Circulation of Capital in Great Expectations

Abstract

The article discusses the theme of acquisition and circulation of capital in Charles Dickens’s novel Great Expectations. The analysis proceeds from an observation that the novel is not centrally concerned with representing the processes of production of wealth, as it is about the circulation of social and economic capital. The protagonist of the novel entertains a specific notion of social mobility (his great expectations), which he eventually renounces, and develops a common middle-class idea of the centrality of hard work to the accumulation of wealth. However, by examining the construction of the protagonist’s relationship to wealth, as well as the construction of the circulation of wealth in the narrative, the article suggests that the novel questions its declarative ideology by placing a great deal of emphasis on the various ways in which transfers of money enable the creation of social and economic capital for the characters in the novel.