Before I had been there a week, a neighbouring lady with whom the family were personally unacquainted, wrote in to say that she had seen Millers slapping the baby. This greatly distressed Mrs. Pocket, who burst into tears on receiving the note, and said that it was an extraordinary thing that the neighbours couldn’t mind their own business.
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 23. Mrs. Pocket is not just a neglectful and incompetent mother, but she is harmful to her children. When her baby is physically abused by one of her servants, she is more concerned about what the neighbors say and her social image than the baby’s welfare. The pretentious Mrs. Pocket is one of Dickens’s great satirical characters, highlighting the dysfunctional nature of upper class Victorian parents.