Through his novel Great Expectations, Charles Dickens highlights the perpetually overbearing nature of 19th-century England's uncompromising class structure system. Dickens satirizes the socially vital and inflexible nature of this system through characters such as Mrs. Pocket, whose inability to realize her low-class status drives her to neglect her family and her sensibilities, and Mr. Pumblechook, who respects the Main character Pip only after he comes into a great inheritance. However, Dickens most effectively highlights the seriousness of one's place in this society through Mr. Wemmick, whom Pip befriends in the second volume of the novel. Through this character, Pip learns not only to separate the boundaries of social stratification from a humble lifestyle, but also to appreciate the modest pleasures and lessons of his “humble” roots. Dickens uses Wemmick as a significant tool to convey these important messages, and does so convincingly through the use of detail to describe Wemmick's home versus professional life, language to indicate his change in tone between the two environments, and images to convey the extent to which Wemmick separates his different worlds. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Dickens, masterful in the art of entertaining and meaningful description, uses a great deal of detail in describing Wemmick's beloved, if low-class, mansion and home. family life. Before Pip is introduced to Wemmick's alternative suburban society, he interacts with Wemmick only in a strictly professional capacity; thus, he has no idea about Walworth, Wemmick's alternate reality fortress where Wemmick constantly assumes an emancipated identity. Pip, somewhat ashamed of his beginnings in the lower echelon of Victorian England, is initially unimpressed by the rural poverty of Wemmick's residence: "It seemed to be a collection of black alleys, ditches, and little gardens, and to present the appearance of a rather boring retirement house. Wemmick's house was a little wooden house in the middle of bits of garden... I think it was the smallest house I've ever seen, with the strangest Gothic windows... and a Gothic door. , almost too small to fit." (p. 192) As Pip later discovers, however, Walworth is, and represents, everything that a rigid London working life is not: picturesque, romantic, at once thrilling and relaxing. Wemmick creates simple pleasures for himself in Walworth, which are small enough to be maintained and enjoyed: “The bridge was a plank and spanned a chasm about four feet wide and two feet deep. But it was very pleasing to see the pride with which (Wemmick) hoisted (the flag) and did it quickly; smiling as he did so, with gusto, and not simply mechanically. (p. 192.) Employing sufficient detail to describe both Walworth's allure and its supreme importance to Wemmick, Dickens conveys the extent to which Walworth allows Wemmick to shed the blacker strata of austere and demanding inner-London society , and to become someone that no one in his conventional community would respect or approve of. Dickens paints a bold and significant picture of the importance of social paradigms on the mentality of 19th-century Englishmen by drawing a profound contrast between Wemmick's language in his London profession and that in his country home of Walworth. While working in London during the day, Wemmick communicates with his boss and clients in an entirely professional manner, saying exactly what isnecessary to say to complete his work and bring home the money in his pocket. Completely distrustful of the opinions of his fellow society members, he keeps his mouth shut on matters that might in any way hinder his work or social standing. Once he arrives home in Walworth, however, his terse speech and habitually limited responses transform into cheerful banter, good-natured teasing, and an obvious display of hospitality. While at work, Wemmick darkly dismisses the city he works in by informing Pip: “You could be cheated, robbed and killed in London. But there are plenty of people everywhere who will do that to you. (p. 158) In contrast, Wemmick's diction takes on an undeniably brighter tone when he addresses his "elderly parent" and boasts of his role as a handyman at Walworth: "I am my own engineer, and my own carpenter, and my plumber, and my gardener, and my handyman. Well, it's a good thing, you know. It sweeps away the cobwebs of Newgate and pleases the old people. (p. 193) This division of expression is not certainly casual; Wemmick draws such a clear line between his two extremely opposite ways of speaking that he classifies the remarks he feels discouraged from making in London as “Walworth feelings,” only to be imparted in Walworth liberation and ease: “ No; the office is one thing and private life is another. When I enter the office, I leave the castle behind me, and when I enter the castle, I leave the office behind me in any way unpleasant (Pip), you will force me to do the same. I would like this to be discussed on a professional level." (p. 194) The seriousness with which Wemmick verbally addresses issues in his professional life, when juxtaposed with his informal and lighthearted way of addressing those same (or very different) issues in his residential life reveals his concerns about his reflection in the eyes of the social body and the extent to which it struggles to preserve the segmentation of its two lives. Dickens effectively uses imagery to further show Wemmick's daily metamorphosis from taciturn businessman to affable family man, as well as Wemmick's struggle to live normally and appropriately in each habitat. Throughout the book, Dickens conveys the image of Wemmick's mouth as a post office, widening and narrowing depending on his emotions and environment. While in Walworth no description of Wemmick's mouth distinguishes it from any other, Pip observes in London how, "(Wemmick's) mouth was such a postal mouth that it had the mechanical appearance of a smile." Wemmick's liberal, wide-mouthed emissions in Walworth remain controlled under the key of the London Post Office, and just as Wemmick must free himself from his world of pleasures indulged in miles and minutes as he enters the world where none of this is possible, so he must rule the similar operation of his post office: "By and by, Wemmick grew harder and harder as we went along, and his mouth tightened again in a post office." (p. 195) Through this prominent image, Dickens is able to humorously yet significantly show how careful and obedient respect for society's social commandments, and the importance of isolating this obedience from the liberties of domestic life, can manifest unintentionally in physical expressions. in mind: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay While Dickens constantly reveals the flaws and inconsistencies of In the Society of Victorian England, through the exaggerated conduct of most of his characters, Wemmick serves as the primary and knowledgeable observer of.