As I passed the church, I felt…a sublime compassion for the poor creatures who were destined to go there, Sunday after Sunday, all their lives through, and to lie obscurely at last among the low green mounds. I promised myself that I would do something for them one of these days, and formed a plan in outline for bestowing a dinner of roast beef and plum pudding, a pint of ale, and a gallon of condescension upon everybody in the village.
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 19. The metaphor of “a gallon of condescension” sums up perfectly Pip’s new feelings of superiority after learning that he has come into a large fortune. The superficiality of the upper classes is mocked by Dickens, when Pip describes his fellow villagers as “poor creatures” and says how he will be “bestowing a dinner” on them. It doesn’t take long for money to turn Pip into a snob and have him use the language of the condescending. That said, it does show Pip still retains a generous side to his nature by wanting to share his largesse with those he grew up with. A tone of irony is created by having Pip express these pompous and patronizing thoughts while passing the church.