“Pip, dear old chap, life is made of ever so many partings welded together, as I may say, and one man’s a blacksmith, and one’s a whitesmith, and one’s a goldsmith, and one’s a coppersmith. Divisions among such must come, and must be met as they come.”
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 27. After their awkward reunion in London, Pip’s brother-in-law Joe says these farewell words to Pip. Pip was embarrassed at how common Joe was, while Joe was a fish out of water in Pip’s lavish apartment. As he takes his leave, Joe uses the metaphor of metalworking to explain how people are separated into different natural divisions, social classes and occupations. Some are blacksmiths, like Joe, and some are goldsmiths, like Pip who is becoming a gentleman. In Joe’s wise words about England’s class system, he recognizes the distance that has grown between Pip and himself. But it is something natural that must be accepted, he tells Pip.