Class and Wealth Flashcards
CONTEXT Great Expectations
Dickens himself longed for a better upbringing and education-could not bc financial difficulties
the national debate about education and its spread to all classes of society
the role of education and class in a rapidly changing, rapidly urbanizing society
ethical questions concerning the use and misuse of money, relevant in a period when the high point of the Industrial Revolution was past and the commercial and financial sectors were developing; , relevant in a period when the high point of the Industrial revolution was past and the commercial and financial sectors were developing
discussions about democracy and the extension of the franchise to a larger percentage of the population.
Great expectations- accepting what you have and who you are. That your GE are within yourself not objects
CONTEXT Pip
Pip lacks formal education
Pip, who at one point tells Buddy that he might be interested in marrying her if it weren’t for her lowly social status, later comes to realize that Biddy’s true worth as a person far outshines any artificial class distinctions.
Spends all his money carelessly when he gets it
Greed is another theme- compeyson’s greed
Money can help with social mobility- ‘new money’ but pip cannot escape his class-through name/ joe/ visiting
Never really accepted into higher class but cannot go home- alienation
Money is artificial and temporary
QUOTES Pip
‘just enough learning to be able to spell (the tombstones) out’
‘I wanted to make Joe less ignorant and common, that he might be worthier of my society and less open to Estella’s reproach.’
‘I want to be a gentleman on her (estella’s) account’
‘If i could have kept him away by paying money i would have’
‘You always bear the name of pip’
‘You should have some new clothes to come in’
‘Odd impression that HP would never be successful or rich’
‘handel - the harmonious blacksmith’
‘I was not designed for any profession’
‘There was a gay fiction among us that we were constantly enjoying ourselves, and a skeleton truth that we never did’
Joe
being a blacksmith reflects his physical skill but lack of education
Joe’s great size is a metaphor for his moral stature
Joe shown as uncommon through dialect “halloa” “particle”
‘I am wrong in these clothes. I am wrong out of the forge, the kitchen’
Magwitch
Prejudice bc of society and class- compensation treated far more leniently than magwitch
Estella
What was fit company for you once, would be quite unfit company for you now
Wemmick
Portable property
Walworth- castle
Wemmick got dryer and harder as we went along, and his mouth tightened into a post office again
Mr wemmick’s walworth sentiments
Falsity of those with class and power as opposed to the innocence and honesty of joe
Facade of wemmick and his castle ‘letterbox’ reliance on ‘portable property’
Herbert
she (Clara) is rather below my mother’s nonsensical family notions
Billy Collins
“suburban, it’s domestic, it’s middle class, and it’s sort of unashamedly that.”
The Rival Poet
Insecurity
Very money based and materialistic
Relate to pip and his newfound wealth
Love is money based? Someone with ridiculous titles
WoB marrying for wealth
Pip is insecure about not being good enough /rich enough/ for estella
Puts down other people in order to feel better
Wants power? But cannot get it??
Wants recognition and page in order to be happy
Woman acts merely as an object
Outcompeting someone else- modern issue?
dreams - like pip’s to marry estella
Immoral
Schoolsville
Loneliness and isolation
‘The population ages but never graduates’ trapped in the memory of speaker
Education makes a person successful
Much like pip who strives for education
Male- successful female- unsuccessful/ very focused on appearance/loses identity
Classes people through their grades- change in society from wealth to level of education
Makes fun of soft subjects such as creative writing-sought after in pip’s era/ WoB is illiterate
No one else is mentioned except from him and the students- not a real relationship
The ending is shocking and suggests madness
Sense of grandeur such as in the rival poet
