The Virtual Coffeehouse

After Pip’s first visit to the Satis House he is confronted for the first time with issues of his class and social value. Suddenly his hands are too rough and his boots too thick. Not only does pip view is physical appearance with distaste but he comes to dislike his surroundings and the stature and class of a Blacksmith becomes tarnished in his eyes. Pip asks the reader to “pause…and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.” (Chapter 9, pg 72) Thus Pip asks the reader to understand that this is perhaps the origin of all of his understanding of class, social existence, and the seed of his ambition. The metaphor of a chain here is both material and natural. On the one hand, a chain of “iron or gold” could represent monetary and physical wealth guiding one’s path and on the other a chain of “thorns or flowers” could indicate a natural almost evolutionary stimulus of personal change. This moment of epiphany for Pip seems to be the catalyst to his own great expectations or rather desires of social growth in the early portion of Dickens’ novel.

I guess its all pretty straightforward then. Everyone seems to concur, at least, I get that we all acknowledge that, yes, Pip's "path" as it were, the expectations he sets for himself, are entirely related to the class he's a part of and the class he want's to be part of. His class awareness comes from Estella and Havisham, and Pumblechook, indirectly, but I think its also significant that to Pip, elevating himself socially isn't an end itself but the means to an end, primarily so that he can win Estella's affections. This is significant, because I believe that in the larger sense, class struggles like this one could be said to center not around the wealth and privilege that come from these social gains, but the motivations exterior to those inherent gains. Improving the lot of your family, winning the girl, effecting the governance of a country, living a certain way. In a sociological sense, the difference is important, I think, when you're talking about why those class structure exist at all.