Social Classes and People’s Characters

1. Social Classes and People’s Characters As a result of early influences in his life, Pip believes that people in higher social classes are by nature superior to those in lower classes.

2. Mrs. Joe • Complains about being a blacksmith’s wife—“It’s bad enough to be a blacksmith’s wife (and him a Gargery) without being your mother.” (p.8) • Wishes she was in a higher social class. • Pip learns that convicts are in a lower class, and he doesn’t want to be in that class. • Pip wants to improve himself, so that he can be in the upper class, because he learns from Mrs. Joe that he is in the lower class, and in danger of becoming a convict. “‘People are put in the Hulks because they murder, and because they rob, and forge, and do all sorts of bad: and they always begin by asking questions.’” “I had begun by asking questions, and I was going to rob Mrs. Joe.” (p.13)

3. Convict (Magwitch) • When Pip first meets the convict, he is terrified, partially because he is afraid of the convict, and partially because he is scared that he will get in trouble with Mrs. Joe. • Pip is also worried that if Joe finds out, Joe will be disappointed in him. “It was much upon my mind…that I ought to tell Joe the whole truth. Yet I did not, and for the reason that I mistrusted that if I did, he would think me worse than I was.” (p.41) • For years afterward, Pip is worried that his having help a convict makes him unfit to be a gentleman.

4. Miss Havisham • Pip is frightened and unnerved by Miss Havisham, because of her strange manner, and her decrepit house, furniture, and bridal gown. • However, Pip is repeatedly reminded by Mrs. Joe and Mr. Pumblechook that Miss Havisham is very rich and important, and that this is Pip’s big opportunity to make something of himself. “This boy’s fortune may be made by his going to Miss Havisham’s,” says Mrs. Joe. (p.53) • Therefore, Pip assumes that Miss Havisham is rich and noble, and that the faults are his own. • Soon, Pip begins to enjoy his time at Miss Havisham’s more than his time at home, because she is of the upper class, and his home is merely common. “I coaxed myself to sleep by thinking of Miss Havisham’s next Wednesday.” (p.82)

5. Estella • Estella is a member of the upper class, very proud and haughty, very pretty, and mean. • Pip loves her, but she calls him coarse and common. “And what coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!” (p.62) • As a result, Pip wants to be a gentleman, and not coarse and common, so that Estella will like him. • Pip becomes disgusted with Joe’s commonness. • Pip is also disgusted with himself for being so common. “…and deeply revolving that I was a common laboring-boy; that my hands were coarse; that my boots were thick; that I had fallen into the despicable habit of calling knaves jacks; that I was much more ignorant than I had considered myself last night; and generally that I was in a low-lived bad way.” (p.67)

6. Biddy • Biddy is poor and in the lower class, but is very nice to Pip. • Pip pays little attention to her, even though she teaches him to read and write, because he sees Biddy as being common, whereas Pip wants to be a gentleman, so that he can win over Estella.

7. Herbert and Mr. Pocket • At first, Pip sees them and thinks that they are not wealthy, and will never be successful in life. “Something at that same time whispered to me he would never be very successful or rich.” (p.186) • Therefore, Pip at first thinks that they are unimportant and insignificant. • Pip soon realizes that he is mistaken, and Herbert becomes Pip’s best friend and most trusted comrade.

8. Bentley Drummle • Drummle is rich and upper class, having inherited a small fortune. • Drummle is also a boor and a snob, for which reasons Pip soon takes a disliking to him. “He was idle, proud, niggardly, reserved, and suspicious.” (p.213) • Pip begins to realize that even wealthy, upper class people can be boors, and that wealthy is not necessarily indicative of good character.

9. Abel Magwitch (Convict) • Magwitch’s outward appearance is very coarse and common. • When Pip first finds out that Magwitch is the person who gave him the money and property to become a gentleman, Pip is horrified and disgusted, feeling that he is shamed by being associated with a common criminal. • Later on, Pip realizes that Magwitch has a kind heart and good intentions, and Pip becomes very fond of him. • Even though he is poor and lower class, Magwitch is a good person.

10. Compeyson • Compeyson was born a gentleman, but became a cruel and ruthless criminal. “‘He set up fur a gentleman, this Compeyson, and he’d been to a public boarding-school and had learning.’” (p.367) “‘He’d no more heart than a iron file, he was cold as death, and he had the head of the devil.’” (p.368) • Pip sees that even though Compeyson was a gentleman, he is a terrible person, indeed a convict.

11. Estella • Pip loves Estella, even though she is not nice to him, and he is miserable in her company. “I thought that with her I could have been happy there for life. (I was not at all happy there at the time, observe, and I knew it well.)” (p.282) • As long as Pip believes that Miss Havisham intends for Pip and Estella to marry, he continues to love Estella and want to be with her. • When he realizes that Miss Havisham has no such plan, Pip is devastated. • However, when Pip comes to terms with matters, he realizes that he has no hope of ever being with Estella, and that she is incapable of loving him • Even though she is in the upper class, she is not friendly and kind, but rather indifferent and heartless.

12. Biddy • After meeting Magwitch, and speaking with Estella and Miss Havisham, Pip realizes that Biddy is a good, kind person, even though she is a member of the lower class, and that he has wronged her. “I would not have gone back to Biddy now, for any consideration—simply, I suppose, because my sense of my own worthless conduct to them was greater than any consideration. No wisdom on earth could have given me the comfort which I should have derived from [her] simplicity and fidelity; but I could never, never undo what I had done.” (p.344)

13. Joe • Joe is in the lower class, and even before Pip is first chosen to inherit a property, he begins increasingly to see Joe as being coarse and common. • When Pip is in London, and hears that Joe is coming to visit him, Pip is ashamed to be seen with him, on account of his commonness. When he receives the news of Joe’s impending visit, Pip feels “considerable disturbance, some mortification, and a keen sense of incongruity.” (p.229) • When Pip is sick and Joe comes to London to take care of him, Pip realizes that Joe is an incredibly kind, thoughtful, caring person, despite being in the lower class.

14. Social Classes and People’s Characters • During Pip’s adventures, he discovers that a person’s social class is not necessarily indicative of his or her character. • Interestingly, this revelation seems to originate with Herbert, Pip selfless and friendly, if not wealthy, comrade. • By the end of the story, Pip is able to judge people by their character, not their social class, as evidenced by the fact that he has given up his ambition of becoming a “gentleman,” has renewed his relationship with Joe and Biddy, and has joined Herbert’s mercantile business.