How does the theme of Social Class identify and apply to the protaganist of Great Expectations?

With the creation of a new working class as a result of
the Industrial Revolution, there was also the creation of banking houses as new money
caused new needs. Heretofore, The Bank of England, which had been established in 1694,
exchanged money with only a few well-known gentry as well as dealing with the English
government.  But, with the rising middle class, there was much more exchange of money as
new businesses needed to borrow money and as the rapid production of goods brought
wealth to both lenders and borrowers.  Those with enough money began to build up the
towns outside London; Wemmick's house is such an
example.

Because money was more in exchange and it provided
opportunities for a better living, the rising middle class began to greatly value it as
a way to better themselves.  Thus, many perceived the very wealthy as superior to them
and, thus, as those they wished to emulate.  However, Charles Dickens's perspective of
the wealty was that they were a frivolous aristocracy often without the true values that
the poor possessed.

In order to illustrate this motif of
the frivolity of the aristocracy and the covetous middle class, Dickens created the
eccentric character of Miss Havisham and the "base swindler" Uncle Pumblechook and the
envious Mrs. Joe.  As Pip observes their awe of the eccentric Miss Havisham, he
concludes that he will be happier and a better person if he becomes a gentleman.  For,
after his visit to Satis House, Pip is ashamed of his home with the uneducated Joe, his
coarse boots, his being "common" [meaning low-class] and apparently inferior to the
beautiful
Estella.  

This influence
of the idea of the superiority of social position is what drives Pip to become less of a
person, not more.  He becomes snobbish and avoids visiting Joe, he speaks in a
condescending manner to Biddy, he servilely seeks the love of Estella, and he is
repulsed by the appearance of Provis and the knowledge that the old convict has been his
benefactor rather than the upper class Miss Havisham.  After his "baptism" by Mrs. Joe
at the pump to clean him for his first visit in Stage I, Pip is "purged" of his
selfishness and snobbery in the fire at Miss Havisham's in Stage III so that he returns
to the true values which Joe has instilled in him.  It is then that Pip learns that
social class is not the measure of a person's worthiness.