The Satire in Dickens’ Great Expectations

【Abstract】： Charles Dickens is regarded as the greatest novelist and the of the Victorian era. He is also the representative of critical realist literature.Great Expectations is one of his realistic works. This thesis will analyze how Dickens employs satire in Great Expectations to achieve a better understanding of the novel.

【Key words】： Charles Dickens; Great Expectations; satire; social environment

1. Introduction

As one of the greatest British realistic novelists， Charles Dickens created numerous works that aimed at represent the the dark side of society. Great Expectations is one of his greatest works. Dickens employed sarcasm in this novel in order to reveal the distorted moral values and social reality of Victorian age.

2. Social background of Great Expectations

Many moral values were developed throughout the Victorian Age. The concept of gentleman was one of these moral values. However， in Great Expectations， the word “gentleman” has a derogatory meaning. This kind of gentleman was mainly made up by money. The most irony is that these gentlemen lived decently.

3. Irony in Great Expectations

Pip， an orphan who born in poor and raised by his cruel sister. At Satis House， about age 8， he meets Estella， a contact which destroys his peace of mind. He had liked to be apprentice of Joe once， but now he wanted to be a gentleman. He dreamed of great expectations to match with hers. He begun to feel shamed of his \"coarse hands\" and \"thick boots\".

Four years later after his apprenticeship， he got an anonymous expectations. He has been educated as a gentleman and he relentlessly pursued Estella. He believed that he could be with Estella now cause he was a “gentleman”. While Estella flirted with and pursued Bentley Drummle， a disdainful rival of Pip's， and eventually married him for his money. Ironically， at the same time， Pip found that his benefactor was Magwitch， the criminal. He lost all his fortunes and ran into huge debt. Joe， Pip’s sincere friend， paid all Pip’s debts and asked for no return. However， when Pip lived in London， he was afraid that Joe would embarrassed him. He even wanted to pay Joe Money to keep him away.

4. Conclusion

In Great Expectations， Dickens concentrated on the observation of the social reality and showed the hypocritical of upper classed by employing sarcasm. This novel demonstrates Dickens’ moral values that the value of life is not judged by money but by one’s living attitude.

References

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[4] Dickens， Charles. Great Expectations[M]. US： The Pennsylvania State University， 2007.

[5] Gold， Joseph. Charles Dickens： Radical Moralist. Minneapolis[M]. University of Minnesota Press， 1972.