Joseph Andrews

Pip's development or education, which has been called a snob's progress, makes this novel a bildungsroman; a novel of education, the bildungsroman typically follows the hero's process from childhood innocence to experience. One of the great ironies of this novel is that Pip's financial and social rise, which results from his having "expectations," is accompanied by an emotional and moral decline or deterioration.
Crime and Punishment Issues in "Great Expectations" 2nd Draft Crime and Punishment is a key theme in "Great Expectations" which is linked closely to Justice and Injustice. Pip is introduced to crime and criminals very early on when he is confronted with Magwitch on the marshes. This encounter compels Pip to steal from his own family, the iron file and the pork pie. So the first crime we see committed is by Pip, which is significant because the book is around crime, and how Pip gets more and more involved. When Magwitch is caught he is taken to the prison hulk where Pip gets an insight into the justice system and how the prisoners are treated.
Dickens links criminality with social class in Great Expectations through the characters of Compeyson and Magwitch.   Compeyson is seen as more genteel and gets off easier.

Dickens strongly believed that the justice system in Victorian England was slanted toward the wealthy.   His most condemning portrait of this is in the characters of Compeyson and Magwtich.   Compeyson is a criminal by choice, Magwitch by necessity.
Magwitch explains to Pip that he had to fend for himself when he was young, and ended up living on the streets in a life of crime. It is this childhood that led Magwitch to a life of crime because people assumed he was a criminal, or would be a criminal.   He caught no breaks.   Magwitch comments that he wanted to work, but couldn’t find steady employment.   This is how he came to be an associate of the conman Compeyon.

Compeyson is a career confidence man.   He enjoys it, and he is very good at...