What Money Means for Pumblechook and Mrs. Joe in Great Expectations
There's a moment in Great Expectations that sums up everything wrong with Victorian attitudes toward money, and it happens over a Christmas dinner table. A young Pip, bleeding from a fight, is forced to stand in the corner while Pumblechook — a man with seed corn and nothing else to recommend him — delivers a pompous speech about how the world rewards "upward" people. But meanwhile, Mrs. Day to day, joe watches with something like hunger in her eyes. She's not offended by Pip's humiliation. She's basking in the reflected respectability of the meal, the guests, the occasion. So naturally, the money and status Pumblechook represents have nothing to do with him, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that he has both, and they don't.
That's the lens we need when we look at what money represents for these two characters. It's not complicated on the surface, but Dickens being Dickens, there's more going on beneath Small thing, real impact. Less friction, more output..
Who These Characters Are — and Why They Matter
Let me give you the quick setup if it's been a while since you cracked open Great Expectations.
Mrs. Joe is Pip's older sister, twenty years his senior, who essentially raises him after their parents die. In real terms, she married Joe Gargery — the kind, gentle blacksmith who becomes Pip's true family — but she treats both of them terribly. She's harsh, quick-tempered, and fundamentally resentful. Her resentment is the engine of her character.
Pumblechook is the village seedsman and corn merchant. He's a fixture in the Kent community, a man of modest but visible means. He has pretensions above his station, speaks in grandiose terms about "business" and "prospects," and treats those he considers below him with thinly veiled contempt Simple, but easy to overlook..
Both characters matter because they're not villains in the traditional sense. They're something worse — they're ordinary. Now, they're the people who actually existed in every English village when Dickens was writing. And their relationship to money tells us everything about what the pursuit of wealth was doing to English society in the mid-1800s.
The World Dickens Was Writing About
Here's the thing most people forget: when Great Expectations was published in 1860-61, England was in the middle of a massive social upheaval. Now, the Industrial Revolution had created new fortunes almost overnight. The old aristocracy was being challenged by a new class of industrialists and merchants. Money was becoming the great equalizer — and the great corrupter.
Dickens saw this firsthand. He knew people who'd climbed the ladder and immediately forgot where they'd started. He knew people who'd been crushed underfoot by those who'd climbed over them. And he knew that money, in his England, had become less about survival and more about worth — less about what you could buy and more about what you meant.
That's the world Pumblechook and Mrs. Joe inhabit. And that's the world their obsession with money reflects And that's really what it comes down to..
What Money Represents for Mrs. Joe
Let's start with Mrs. Joe, because her relationship to money is more complicated than it first appears.
On the surface, she's poor. Joe resents this. And Mrs. Joe works hard, but there's never quite enough. Because of that, the Gargery household is humble — not starving, but not comfortable either. Deeply.
But here's what most people miss: her resentment isn't really about the money. Also, she's watched her husband — a good man, a skilled man, a man who deserves respect — get overlooked, passed over, treated as common. It's about what the money means. On top of that, she doesn't want wealth for its own sake. She wants it because she believes wealth equals worth. And she's decided that the only way to matter is to have what the "important" people have.
That's why she's so bitter toward Pip, actually. Not just because he's a burden — though she uses that excuse — but because he's a reminder of their low station. Every time she looks at him, she's looking at her own failure to rise. The money she resents not having is really the respect she believes she's owed.
Worth pausing on this one Worth keeping that in mind..
The Christmas Dinner Scene
Basically where it becomes undeniable. In real terms, she becomes almost gracious. So she decks the table with her best things. Joe transforms. On top of that, when the wealthy relatives come to dinner, Mrs. She tolerates the indignity of Pumblechook's speeches because the alternative — being a poor family with no one important to host — is worse Worth knowing..
And watch how she treats Pip during this scene. He's bleeding from a fight with his convict (the opening of the novel), and she's more concerned with him ruining the tablecloth than with his pain. That said, when Pumblechook delivers his homily about upward people, she's rapt. She's learning Not complicated — just consistent..
What does money represent to Mrs. Joe? It represents the dignity she believes she's been denied. The respect she thinks she's owed. The escape from a life that has never let her feel important Turns out it matters..
What Money Represents for Pumblechook
If Mrs. Because of that, joe's relationship to money is complicated, Pumblechook's is almost painfully simple. Almost.
Pumblechook worships wealth. On the flip side, not for what it can buy — though that's part of it — but for what it does. And money, in his mind, transforms a person from nobody into somebody. And he desperately wants to be somebody.
Look at how he behaves. He mentions his business constantly, not because anyone cares, but because he needs to feel that his life has weight. He speaks about "prospects" and "advancement" in language far grander than a seed merchant's life warrants. He's performing importance he doesn't actually have It's one of those things that adds up..
And watch what happens when Pip comes into money. This is where Dickens is at his sharpest.
The Transformation
When Pip receives his "great expectations" and becomes a gentleman, Pumblechook's entire personality shifts. Because of that, he's not just friendly — he's fawning. Even so, suddenly, he's the first to claim association with the "promising" young man. Suddenly, he's at Pip's service. He rewrites history to insert himself into Pip's success.
This isn't mere opportunism, though it is that. It's something deeper. Day to day, pumblechook genuinely believes that wealth is the measure of a person. When Pip has money, he matters more. And Pumblechook, by attaching himself to Pip's wealth, hopes to borrow some of that mattering for himself.
