how 19th century healthcare reflected in Dicken's novel, Great Expectations

Solution Preview

Dear Student,
I went ahead and researched for you to locate a legitimate website of resources so you may be able to locate necessary information for this type of an assignment. I found this crucial website called, "The Victorian Web" where I found numerous pieces of valuable articles you can locate for understanding this novel in the context of Economics (as a broader view). I understand you're trying to narrow your topic down to Healthcare, but it didn't seem to appear as one of the main themes from all the research I've done within the last half hour's time. In fact, it stated that issues of healthcare appear more frequently in his "Bleak House" rather than "Great Expectations".

In addition, I have uncovered the following facts about Dickens' "Great Expectations" in regards to the author's stylistic approach to the novel as well as the popular themes discussed~

"Great Expectations is written in first person and uses language and grammar that has, since the publication of Great Expectations, fallen out of common use. The title Great Expectations refers to the 'Great Expectations' Pip has of London and of becoming a gentleman.[7] Great Expectations is a bildungsroman. A novel depicting growth and personal development, in this case, of Pip.

"The main themes of Great Expectations are those of crime, social class and ambition. From an early age, Pip feels guilt. He is also afraid that someone will find out about the crime and arrest him. The theme of crime comes in even greater effect when Pip discovers that his benefactor is in fact a convict. Pip has an internal struggle with his conscience throughout the book. Great Expectations explores the different social classes of Victorian England. Throughout the book, Pip becomes involved with all of them, from criminals like Magwitch to the extremely rich like Miss Havisham. Pip has great ambition, as demonstrated constantly in the book. If Pip did not have ambition, he would have never gone to London, he would have stayed as a lowly blacksmith."

When you thought of healthcare as a narrowed topic, you were probably thinking about social class and how each class was able to afford healthcare as well as how healthcare developed in Charles Dickens' time? However, you need to be certain that this was a highly discussed topic before going into depths analyzing this novel. I have double and triple checked that it's not one of the commonly discussed topics.

As for the webpage you should consult for secondary sources, here's a listing of ALL the themes and their relative articles~

~Autobiographical Elements in Dickens's Great Expectations
~The Importance of Magwitch's Gaze in Great Expectations
~The Taint ...