Student Essay on Justice System in Victorian England in Great Expectations

Justice System in Victorian England in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Essay

Dickens presents the justice system of Victorian England as unfair, inefficient, and prejudiced. Probably the most evident example of prejudice in the justice system is in the court case with Compeyson and Magwich. In this scene, Magwich and Compeyson have been brought before a court room. When Compeyson goes before the court, he has dressed himself up to look like a gentleman, knowing that the court would favor a man that looks more respectable. And we'll just say Magwich is not one of the cleanest or best looking people in the world. With the court already on his side, Compeyson continues to argue in a much more articulate way than Magwich is capable that he has been brought down by a terrible person. After hearing this, the court decided to give Magwich a fourteen year sentence in prison. The court agreed that Compeyson seemed to be a good man and he was just a victim of following under poor guidance. The court then proceeded to let Compeyson off with a much lighter sentence of seven years in prison.

I think that the justice system of Victorian England was extremely corrupt and ineffective. For one, they have escaped convicts running all over the place, so what they are doing to keep these criminals off the streets cannot be to effective. Secondly, they favor anyone that is in the upper class or even appears to be in the upper class. I think that Dickens would say that what goes around comes around. For example, with Compeyson, he was able to elude the law at first, but he got what was coming to him when he was killed. Ultimately good prevailed.