Explore the portrayal of two themes in Great Expectations.

Dickens portrays both love and class, not only as prominent themes in Great Expectations but as two forces acting in opposition. Dickens shows this predominantly through the characterisation of Pip. Pip’s romantic love of Estella and his platonic love for Joe can be studied in relation to class. Though Pip is ashamed to have acquired his fortune from a criminal (and thus deems himself unworthy of Estella) when it is revealed that Magwitch is in fact Estella’s father, he thinks no less of her. This portrays the idea that Pip’s love for Estella is so strong that it remains unaffected by his somewhat inflated perception of the importance of class. However this is completely contradicted by Pip’s attitude towards Joe and the embarrassment caused by Joe’s lower class mannerisms and speech in the company of the upper class, Pip states that “I am afraid I was ashamed of the dear good fellow - I know I was ashamed of him”. Though this does not dismiss Pip’s love for Joe it portrays it as somewhat lesser, it is not powerful enough to overcome Pip’s obsession with class. This element of the novel therefore portrays a sense that love and status are almost mutually incompatible, two forces that act in opposition, at least in the mind of young Pip. I will now explore Dickens’s portrayal of both love and class as a facade. Dickens presents this most prominently through Pip’s two love interests, Biddy and Estella. These two characters act as the antithesis of each other, Biddy being kind, caring, almost omnibenevolent, she is however plain. As Pip puts it “She was not beautiful,—she was common, and could not be like Estella”. Estella on the other hand is cold and uncaring yet beautiful. Pip is infatuated with Estella, though he himself recognises this as harmful, "how could I, a poor dazed village lad, avoid that wonderful inconsistency into which the best and wisest of men fall every day?". The use of the verb dazed emphasises the notion that Pip was quite literally stunned by her beauty and therefore alludes to the fact that Pip has once again fallen into the trap of valuing superficial traits (social class and beauty) over those of actual value such as kindness. Much like class, beauty acts as a facade, which in no way indicates goodness or virtue. This is further mirrored by Joe and Magwitch being the most virtuous characters of the novel and yet being of the lowest class and the fact that it takes Pip years to come to this realisation.