Confronting the Context

 Great Expectations of Class, Crime and Kings

    

    Novels, upon the surface, may appear to be just organised letters of ink printed upon pieces of paper with the aim to entertain. Although, beneath the depths of these words could hoard unlocked secrets of the author and of their time: personal opinions accidentally spilt across the pages, references to events of their era weaved into the story and fragments of their life scattered amongst the imagery and dialogue.

    Great Expectations by Charles Dickens may have the façade of the transgression of a boy’s life into wealth and adulthood. But, behind this novelistic mask may conceal the authors views on the justice system of the 1800s, references to royalty and most certainly class. How has Dickens accomplished in entwining these subjects into his novel, and what does this illustrate to us about the author himself?

    We find that many authors have a tendency to inject their own personal experiences into their work; fuelling their plots with poignant incidents from their life and sculpturing their characters from acquaintances of the past. Many previous explorers of Great Expectations have commented on the extent to which the protagonist Pip mirrors Charles Dickens’s childhood.  “It is impossible to read Great Expectations without sensing Dickens's presence in the book, without being aware that in portraying and judging Pip he is giving us a glimpse of a younger self.” (Professor David Cody, 2000, pp1) As Professor Cody discusses, Dickens may have used fragments of his younger years as inspiration for the character of Pip, and many events which occur within the plot.

    As a boy, Dickens lived the first nine years of his life in the coastal regions of Kent. Contrary to many of the great authors of the nineteenth century, Dickens did not develop within a life of luxury, education and comfort. John, Dickens’s father, was rather unapt at controlling the family finances, resulting in accumulating debts and eventually confronting debtors’ prison when Dickens was twelve. His mother moved his siblings into prison with their father; however, she arranged for Dickens to live outside the prison and work pasting labels on bottles in a blacking warehouse. Dickens viewed this work to be beneath his talents, and spent a wretched three months suffering the labour. Although, his suffering was not prolonged, as when his father was released from his confinement, Dickens returned to school eventually and earned his place as a law clerk before becoming the novelist we celebrate today.  

    The parallel between Dickens’s early life and Pip’s is extremely unambiguous.  Before Pip’s Great Expectations come to fruition, he spends his childhood in the marshes- much like Dickens’s first settlement. Pip also suffered “that curtain [drop] so heavy and black, as when my way in life lay stretched out straight before me through the newly-entered road of apprenticeship to Joe.” (Ch. 14 pp. 91) Much like Dickens experienced when working in the blacking warehouse. In extension, we additionally find that one of the more engaging characters, Wemmick, to be a law clerk; much like Dickens was. Are these just strange coincidences, unconsciously sewn into the fabrication of the novel? Or did Dickens intend to give the readers a sliver of his previous life, before the wealth and fame of his literary success?

    Royalty and politics within the Georgian era was a point of conflict, as the battle of the Georges grew to its climax. Dickens, rather cunningly, may have attempted to portray this royal quarrel within Great Expectations.

    King George III and his son George IV did not have a strong bond, with politics being the core conflict within their relationship. As such, in a statement of rebellion and defiance, George IV married Maria Fits Herbert in 1785 who was not of royal lineage. This juvenile attempt of mutiny had a short duration of only ten years, and George remarried to a Princess Caroline, making George miserable. As such, Caroline was sent to look after the ailing George III.

    These events described may have some connotations within Dickens novel. Wemmick, Pips acquaintance and eventual professional and personal friend, often described his house as a “castle” where his father known as “the Aged” resided. There is one focal scene in which Pip meets “a neat little girl in attendance, who looked after the Aged in the day.” (Ch. 25 pp. 178) We may draw from this phenomenon that Dickens endeavoured to recreate the politics of the era. But the question remains, why? Could by highlighting this event suggest that Dickens agrees with the fact that George had to remarry to keep a royal blood line within the royal family? Or maybe, he agrees with the royal rebellion of the frowned upon marriage to Fits Herbert? For we find that Wemmick does not marry this “neat little girl” who may represent Princess Caroline, but his love Miss Skiffins. Did Dickens intend Miss Skiffins to play Fits Herbert in this indefinite performance of the Georgian reign?  

    The last exploration of context arrives in the form on the justice system. As Dickens travelled through the life as a law clerk, he may have formed strong opinions of the English justice system, in particular, the death penalty. The beautifully written scene of chapter fifty six describes the passing of sentences of criminals, including Pip’s benefactor: Magwitch. Dickens writes the horror that Pip experiences when he “saw two-and-thirty men and women put before the judge to receive that sentence together.” (Ch. 56 pp. 388) The magnified passage Dickens writes notes all of what Pip experiences, down to “the April rain on the windows of the court, glittering in the rays of April sun.” (Ch. 56 pp. 388) By emphasising the sentencing, Dickens may be suggesting his views on the death penalty. The author may be stressing his aversion to the law, accumulated from his days as a law clerk, as the passage sees Pip’s benefactor being sentenced to death.

    Context is a wonderful way for authors to express their own experiences and opinions without causing conflict and controversy. This powerful tool used by Dickens has given us an incomplete key into his past and of his opinions of topical subjects of his era. Through context, authors may be the passive politicians of the world, shedding light on taboo subjects and opinions.

Bibliography:

Charles Dickens (1992). Great Expectations, Wordsworth Classics, Hertfordshire

Professor David Cody (2000). Autobiographical Elements in Dickens's Great Expectations, http://mural.uv.es/mobero/dickauto.htm Viewed at: 20/08/2012 15:34 pm