In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, the character of Pip demonstrates the working class and its restrictions. Dickens uses Pip and various other characters to show that class mobility is almost impossible in Victorian society. If someone is able to move to another class, it will change them for the worse and they will end up where they started. At first, Pip is little aware of his social class and educational level, but as he is exposed to Estella, he becomes more perceptive and desires to improve himself. He moves to London thanks to the kindness of an unknown benefactor and seeks to become a "gentleman". Philip Pirrip or Pip did not have a deep desire to improve himself or achieve educational, moral or social advancement, until he met Miss Havisham and Estelle. At the start of the story, Pip was alone in a cemetery and reveals that he had never met his parents. When he is older in the story, he remembers his misconception about the carvings on tombstones; “I read ‘wife of the above’ as a complementary reference to my father’s exaltation toward a better world” (Dickens 38). This shows that Pip's confusion about class structure and definition leads to the possibility that his story is one of self-discovery (Brooks). Pip begins to see the world differently when he meets a wealthy woman named Miss Havisham and her adopted child Estella. Miss Havisham is a rich old woman who lives in a mansion called Satis House near Pip's village. Pip's opinions change when Estella begins to point out and criticize Pip's low social class and unrefined manners. Estella calls Pip a "boy", implying that Estella considers herself above Pip. For example, when Miss Havisham asks him to play with...... middle of paper...... a more humble man. Works CitedBrooks, Peter. “Repetition, repression and return: great expectations and a study of the plot.” On narrative and stories: II. New York: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994-98. 503-26. Print. Flight. 3 of the literary history of New York. 11 flights. Capuano, Peter J. “Managing the Perceptual Politics of Identity in Great Expectations.” DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. University of Nebraska - Lincoln, September 2010. Web. January 27, 2014. Cody, David. “The gentleman.” Victorian Web. Hartwick College, nd Web. February 24, 2014. Crossick, Geoffrey. “Classes and Masses in Victorian England.” History today. History Today, nd Web. February 3, 2014. Dickens, Charles. Great expectations. New York: Random House, 1992. Print. Loftus, Donna. "The Rise of the Victorian Middle Class." BBC History. BBC, February 17, 2011. Web. February 3. 2014.