Both Mr. and Mrs. Pocket had such a noticeable air of being in somebody else’s hands, that I wondered who really was in possession of the house and let them live there, until I found this unknown power to be the servants.
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 23. Here Pip describes the household of Matthew and Mrs. Pocket, where ironically the servants are in charge and not the Pockets. Dickens uses the Pockets to satirize the pretensions and incompetence of the aristocracy. The title-obsessed Mrs. Pocket, whose father was a knight, neglects her children and leaves them to be cared for by the servants.