Discuss the sociological problems in Great Expectations.

From a sociological point of view, there is much in
Dickens' work that talks about the presence of money in one's life. The fact that Miss
Havisham was abandoned by her suitor caused sadness.  His cheating her out of money
causes her to be bitter about things, transferring this to Estella.  The stealing of
food for Magwitch in the opening section of the novel reflects the condition of needing
to steal food, a lack of resources dominating one's state of being in the world.  The
industrialized context had caused a significant change in sociological reality,
something of which Pip is a part in the context of the novel.  Pip recognizes the need
to improve himself and his standing so that he is more economically viable in this
setting.  Pip understands that the industrialized setting in which he exists is one
where success is defined by money and the possession of material wealth.  This
sociological condition is not one that Pip seeks to actively change, but rather a set of
conditions that he seeks to appropriate.  In the end, I think that this becomes the
sociological reality that surrounds Pip and a fundamental paradigm that Dickens
critiques in the novel.