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
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