Hi, need to submit a 1500 words essay on the topic Charles Dickens Great Expectations.Download file to see previous pages... Considering that the period was one of massive turmoil created as a result

Hi, need to submit a 1500 words essay on the topic Charles Dickens Great Expectations.

Considering that the period was one of massive turmoil created as a result of the industrial revolution, no doubt that this image is hardly far off the mark. Great Expectations is a novel that sets to create a social critique of the Victorian era and now the patented unfairness of the social order created a system that served merely to reproduce itself.

Charles Dickens' may be guilty of creating caricatures more so than the three-dimensional characters of contemporaries such as Dostoyevsky or Flaubert, but that isn't to suggest that his characterizations don't serve as valuable of purpose. Whereas the great Russian writer was far more interested in the introspection of his characters as they related to his own philosophical struggles, and whereas Flaubert was more concerned with digging into the psychology of his characters, Dickens used characterisation as means to advance certain social ideas. What Dickens is interested in by the story he tells in Great Expectations isn't the psychological drive behind Pip's life, but rather the grand panorama which envelops not only Pip, but indeed all the characters (Johnson).

Characterisation becomes, then, the key to understanding what kind of social critique Dickens was forming. The fanciful names that Dickens typically gave to his characters are often used as ammunition by those critics who say his characterizations are shallow. Indeed, many of the more outrageous names to be found not only in this novel but in the rest of Dickens' canon would seem egregiously out of place among other realistic novels, but they are there to serve Dickens' purpose. Miss Haversham, for instance, is ultimately revealed to be living a life that is a completely sham. What better name for a greedy group of people than the Pockets It is anything but coincidental that Dickens provides names for characters that match their personality. The caricature has always been shorthand, whether in art or literature. Dickens is far less interested in creating realistically named characters that in using characterisations as a means for furthering his social critique.

Characterisation for Dickens is on equal par with theme and as such he takes great pains to write characters that reflect their setting, their social condition, their family background. The very language they use is an indication of their social status, but also more. The use of words is very precise in Great Expectations. Consider the constant repetitions of references to legal matters that dot Wemmick's speeches. At the office Wemmick is seen to be bureaucratic and uncreative and his use of jargon even when speaking of personal matters stands as a glimpse not only into his own personal psyche but also as the kind of devaluation and dehumanization that Dickens is speaking out against. Contrast Wemmick's speech to that of Joe. Joe's language is vitally important to understanding the social critique that Dickens is working toward. Before Pip achieves wealth, he is a great admirer of Joe and can overlook his uneducated speech patterns filled with contractions and words that run together. That same language comes to be seen in counterpoint once Pip achieves his riches and begins to see Joe in a new light.