We have studied the novel as a vehicle of social criticism of aspects of Victorian society. Today, we analyzed Dickens' satire of lawyers and the legal system. Kaitlin for homework located some impressive textual examples of Dickens' negative depiction and in class we continued to note the cavalier attitude of the prison guard concerning the mass executions that take place at Newgate Prison often for crimes that do not warrant the death penalty. We further noted the novel as a virtual census of Victorian society portraying members of all social classes, not just aristocrats. Last, we studied Dickens' grotesque caricature of a Jewish man who seeks legal help from Jaggers. I noted the Victorian trope depicting Jewish people as unscrupulous money lenders.
We studied the impact of money on character. We first noted Pip's augmented arrogance with respect to Joe highlighted by Pip's decision not to have Joe accompany him to the stagecoach to London due to embarrassment. We further examined how the shopkeepers in town hypocritically now treat Pip with fulsome respect and flattery, as Pip himself notes the "power of money." Next, we began the analysis of Dickens' satire and criticism of lawyers, the courts, and the legal system. Contrary to Pip's "expectations ", London and Jaggers' legal office is dismal , dirty, and reminiscent of death, evidenced by the "decorative" death masks Jaggers hangs on his walls.
We studied the impacts of the revelation that Pip has "great expectations " or a prospect of a large gift of wealth, noting how the term "expectation" means both the prospect of inherited wealth and Pip's personal expectations that somehow wealth will make him a better person worthy of Estella. We further noted the importance of the stipulation to the gift: Pip is to keep his namesake (his values /identity). Yet, his first order of business is to disguise his true self symbolically purchasing new clothes. We studied the symbolic significance of clothes in the novel .Last, we discussed how the prospect of money leaves Pip feeling lonely and isolated as his family no longer feels as comfortable in his presence .
During our first segment Kaitlin completed a short vocabulary test based on words from the novel. We then discussed the role of social class in the novel noting that while Dickens criticizes upper class values he more critically condemns those who judge others solely based on their social class regardless of their character or morals. In this regard ,we next studied the text to compare Estella and Biddy. Kaitlin then reviewed an essay prompt I prepared and began drafting a paragraph comparing Estella , a representative of the upper class, with Biddy, a lower class country girl.
As the novel has many characters and complex plot facets, we today examined and revised Kaitlin's study guide answers to chapters 12-17. I directed her to specific textual paragraphs to assist in recalling plot details and. the names of some minor characters . Through this review session, we were able to explore the character of Pip and Estella's relationship and more broadly in the context of the bildungsroman discuss how in this genre a "broken heart" leads to self examination and maturation as one realizes the importance of certain values. Last, we briefly studied vocabulary from the novel based on vocabulary exercises I distributed .We will have a short vocab quiz tomorrow.
