Explore the ways in which money and transaction shape identity in Great Expectations

Introduce your answer clearly and concisely. Address the question and outline your texts, making sure your line of argument is coherent. Dickens' Great Expectations is a text undeniably concerned with the idea of money, and transactional imagery. Whilst Dickens’ novels are often preoccupied with the idea of money as "filthy lucre", the financial aspects of Great Expectations are developed to the extent that finance and identity become co-dependent in the novel, having a shaping effect on the protagonist of the text, Pip. Having grappled with monetary issues during his lifetime (his father was incarcerated for debt), the portrayal of money as a corrupting force is an image that pervades much of Great Expectations. The identity of the novel’s protagonist, Pip, is tightly wound up with this corruption. Dickens’ novel is particularly concerned with the idea of “the gentleman”, and what it is to be one - whether or not merely being vastly wealthy can elevate oneself to the status of a gentleman. This dilemma is explored through the exploits of Pip - we first see this financial poison at work during and after Pip’s first visit to Satis House; Estella subjects Pip to abuse regarding his social status, referring to him as ‘a common labouring-boy’, drawing attention to his ‘coarse hands’ and ‘thick boots’. The education that Havisham offers is an introduction to class division and financial superiority, and in Pip a gnawing self-consciousness is born with regard to his social and thus financial inferiority, evident from the shift to uncertainty in the narrative voice - ‘I am ignorant and backward’. Pip’s desire for inclusion in upper society is emphasised by Dickens’ invocation of the threshold as symbol. When Estella ‘locked the gate’, refusing Pip entry to Satis House, she also refuses him access to her elevated social status. This conflict between nature and nurture is ever present in Great Expectations, and it is the introduction of class consciousness and the desire for elevation that brings about the onset of this conflict. Pip’s identity is conceivably moulded in two locations in the novel, the forge and Satis House. When contrasted against the metaphorical mouldings Pip undergoes in Satis House, the literal shaping that the forge connotes seemingly creates an increased sense of solidity, compared with the rather transient nature of the identity Pip receives at Satis House, and furthers with the sudden financial elevation gifted to him. The implication being, then, that nature will surmount nurture; Pip is - and always will be - of his class, his identity fixed. Ideally, you want 3/4 well-developed points, depending on marks available. Round off your answer with a concise conclusion that surmises the points you have made, and reiterates your argument.