Dickens and Moral Judgment - Essay Example

Dickens and Moral Judgment Charles Dickens is known as a brilliant storyteller and for his innovative ability to make at least one social point in every novel. He wrote in the realist tradition, in which it was held that the novel had some responsibility to examine the basic nature of society as it actually existed in order to expose its strengths and weaknesses and perhaps to begin pointing out methods of reform (Walder, 1996). In Great Expectations, Dickens illustrates human nature as he chronicles the development of a young boy, Pip, from a commoner into a gentleman. The story begins with the boy at a very young age, living in the care of his older sister and her down-to-earth husband Joe. This memory includes his meeting with an escaped convict in a graveyard, which provides the foundation for the novel. Following this experience, Pip becomes employed by Miss Havisham and her adopted daughter Estella, using his money on education. Suddenly, he is lifted into the upper class through the intervention of a nameless benefactor. As he gains the knowledge suited for a gentleman, Pip’s attitude toward his family changes drastically. However, as he becomes aware of the true nature of his fortune, Pip is forced to reconsider these attitudes and ends the book on a much humbler note. Through plot developments and narrative elements, Dickens continues to invite his reader to make moral judgments about his characters even as they are permitted sympathetic involvement in the characters’ experiences. Dickens provides his first nudge in this direction with the first scene as Pip visits the family graveyard. Pip reflects on his “first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things” (Dickens, 2000: 3). As the convict Magwitch seizes the boy, turns him upside down to shake out his pockets and then significantly places the terrified boy on a tombstone in order to threaten him, Dickens provides the reader with a hint of the deeper psychological import of Pip’s journey through life and the essential need for readers to understand this progression and adjust their lives accordingly. Pip’s true nature is then revealed through his life with Joe and his work with Miss Havisham and Estella before Magwitch again reaches into Pip’s life to turn it upside down. As he becomes ‘shaken’ by Magwitch’s invisible hand, Pip gains a ‘gentleman’s’ education, learning the customs and manners expected of a fine gentleman. His rattled sensibilities are expressed in his disdain of Joe’s commonness and his misplaced regard for Estella. Finally, he is placed on a ‘tombstone’ as he receives no warmth from the woman of his dreams, no fulfillment in the gentleman’s life he leads, no source of pride as he realizes his fortunes are illegally gained and no means of supporting himself as his fortune is seized and his education has given him no profession. The threat, Dickens suggests, is in the misplacement of personal values, an increasingly evident trend among the middle class as materialism began superceding intrinsic values of morality and ethics. It is in the definition of a ‘gentleman’ that the central dichotomy of the novel lies, as being a gentleman is directly related to upward social mobility. This is true not only in the personal story of Pip himself, but in the stories of the characters that surround him. In each case, the level of education received is seen to define their intrinsic value. The concept of becoming a gentleman is constantly and inextricably related to educational improvement as the only way for Pip to make the transition from commoner to gentleman is through a better education. This also serves to illustrate, at a deeper level, the true difference between commoner and gentry within Dickens’ novel – in many ways it is nothing more than a difference of educational opportunity. Education for Pip is therefore vital, and thus becomes the measure of his worth: “For Pip, writing and reading … are the vehicles of his anticipated upward social mobility and the expectation not only of greater wealth but of moral superiority as well … The subsequent plot reveals how Dickens is making an accounting of the costs and benefits of modernization: writing, the production of language, and the manipulation of words and capital have become the new measure of human worth” (Bloom, 2000: 10). As Dickens illustrates through Pip’s education, the idea that these differences in educational knowledge are held to be the standard by which men should be judged should be harshly condemned. The honest, faithful and morally upstanding Joe should be far preferred over the disreputable gentleman Compeyson, yet wealth and education have enabled the latter to become the