Different Treatment of "Swine" and "Puppy" Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens explores the popular attitudes of his contemporary readership towards social welfare and the treatment of the poor. He does this by setting the book in a time before certain social reforms, reforms Dickens thought inhuman, had been implemented. Great Expectations was published serially in 1860 and 1861. The time period the story encompasses was from 1812 to 1829. It is important to note that the period between these fictional events and the book's publishing …

…status and respect. Pip does not become a real person, one worthy of respect or simple human consideration, until he displays some means, in the literal sense of the term. Before this point, Pip, as representative of the underclass, is a nonentity. One such as he does not deserve the consideration given to a human being. We see a drastic change in Pumblechook's attitude toward Pip as a direct result of his new found fortune.