Why are the three stages of the novel so important to the overall theme of social injustice in Great Expectations?Charles Dickens's Great Expectations

In his essay, "Great Expectations:  A
Reflection of Serial Publication and Dickens's Social Concerns," Arnold A. Markley
writes,

By
charting Pip's gradual change throughout the novel, Dickens manages to illustrate an
important aspect of the socio-ecomonic context of his
times.

Because of the
economic results of the Industrial Revolution, there was a growing group of people who,
having acquired money, were quickly able to buy things.  These people were often envious
of the aristocracy, aspiring to what Dickens considered a frivolous class.  Such is the
case of young Pip who visits Satis House and returns unsatisfied by his station in life,
desiring to become a gentleman so he will not be inferior.  His leaving for London
allows Pip to become this gentleman; however, at the same time, it provides Pip new
insights into the social injustice which is suggested to him in the first stage of the
novel with the conflict between Pip's convict and the second convict, who is "a
gentleman."  For, once Pip becomes a gentleman, Joe acts as though he is inferior,
addressing Pip as "sir," awkwardly eating and dropping his hat when he should yet feel
that he is Pip's friend.

In the second stage, also, Pip
learns the history of Miss Havisham and her self-imprisonment while in Chapter XXXII,
he visits Newgate Prison and is greatly affected by the aura of death and hopelessness
within the "frouzy, ugly, disorderly, depressing scene it was."  The tragedy of the
condemned Colonel is extremely poignant and certainly points to the terrible injustice
of the English penal system as do the other episodes of other characters who beg Mr.
Jaggers to help them.

The lesson that Pip learns in the
third stage comes in his gradual recognition of the goodness and humanity of Magwitch, a
childhood victim of society as a gamin of the streets.  As he grew older, Magwitch was
exploited by the nefarious Compeyson who employed Magwitch to carry out his dastardly
deeds.  When they were caught in their crimes, Compeyson was given a lesser sentence
than Magwitch despite his being the mastermind of the crimes because he looked the part
of a gentleman, clean-favored and articulate, while poor Magwitch, clad in his old
clothes, was given a harsher sentence. Thus, after discovering what a noble spirit
Magwitch actually has, Pip learns how the criminal justice system dehumanizes people as
he recalls the coarse and animalistic convict on the marshes that Magwitch was when he
first met him. About this subject, Markley writes,

readability="12">

Such a realization allows Pip, and the reader,
to see the wrongness of a class structure that implies that wealth and a high station in
life are equal to high moral virtue. After all, Magwitch is portrayed as having a gentle
and noble spirit, while the more suave and gentlemanly Compeyson is a vicious and
unfeeling criminal.

That
social class is a superficial standard of value is developed in the three stages of
Great Expectations; Mrs. Joe and Uncle Pumblechook are impressed
with the eccentric Miss Havisham simple because she is of the upper class; in the second
stage, Pip aspires to this class because he perceives it as superior even though the
brutish Drummle is tolerated in high social circles;and, in the third stage, Pip
realizes that the lower class characters Magwitch, Joe, and Biddy are the most virtuous
and moral.  Clearly, in each of these three stages of Great
Expectations, a developing presentation of social injustice is
made.