source of much of the agony of the novel. This is not to say that Dickens was attempting to devalue education. As a somewhat autobiographical novel, it is not surprising that the young Pip thinks of acquiring education as a mandatory step for advancing himself in the world: “I was beginning to be rather vain of my knowledge, for I spent my birthday guineas on it, and set aside the greater part of my pocket-money for similar investment; though I have no doubt, now, that the little I knew was extremely dear at the price” (Dickens, 2000: 104). Dickens gives a humorous account of Pip’s early forays into education under the direction of Mr Wopsle’s great aunt and couched in this description are his views of the state of education in Victorian England at the time. Like the education she offers, this old dame is ‘ridiculous’, ‘of limited means’, ‘and unlimited infirmity’ (Dickens, 2000: 35). Moreover, Pip later admits he learned ‘next to nothing’ (Dickens, 2000: 59). Through this experience, Dickens illustrates how the so-called ‘Dame Schools,’ which had been in existence for a long time, were little more than a waste of time. A new option was needed and Dickens suggests the end of such enterprises in his description of the demise of Mr Wopsle’s great aunt who “successfully overcame that bad habit of living” (Dickens, 2000: 105). However, ironically enough, when real educational opportunity came to Pip, it did not do him much good either. Consequently, as Harold Bloom rather astutely observes in his critique, “Pip leaves behind the innocence of his life with Joe for the travails of an education which will make him increasingly ashamed of his common boots and coarse hands. It will teach him to become a liar; he will discover that words are like costumes, and can be put on and off at will, so that the self can play many roles” (Bloom, 2000: 10). Pip now has access to the tutelage of Matthew Pocket to gain a ‘gentleman’s education.’ As he discovers, the essential nature of a gentleman is to not have to earn his living, but to live off his fortune, filling his time with spending money rather than earning it. Pip’s education still did not equip him to earn a living, voicing some of the most scathing Dickensian critiques of the education received by a Victorian gentleman. An example of this process is Mr. Pocket himself, a Cambridge graduate, who provides a scholarly education that leads to ‘loftier hopes’ that often fail. This type of education produced self-serving individuals who offered no benefit to society as Pip finds it necessary to acquire expensive habits putting him in debt and a scholarly education leaving him “fit for nothing” (Dickens, 2000: 281). Through the course of his story, Dickens recognizes how desirable it was for the middle-class to ascend into gentry as well as the dangers inherent in this rise in Pip. The envied lot of the landed gentleman gave him a sort of unique privilege regardless of the man’s true character. As a result of rising capitalism, people of previously unremarkable stations were able to make a considerable amount of wealth in a relatively short space of time, giving rise to a prevalent hope amongst the multitude. In Great Expectations, Dickens has provided a perceptive study of human nature in these changing social times. As Pip receives his fortune, the attitudes of those around him change drastically, suddenly becoming fawning and devoted whereas before they were aloof and unconcerned. Pip’s spending habits suddenly turn from very carefully considered to unthinkingly lavish and his lifestyle becomes dangerously destructive. However, the most heart-wrenching consequence of Pip’s sudden wealth is the distance that grows between Pip and his dearest well-wishers, Joe and Biddy. This distance grows because of a growing snobbishness in Pip, a snobbishness that is mostly the trademark of the rich, but also the absolute hallmark of the nouveau riche. It is in describing Pip’s supercilious attitude in contrast with the quiet humility of Biddy, and the well-meaning, bumbling, yet ‘simple dignity’ of Joe that Dickens brings a realization to his audience of what money and heightened status can do to a person. With nothing but a difference in education truly separating them, the ‘gentlemanly’ Pip emerges as hurtful and cold-hearted as he once found Estelle while the ‘commoner’ class represented by Joe and Biddy remain morally and compassionately superior. References Bloom, Harold. (2000). Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. Philadelphia: Chelsea House. Dickens, Charles. (1861; 2000). Great Expectations. Intro. by John Bowen. London: Wordsworth. Walder, Dennis. (1996). The Realist Novel: Approaching Literature. London: Routledge. Read More