, and her quirky and peculiar idiosyncrasies fade away. Dickens' chose two very different female characters, which both helped and hindered Pips journey to becoming a gentlemen. In my opinion, I think Dickens' created these characters to show that in both ends of the social spectrum, there are still people who are not happy. Dickens' intended message about women that he tried to portray in this book is mixed. In Mrs Joe Gargery, he shows strength and dominance over men, where as in Miss Havisham, he shows total dependence on men, and we see her world fall to pieces without one. I think he decided to use such extreme characters to help readers understand and realise that not all women are the same. They can vary from being confident and domineering, to being dependant on others and very impressionable.