Crime, Punishment, and Justice in Great Expectations

Introduction: Crime as Social Critique

In his novel Great Expectations, Charles Dickens's characters often seem to be operating outside — or just outside — the law, in gray areas where what is legally correct clashes with what is morally right. The theme of crime in Dickens's novels is used as a focal point to explore his deep concern for the pervasive array of social problems that permeated England in the nineteenth century (Ford 82–83).

Dickens frames this novel as an individual's struggle to rise above the social and political conditions of that time. Criminality, punishment, and a perverse sense of justice are among the themes Dickens surfaces to explore this world. At several points throughout the novel, convicts enter the story: Pip encounters Magwitch on the marshes in the first chapter (Dickens 2); Magwitch and Compeyson are recaptured by soldiers (Dickens 52); a mysterious figure appears at the Three Jolly Bargemen, stirring his drink with the file Pip stole for Magwitch (Dickens 88); Pip overhears two convicts talking on a coach; when Pip moves to London, he almost immediately sees Newgate Prison (Dickens 163); and Magwitch eventually reappears as Pip's benefactor (Dickens 297).

The plot revolves around crimes committed in the past. Both Magwitch and Compeyson were convicted of fraud (Dickens 325); Molly, Jaggers's housekeeper, has been acquitted of murder, though she is most likely guilty. In a broader sense, Pip's contacts with Wemmick and Jaggers's housekeeper, as well as his visit to Newgate (Dickens 163), make him acutely aware of the consequences of crime and the sentences that are often grossly disproportionate to the transgressions committed. At the end of the novel, Pip's decision to help Magwitch escape places Pip himself in jeopardy with the law.

Class, Guilt, and Pip's Moral Development

Throughout the novel, Pip speaks repeatedly of his sense of guilt (Lucas 299). He feels guilty about his attitude toward Joe, Biddy, and Magwitch, among others. This guilt is often linked to his frequent encounters with criminal elements. Over the course of the novel, the Pip character learns to feel guilty about the right things — chiefly, his poor treatment of Joe and Biddy, and his initial revulsion at the returned Magwitch when he discovers him as his benefactor (Dickens 297).

This idea of social class is a central element in the novel. Pip's desire to become a gentleman and escape his roots drives all the action. Lucas (290) notes that in life we can never be sure which associations constitute the biography or identity of the real self. Pip experiences guilt because the pursuit of his dream has caused him to abandon the people he should most care about. The social pressures to which he becomes exposed shape his attitude toward his own way of life. Estella's influence has deeply conditioned the way he sees people. Pip knows that Biddy is better than Estella, but it is Estella who becomes the ideal by which Biddy is measured: "She was not beautiful…she was common, and could not be like Estella…but she was pleasant and wholesome and sweet tempered" (Dickens 130). Because he sees Biddy this way, he chooses a path from which there is no return. He cannot undo the education that Miss Havisham has arranged through Estella (Lucas 295).

This rejection of his past is most poignantly expressed in Joe's visit to Pip in London. Pip admits, "If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money" (Dickens 209). Many elements have conspired to create this attitude in Pip: his sister's and Mr. Pumblechook's negative attitude toward expectations, Miss Havisham's malice, Magwitch's gratitude for a small boy's act of kindness, Pip's love of Estella, and Pip's growing vanity and determination to become a gentleman (Lucas 296).

In a sense, Pip himself is in a prison created by his desire for self-improvement and the reality that, because of the power structures of society, individuality is itself as delusory as a hope. The relationship between Pip and Magwitch means more to Magwitch than it does to Pip (Lucas 297). Pip is bound to Magwitch only by the intensity of Magwitch's regard for him. In fact, Pip recalls Magwitch just as he sets out for London:

"I had often thought before, with some feeling allied to shame, of my companionship with the fugitive whom I had once seen limping among those graves. What were my thoughts on this Sunday, when the place recalled the wretch, ragged and shivering, with his felon iron and badge! My comfort was, that it happened a long time ago, and that he doubtless had been transported a long way off, and that he was dead to me, and might be veritably dead in the bargain" (148–149).

The Inequitable Application of the Law

But it is this same convict who is responsible for Pip's great expectations — his chance to escape the prison of his class and his hope for the freedom associated with becoming a gentleman. We can see, too, that Pip has not entirely forgotten Magwitch, and that he cannot escape the bonds Magwitch has forged between them. The irony is that the world Pip is most anxious to escape to is only available to him through the benevolence of those who are irreversibly trapped in the world he wishes to leave behind.

The inequitable application of the law is examined at several points in the novel. In Jaggers's office, when Mike brings an obviously false witness, Pip becomes aware of how the law actually operates (Dickens 162). Another example is the story of how Jaggers has Molly cover her strong wrists to make her appear innocent (Dickens 206). Magwitch's own account of his trial and imprisonment insinuates that the law is biased toward those who can present a good appearance and speak eloquently — such as members of the educated middle and upper classes (Dickens 325).

In the world Dickens was writing about in 1861, when Great Expectations was first published, criminality was closely linked to class in society, and this connection holds a constant presence throughout the story. Rules are broken in order to overcome a society that is inherently unjust and flawed. The moral codes and values that prevail in English society are shown to be questionable. While Pip longs to be accepted by society, he is ultimately linked to a criminal, and thus comes to understand the problems associated with his dream of becoming a gentleman.

Conclusion: Conscience Over Institution

Great Expectations is a story about people, and Dickens portrays people as spiritual beings (Wagenknecht 136). They may be unjustly oppressed by political institutions and heavily handicapped by economic injustice, but in Dickens's view neither politics nor economics will prevail over the human spirit.