How Does Dickens Use Of Social Class Like To Live In The Victorian Era?

Ever wonder what it was like to live in the Victorian era? Was it romantic, luxurious, and utopian, or was it wicked, corrupt, and polluted? Ever since the 19th century, innumerable authors have tried to capture the perfect interpretation of the Victorian era. Whether they idealized or denigrated it, they all provided insight on what Victorian life was like. In the novel Great Expectations, Charles Dickens effectively uses social commentary to address Victorian London’s economic disparity between the upper and lower classes, the flaws in the criminal justice system, and the terrible living conditions. In the era of Victorian London, there was a large economic difference between the upper and lower classes. This was attributed to the Industrial
Revolution, which was also happening at the time. The Industrial Revolution was a period of time around 1760 to 1820, where new manufacturing processes emerged. As a result, the wealthy people became richer, while the poor people became poorer. Charles Dickens perfectly captured this event in his novel Great Expectations, and his opinion about the disparity between the upper and lower classes was well justified. As a child, he grew up in a poor family in rural England, and at the age of 12, he went to London to work in a factory. His family was in deep debt, and he despised his job. Simply from his life experience, it can be inferred that Charles Dickens understood the wide economic gap between the upper and lower classes. However, it wasn’t only Charles Dickens who criticized the economic disparity between the social classes; many other authors did as well. “There were two significant changes in labor practice… increased production, which led to greater economic security for their owners and managers, but also reduced the need for unskilled laborers, which created unemployment at the lower ends of the economic scale.” (Moss 152). Through the detail of this quote, Moss explains how the Industrial Revolution contributes to the great disparity between the social classes. She remarks that the Industrial Revolution led to new labor practices, which increased production. Thus, the wealthy factory owners could produce more products faster, thereby making them more affluent. The diction of the words “greater economic security” deduces that the rich factory owners grew more wealthy. However, on the other hand, since new machines were introduced, less workers were needed to manually produce items, which led to an increase in unemployment, therefore hurting the lower class (with no jobs, they were basically starving and living on the streets). Thus as a result, the rich got richer and more economically secure, while the poor got poorer and lost their jobs. Consequently, there was a prominent economic disparity between the upper and lower social classes. As the novel progresses, Charles Dickens criticizes the flaws in the criminal justice system; specifically how the upper class were given less harsh sentences than the lower class.
In Great Expectations, he illustrates this idea with the character Provis (a convict of the lower class) and the character Compeyson (a convict of the upper class). Since Provis has a low social status, he is condemned far more harshly for his crimes than his partner Compeyson. “Of course he’d much the best of it to the last- his character was so good. He had escaped… and his punishment was light. I was put in irons, brought to trial again, and sent for life.” (Dickens 327). The detail of this quote warrants the fact that the social class system negatively impacted the justice system. Since Compeyson is a “good character” and of a high social status, he easily escapes his minor punishment and fled. On the other hand, Provis is sentenced to death. This effectively demonstrates the flaws of the criminal justice system during the Victorian era, because despite the fact that the severity of Provis’s and Compeyson’s crime were the same, the punishments were polar opposites. This fault in the justice system is furthered by Dickens's use of diction, when he uses the words “light” and “sent for life”. These contrasting words clash with each other, and reveal that the upper class were given very minor punishments, while the lower class were sentenced to life in
prison.