How Money Makes Us Blind

While reading Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, I was intrigued by how quickly Pip changes once he realizes he is inheriting a fortune and going to London.  In particular, I focused on the whole of page 147, which includes the notable passage “No more low wet grounds, no more dykes and sluices, no more of these grazing cattle…farewell, monotonous acquaintances of my childhood, henceforth I was for London and greatness,” as well as Pip calling churchgoers minding their own business “poor creatures,” promising to “do something for them one of these days” with his newfound wealth.  Almost immediately after Pip is aware he is going to become a “gentleman,” he separates himself from the people around him, who, until that point, are exactly the same as him (class wise, education wise, etc).  Although he promises to share his good fortune with them in some way, after reading to the end of the novel, it is apparent he does not remember this promise.  

I was reminded of my first blog post pertaining to Mary Barton, specifically the scene in which servants working for a high class household do not feed their lower class guest, Wilson, because they forget hunger is an issue for some people.  Like Pip and the churchgoers (or other people around him of the same class), the servants of the Carson family are closer in class to Wilson than the Carsons.  Both the servants and Wilson are working class, however, there is a clear degree of separation between them due to the servants’ access to wealth, just like how Pip’s access to wealth separates him from his peers.  Although Pip initially feels pity for those attending church, he soon forgets his vision of future generosity and the problems these lower class people face, just as the Carson servants forget that hunger may be a problem for poorer people like Wilson.  In the world of Mary Barton, Pip is like one of the Carson servants, forgetting the struggles of the people he was once a part of because he no longer suffers from a lack of money.  In both Mary Barton and Great Expectations, this ignorance is clearly negative.  In the former, the revolutionary change that poorer characters are trying to enact cannot happen under it, and in the latter, Pip becomes a distinctly less compassionate person because of it, hurting the feelings of his friends and family in the process.  Both novels push the idea that money can make someone blind to the obstacles others have to overcome, and it does not matter how considerate someone is, wealth can and will make them ignorant.