Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
explored in a literary work.
Ambition and Self-Improvement
The moral theme of Great Expectations is
quite simple: affection, loyalty, and conscience are more important
than social advancement, wealth, and class. Dickens establishes
the theme and shows Pip learning this lesson, largely by exploring
ideas of ambition and self-improvement—ideas that quickly become
both the thematic center of the novel and the psychological mechanism
that encourages much of Pip’s development. At heart, Pip is an idealist;
whenever he can conceive of something that is better than what he
already has, he immediately desires to obtain the improvement. When
he sees Satis House, he longs to be a wealthy gentleman; when he thinks
of his moral shortcomings, he longs to be good; when he realizes
that he cannot read, he longs to learn how. Pip’s desire for self-improvement
is the main source of the novel’s title: because he believes in
the possibility of advancement in life, he has “great expectations”
about his future.
Ambition and self-improvement take three forms in Great Expectations—moral,
social, and educational; these motivate Pip’s best and his worst
behavior throughout the novel. First, Pip desires moral self-improvement.
He is extremely hard on himself when he acts immorally and feels
powerful guilt that spurs him to act better in the future. When
he leaves for London, for instance, he torments himself about having
behaved so wretchedly toward Joe and Biddy. Second, Pip desires
social self-improvement. In love with Estella, he longs to become
a member of her social class, and, encouraged by Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook,
he entertains fantasies of becoming a gentleman. The working out
of this fantasy forms the basic plot of the novel; it provides Dickens
the opportunity to gently satirize the class system of his era and
to make a point about its capricious nature. Significantly, Pip’s
life as a gentleman is no more satisfying—and certainly no more
moral—than his previous life as a blacksmith’s apprentice. Third,
Pip desires educational improvement. This desire is deeply connected
to his social ambition and longing to marry Estella: a full education
is a requirement of being a gentleman. As long as he is an ignorant
country boy, he has no hope of social advancement. Pip understands
this fact as a child, when he learns to read at Mr. Wopsle’s aunt’s
school, and as a young man, when he takes lessons from Matthew Pocket.
Ultimately, through the examples of Joe, Biddy, and Magwitch, Pip
learns that social and educational improvement are irrelevant to
one’s real worth and that conscience and affection are to be valued above
erudition and social standing.
Social Class
Throughout Great Expectations, Dickens
explores the class system of Victorian England, ranging from the
most wretched criminals (Magwitch) to the poor peasants of the marsh
country (Joe and Biddy) to the middle class (Pumblechook) to the
very rich (Miss Havisham). The theme of social class is central
to the novel’s plot and to the ultimate moral theme of the book—Pip’s
realization that wealth and class are less important than affection,
loyalty, and inner worth. Pip achieves this realization when he
is finally able to understand that, despite the esteem in which
he holds Estella, one’s social status is in no way connected to
one’s real character. Drummle, for instance, is an upper-class lout,
while Magwitch, a persecuted convict, has a deep inner worth.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember about the
novel’s treatment of social class is that the class system it portrays
is based on the post-Industrial Revolution model of Victorian England. Dickens
generally ignores the nobility and the hereditary aristocracy in
favor of characters whose fortunes have been earned through commerce.
Even Miss Havisham’s family fortune was made through the brewery
that is still connected to her manor. In this way, by connecting
the theme of social class to the idea of work and self-advancement,
Dickens subtly reinforces the novel’s overarching theme of ambition
and self-improvement.
Crime, Guilt, and Innocence
The theme of crime, guilt, and innocence is explored throughout
the novel largely through the characters of the convicts and the
criminal lawyer Jaggers. From the handcuffs Joe mends at the smithy
to the gallows at the prison in London, the imagery of crime and
criminal justice pervades the book, becoming an important symbol
of Pip’s inner struggle to reconcile his own inner moral conscience
with the institutional justice system. In general, just as social
class becomes a superficial standard of value that Pip must learn
to look beyond in finding a better way to live his life, the external
trappings of the criminal justice system (police, courts, jails,
etc.) become a superficial standard of morality that Pip must learn
to look beyond to trust his inner conscience. Magwitch,
for instance, frightens Pip at first simply because he is a convict,
and Pip feels guilty for helping him because he is afraid of the
police. By the end of the book, however, Pip has discovered Magwitch’s
inner nobility, and is able to disregard his external status as
a criminal. Prompted by his conscience, he helps Magwitch to evade
the law and the police. As Pip has learned to trust his conscience
and to value Magwitch’s inner character, he has replaced an external
standard of value with an internal one.
Sophistication
In Great Expectations, Pip becomes obsessed with a desire to be sophisticated and takes damaging risks in order to do so. After his first encounter with Estella, Pip becomes acutely self-conscious that “I was a common labouring-boy; that my hands were coarse, that my boots were thick.” (pg. 59). Once he moves to London, Pip is exposed to a glamourous urban world “so crowded with people and so brilliantly lighted,” and he quickly begins to “contract expensive habits.” As a result of spending money on things like a personal servant and fancy clothes, Pip quickly falls into debt, and damages Herbert’s finances as well as his own. Even more troubling, Pip tries to avoid anyone who might undermine his reputation as a sophisticated young gentleman. In the end, sophistication is revealed as a shallow and superficial value because it does not lead to Pip achieving anything, and only makes him lonely and miserable.
