Through his novel Great Expectations, Charles Dickens highlights the perpetually dominating nature of 19th century England's uncompromising class structure system century. Dickens satirizes the socially vital and inflexible nature of this system through characters such as Mrs. Pocket, whose inability to realize her lower-class status causes her to neglect her family and her sensibilities, and Mr. Pumblechook, who only respects the main character Pip after entering into a great inheritance. However, Dickens most effectively emphasizes 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 constraints of social stratification from a humble lifestyle, but also to appreciate the modest pleasures and lessons of his own "humble" roots. Dickens uses Wemmick as a significant instrument to convey these important messages, and does so convincingly through his use of detail to describe Wemmick's home life versus his professional life, to language to signify his shift in tone between the two contexts 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 Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Dickens, a master in the art of amusing and meaningful description, uses a generous amount of detail to describe Wemmick's beloved, if lower class, habitation and life. family life. Before Pip is introduced to Wemmick's alternative suburban society, he only interacts with Wemmick in a strictly professional capacity; thus, he has no idea of ​​Walworth, Wemmick's alternate reality fortress in which Wemmick consistently assumes an emancipated identity. Pip, somewhat ashamed of his own beginnings in the lowest tier of Victorian England, is at first unimpressed by the rural poverty of Wemmick's residence: "It seemed to be a collection of black lanes, ditches and small gardens, and present the appearance of a rather picturesque place. a boring retirement. Wemmick's house was a small wooden house in the middle of garden plots... I think it was the smallest house I had ever seen, with the strangest gothic windows... and a gothic door, almost too small to enter. (p. 192) However, as Pip later discovers, Walworth is and represents everything that a rigid working life in London is not: picturesque, romantic, both exciting and soothing. Wemmick creates simple pleasures for himself in Walworth, which are small enough for him to maintain and enjoy: “The bridge was a plank, and it crossed a chasm about four feet wide and two deep. But it was very nice to see the pride with which (Wemmick) raised (the flag) and made it fast; smiling while doing it, with relish, and not just mechanically. (p. 192.) Employing enough detail to describe both Walworth's charm and his supreme importance to Wemmick, Dickens expresses the extent to which Walworth enables Wemmick to shed the darker layers of austere and demanding society from downtown London and becoming someone no one talks about. in his conventional community would respect or approve. Dickens paints a bold and significant picture of the importance of social paradigms on the mentalities of 19th-century Englishmen by creating a profound contrast between the language ofWemmick in his London profession and that of his country house in Walworth. While working in London by day, Wemmick communicates with his boss and clients in a completely professional manner, saying exactly what needs to be said to complete his job and put money in his pocket. Completely distrustful of the opinions of other members of society, he remains discreet on matters that might in some way harm his job or social position. However, upon arriving at his home in Walworth, his clipped speech and usually limited responses turn into cheerful banter, good-natured teasing and an obvious display of hospitality. At work, Wemmick darkly rejects the city he works in, informing Pip: "You could be cheated, robbed and murdered in London." But there are plenty of people everywhere who will do that to you. (p. 158) In contrast, Wemmick's diction takes an undeniably clearer tone when he addresses his "elderly relative" and boasts of his role as Walworth's handyman: "I'm my own engineer, and my own carpenter, and my own plumber, and my own gardener and my own jack of all trades. Well, that's a good thing, you know. It clears the cobwebs from Newgate and it pleases the elderly. (p. 193) This division of expression is certainly not a coincidence; Wemmick draws such a sharp line between his two very contrasting ways of speaking that he classifies the arguments he feels discouraged from making in London as "Walworth sentiments", only to be conveyed in the liberation and ease of Walworth: “No; the office is one thing, 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. If this does not displease you in any way (Pip), you will oblige me by doing the same. I don't want to talk about it professionally. (p. 194) The seriousness with which Wemmick verbally addresses issues in his professional life, when juxtaposed with his informal, light-hearted manner of addressing these same (or very different) issues in his residential life, reveals his concerns about to its reflection in the eyes of the societal body. , and how hard he fights to preserve the segmentation of his two lives. Dickens uses imagery effectively 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 gives the image of Wemmick's mouth as a post office, widening and narrowing depending on his emotions and his surroundings. While in Walworth no description of Wemmick's mouth distinguishes it from the others, Pip observes in London how "(Wemmick's) mouth was such a post office mouth that it had the mechanical look of a smile . » Wemmick's liberal, loud-mouthed broadcasts at Walworth remain controlled under the key of the London Post Office, and just as Wemmick must break free from his world of indulgent pleasures in a matter of miles and minutes as he enters a world where none of this is possible, just as he must regulate the similar operation of his post office: "Gradually Wemmick became drier and harder as we advanced, and his mouth narrowed again into a post office. (p. 195) Through this prominent image, Dickens is able to humorously but significantly show how attentive and obedient adherence to the social commandments of society, and the importance of isolating this obedience from the freedoms of society family life, can manifest themselves involuntarily in the.