Miss Havisham

Growing up in a lower middle class family that works hard to make a decent living, Pip is driven by the desire to improve his social status. The book Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is about a young boy named Pip and his life journey. Pip is an orphan who lives with his sister, Mrs. Joe, and brother-in-law, Joe. The only source of income for their family is Joe who works as a blacksmith. One day, Pip is taken to Satis House, which is owned by a wealthy heiress named Miss Havisham, and meets Estella, the adopted daughter of Miss Havisham, who taunts him based on his social status. Later on, Pip is given a large sum of money by an unknown benefactor and goes to London to get a proper education. Dickens uses Pip as an example to show the flexible class system of the late eighteen hundreds, the behaviors associated to the different classes, and what true wealth is. Society in the eighteen hundreds was changing. The rigid class system of the seventeen hundreds transformed into a flexible class system where there was room for self-improvement. Although it required effort, people were not stuck in the level of society in …show more content…
He shows that the true heroes are the members of the lower class, while the members of upper class are the villains. Miss Havisham had only bad wishes for Pip by encouraging him to fall in love with Estella and supporting Estella in her mission to make Pip fall in love with her only to break his heart later. Moreover, she knew that Pip thought that she was his benefactor, and continued to let him think so, which made him depressed in the end. She only wanted to cause harm to Pip. In addition, Compeyson, being higher in status, cheated Magwitch by betraying his trust and putting all the blame for their crimes on Magwitch. Dickens reveals the deceitful and cruel behavior of the upper class, as does Jonathan Swift in Gulliver’s