Charles Dickens Contempt for Lawyers Revealed Great Expectations :: Great Expectations Essays

Charles Dickens Contempt for Lawyers Revealed Great Expectations   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Charles Dickens viewed lawyers as being mean, cruel, and relatively heartless (Collins 175). Throughout much of Dickens' literature, lawyers are stereotyped through characters and these characters are used as a means of commentary about the lawyers of the time. Jaggers, from the novel Great Expectations, seems not to be an exception. Through the character of Jaggers, an understanding of Dickens' view of early nineteenth-century lawyers can be obtained.    Dickens felt that lawyers were overly concerned with power and not concerned enough about truth. Through Jaggers, the first evidence of this claim can be seen by his name alone. By sound, the name "Jaggers" creates an image of something that cuts. In a similar vein, "Jaggers" closely resembles "jagged" which portrays a rough and sharp image. The images produced by this name aptly describe the business attitude of Jaggers, an attitude that Dickens seems to revere as efficient, but condone as heartless.    The first meeting with Pip reinforces the idea of Jaggers as the power-centered lawyer. In explaining his presence there to Pip, Jaggers states, "If my advice had been asked, I should not have been here" (140; ch. 18). After reading about the business that Jaggers is there to conduct, this statement begins to take on some meaning. Jaggers is saying that if he were asked, he would not advise anyone to throw away such money on a trivial charity case. Jaggers, wrapped up in the power of his profession, could not possibly advise such a careless handling of money. For Jaggers, power is not about helping the little man for charitable purposes. Dickens seems to suggest here ideas about how power has corrupted the intentions of lawyers, people who are in a position to help those in need.    Even Jaggers' mannerisms seem to suggest the image of power. For example, Pip observes Jaggers eating a sandwich and comments that "he seemed to bully his sandwich as he ate" (167; ch. 20). It is as if Dickens wants to make a point about how lawyers are power hungry all of the time, even in the handling of their inanimate meals. The way that Jaggers bullies his sandwich is not unlike how he bullies the clients that he is supposed to be serving.