The "Great Expectations" of the Social Classes

The Industrial Revolution brought not only a revolution in economics but also in society. Class distinctions and standards was revolutionized. There was no more aristocracy and poor people. Now there was a Middle Class and Working Class.

The Middle Class

Though the middle class seems like a wide term, it was split into three sections: the upper middle class, middle middle class, and the lower middle class. The upper middle class comprised of top banking, industrial, and commerce families. They displayed their great wealth and fortune with the amount of servants they had, summer houses, and clothing. Women especially became concerned about their clothing as a way to rank their wealth with others.

Below the upper middle class was the middle middle class. This group was much broader and more diversified. This group comprised of smaller yet successful industrialists and merchants, professional lawyers and doctors. On the bottom of this class, the lower middle class was made of shop keepers, small traders, and smaller manufacturers. The middle and lower middle class both made a considerably lower amount of money compared to the upper middle class.

Everyone in the middle class had similar ideas on how to "act" middle class. This included extravagant dinner parties, abstinence from drinking excessively, and good morals. The amount food and the amount of days per week one held a dinner party was a crucial point of middle class behaviors.

The working class

Below the middle class was the working class. The working class had three sections as well. This included the "labor aristocracy" of highly skilled workers, the semi skilled workers, and the unskilled workers. The labor aristocracy consisted of factory bosses and factory foremen. These men were excessively proud of their social status and acted that way. They held an almost puritanical attitude in order to act like the middle class. The majority of the working class stood in the semi-skilled and unskilled workers. Semi-skilled workers included carpenters, brick layers, and pipe fitters; jobs that needed some training prior to employment. The unskilled workers were servants and day laborers.
The working class participated in drinking, dancing, and sports as past-times. Music halls and bars were the new scene of the working class.

Pip in Great Expectations

With this new system of social hierarchy came the idea of class-consciousness. This was the idea that the people in the classes were fully aware the social standards of their class and the growing gap between classes such as between the middle and working class. This idea became influential to many writers of the time such as Charles Dickens. Dickens reflects this society in his novel, Great Expectations. Pip, a young country boy meets a girl of great money and standard. He is ashamed of being from such a low social order once he meets the great elegance and intelligence of Estella. Dickens uses Pip as a symbol of the working class and Estella as a symbol of the upper middle class. Many country people of the time moved to the city in search of financial and economic success (Pip finds success in the city with the help of a mysterious benefactor). The rest of the novel is his pursuit of both the love of his life, Estella, and higher social standings portraying the ultimate goal of many social climbing men of the Industrial Revolution.