Some of the important themes of social reform and injustice are as follows:
1.Child abuse:the childhood of Joe, Pip, Estella and Magwitch is pitiably abusive. Ch.7 "And he hammered at me (Joe) with a wigour." Ch.8 "Within myself,I (Pip) had sustained, from my babyhood a perpetual conflict with injustice." Ch.33 "You had not your little wits sharpened by their intriguing against you...I (Estella) had." Ch.42 "I (Magwitch) was a ragged little creetur as much to be pitied as ever I see."
2. The Crooked Legal System: Compeyson is treated sympathetically by the judge and is awarded a lesser jail term. Ch.42 "And when we're sentenced ain't it him as gets seven years and me (Compeyson) fourteen."
3. The Educational System : Ch.10, Mr. Wopsle's great aunt's school. Ch.23 Mr.Pocket's method of tutoring Pip and his companions.
4. The hypocrisy of the prevailing Class System: The central theme of the novel,of course, is "Who is a true gentleman?" Ch.22 "It is a principle of his(Matthew pocket) that no man who was not a true gentleman at heart, ever was, since the world began, a true gentleman in manner. He says, no varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will exress itself." In which case the true gentleman in the novel would be Joe and only Joe.
No comments:
Post a Comment