This is the bit that actually matters in practice.
What does money represent for Pumblechook? It represents the entire hierarchy of worth. The be-all and end-all of human existence. It's not a means to an end — it's the end itself. He has no other metric for value.
Why Their Attitudes Matter to the Novel
Here's where we connect the dots.
Dickens isn't just depicting two unpleasant characters. Worth adding: joe bitter and cruel. It made Pumblechook small and grasping. Even so, he's showing us the disease that was rotting English society. Consider this: the obsession with money, with status, with "getting on" — he saw it everywhere, and he saw what it did to people. It made Mrs. It made them both incapable of seeing the actual good in their lives — Joe's kindness, Pip's loyalty, the simple dignity of honest work Worth keeping that in mind..
Some disagree here. Fair enough.
And the tragedy is that neither of them learns. Joe can't rejoice in his happiness — she's too busy resenting that she didn't get there first. Also, even when Pip rises, Mrs. Even when Pip shares his fortune, Pumblechook can't feel genuine warmth — he's too busy calculating what he might extract from the relationship.
Easier said than done, but still worth knowing.
That's what money has done to them. It's blinded them to everything else.
The Contrast with Joe
Basically why Joe Gargery is so important to the novel. Even so, he's the counter-example. Also, he doesn't measure his worth by his wallet. He has almost nothing, and yet he's the most generous, kind, decent person in the book. He doesn't measure anyone else's worth that way either Small thing, real impact..
Dickens is saying something specific: money doesn't make you good. It doesn't make you important. The pursuit of it, taken to the extreme these characters embody, actually makes you less. Even so, bitter. Practically speaking, smaller. Which means it doesn't make you worthy. Blind to the things that actually matter No workaround needed..
Common Mistakes in Understanding These Characters
Here's where I'll push back on some common readings.
Mistake one: treating them as purely comic. Yes, Pumblechook is ridiculous. Yes, Mrs. Joe's temper is almost farcical in its intensity. But Dickens isn't just making us laugh. He's making a point. These aren't character sketches — they're social critiques Less friction, more output..
Mistake two: seeing them as uniquely evil. They're not. They're ordinary. That's the horror. Any of of us could become them if we let money become our measuring stick. Dickens knew this. That's why he's so merciless in showing us what that path looks like.
Mistake three: missing the class dimension. Both characters are working or lower-middle class, and both are desperate to escape their station. Dickens is showing us how the class system distorts people — how being told you're less important than others makes you desperate to prove you're not. The money obsession isn't just about greed. It's about survival in a brutal social hierarchy That alone is useful..
What We Can Learn From Them
Alright, let's bring this down to something practical.
If you're reading Great Expectations — or any Victorian novel — pay attention to what money means to each character. That's why it's rarely just about wealth. It's about self-worth, social standing, power, safety, dignity. The characters who obsess over money are usually the ones who feel they lack something else. And the ones who don't care about money are usually the ones who've found worth elsewhere.
This is useful beyond literature, honestly. Think about the people in your life who are most consumed by money. Not people who work hard or want financial security — everyone wants that. That's why i'm talking about the ones who measure everything by it. The ones who can't enjoy a meal without calculating its cost. The ones who can't be happy for someone else's success without envying their bank account Simple, but easy to overlook..
They're usually not greedy in the simple sense. Here's the thing — they're usually scared. They believe, like Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook, that money is the only thing standing between them and worthlessness It's one of those things that adds up..
That's not a defense — both characters are genuinely unpleasant. Now, it makes them human. But understanding what's driving them makes them more than just cautionary tales. And it makes Dickens's critique sharper Turns out it matters..
FAQ
Why does Mrs. Joe hate Pip so much? She doesn't hate Pip specifically — she hates her circumstances. Pip is a constant reminder of the life she's stuck in. He's also the one thing she has power over, which makes him an outlet for her resentment about all the things she can't control Easy to understand, harder to ignore..
Is Pumblechook meant to be funny? Yes, but he's not only funny. Dickens uses him to satirize the middle class's obsession with wealth and status. The comedy makes him memorable, but the critique is serious.
Does Dickens think money is evil? No. He thinks the obsession with money is destructive. Several characters in his novels achieve comfortable wealth without losing themselves. The problem isn't having money — it's letting money become the measure of your worth Easy to understand, harder to ignore..
How do these characters relate to the novel's main themes? Great Expectations is fundamentally about what makes a person valuable — birth, money, character, or something else. Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook represent the first two answers, and Dickens shows us exactly what's wrong with those measurements.
Does either character change by the end? Mrs. Joe is permanently injured by Orlick and becomes more dependent on Joe, which softens her somewhat. Pumblechook continues being Pumblechook. Dickens isn't interested in redemption for these two — he's interested in showing us what they cost the people around them.
The thing that stays with me about these characters isn't their unpleasantness — it's their sadness. Still, mrs. Joe will die never having felt worthy. Pumblechook will never know if people like him or just like what he might do for them. They've traded everything that actually matters for a currency that never stops demanding more.
Dickens saw that happening all around him, in real people, in real lives. And he wrote these two so we'd see it too — so we'd recognize the obsession for what it is: not ambition, but emptiness. Not a plan for the future, but a wound that never heals.
That's what money represents for Pumblechook and Mrs. Joe. And that's why, even now, they're worth thinking about.
