Great Expectations Loss Of Social Class

Transitioning towards young adulthood from a teenager can be exhilarating and breathtaking, but at the same time frustrating and depressing. Imagine being in a space where you are surrounded in darkness, feeling lost and helpless; suddenly a gleam of light appeared and disappeared. Teenagers will start to ponder about their own lives, trying to find a purpose for it, or seeking for satisfaction in life. However, one might be lost on the way due to the lacking of experience or accepting dreadful opinions of the wrong person. Through Great Expectations, Charles Dickens utilizes Pip’s experiences to reveal that having a dream of perusing a higher social class will not lead to contentment in life; instead, one might experience the loss of their

She belongs to the high social class as she came form a rich background, and she still is a rich lady after all the misery she has gone through. When Pip first encounters Miss Havisham, he describes her as “Corpse-like”(60), a person who “could not smile”(61), which appears to be strange and abnormal. Living in the Satis House isolated her from connecting with the rest of the world, preventing her from seeing the sun or going out of the house. Consequently, she suffered from loneliness and dismal, and as a result, subdues her relatives and friends with money, trying to fill the emptiness inside her, but it did not work out. She feels worthless on the inside, even though she portrays herself as a person who possesses everything, but really, she has nothing but money. Miss Havisham adopted a girl named Estella as an orphan; she raised Estella as a girl without feelings, in other words, without a heart. Estella grew up as a proud young lady as if she came from the nobility. Ironically, we realized that her parents, Magwitch and Molly came were criminals, meaning that in reality; she came from a low and bashful class in society. With a high expectation of gaining a higher social status, Pip has conflicted feelings about himself regarding his own thoughts and people

Having dreams will motivate us to move on in life, however setting achievable goals and ambitions is a crucial part of it. Pip starts to pursuit his dream after meeting Estella, he wishes to transform from a common boy from the working class to a gentleman whom Estella will consider loving back. Often times Pip will imagine himself “doing all the shining deeds of the young knight of romance, and marry the Princess”(231), through this line we can see that in Pip’s train of thoughts, the dream in which he is striving for seems to be over idealistic. Pursuing Estella seems to be everything about Pip’s life now as he allows his dream to manipulate his life; he knows that “[Estella] has taken such strong possession of me”(232). However, realizing that “all [his] fancy and hope were set upon her”(232), Pip did not have any sense of giving up this unattainable dream. Despite all the setbacks along the way, Pip manages to stay on track and work towards his unrealistic dream. However, Pip’s dream to be a gentleman will never been able to go that far without the support of his secret benefactor. Without Magwitch, he will never be able meet Jagger, whom provides him with all his needs during his stay in London. Even though Pip’s journey might be smooth at first with Jaggers’ help, he almost broke down when he apprehends that his secret benefactor is Magwitch and not Miss havisham. In