Great Expectations – Victorian Social Class

A comprehensive and professionally structured resource exploring how Dickens presents Victorian social class as a system of power, aspiration and judgement in Great Expectations.

This resource examines how status is communicated through wealth, occupation, education, speech, manners and reputation. It focuses on Pip’s internalised class shame, his changing relationship with Joe and the revelation that his social advancement has been funded by Magwitch, challenging the assumption that gentility is equivalent to moral worth.

Key features:

• Clear analysis of Victorian hierarchy, gentility, respectability, social mobility, labour, inherited wealth and class prejudice
• Focus on Pip’s ambition and shame, Joe’s moral integrity, Magwitch’s hidden wealth, Estella’s social influence and Drummle’s inherited privilege
• Exploration of the forge, Satis House, London, the legal system and other settings and institutions that dramatise class difference
• Varied activities covering terminology, evidence and inference, close language analysis, contextual connections, critical perspectives, creative writing and extended essay preparation
• Detailed answer key and supporting presentation slides included for straightforward teaching, marking, feedback and review