Absolute Power Corrupted In Great Expectations By Charles Dickens

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” John Dalberg-Acton, 1887. Power comes in many forms, whether it be popularity, politically, or superiority, these positions tend to corrupt. One form of power that towers over all others is money. Once a person has economic power they can and will influence what happens around them, and soon enough they will climb to the top of the social ladder. Essentially having absolute power, which certainly corrupts. In Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations Dickens makes light of this topic. Throughout the novel he makes clear that people of higher social class tend to be cruel and corrupt.

One of the first instances of this is when Pip goes to the Satis household for the first time. When

he visits there Mrs. Havisham is extremely cold and disrespectful to him, and she even encourages Estella to be snotty towards him. This goes to show that even though estella is being well educated and is seemingly supposed to be proper and have mannerisms toward Pip, she does not. Her social class changes how she sees the world, In a way that Pip could never think to understand. Until his benefactor bestows him with wealth. In those years when he gains economic power he changes immensely. When he first leaves for London right away he becomes quite agitated at Joe and Biddy for no particular reason. This suggests that Pip already feels above them on the social hierarchy because his association with Mrs. Havisham and Estella, and his surprise lump sum of money. As Pip becomes older he is embarrassed of Joe when he comes to visit. Pip does not even want to be seen with his family because of their common ways. He acts like a jerk because he does not want to be criticized for having family of a lower class than he is.
Within the Dialogue of Great Expectations the author tells more about the idea of social class. When Joe visits Pip in London he says “Pip, dear old chap, life is made of ever so many partings welded together, as I may say, and one man’s a blacksmith, and one’s a whitesmith, and one’s a goldsmith, and one’s a coppersmith. Diwisions among such must come, and must be met as they come.” Joe Realizes that money has changed Pip to where there meetings are of different smiths. Smith meaning there social class. This analogy is appropriate for Joe because he he is a blacksmith. Joe tells pip that they are different now and