Mr. Wopsle’s great-aunt kept an evening school in the village; that is to say, she was a ridiculous old woman of limited means and unlimited infirmity, who used to go to sleep from six to seven every evening, in the society of youth who paid two pence per week each, for the improving opportunity of seeing her do it.
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 7. In this example of Dickens’s savage satire, Pip tells us about the village evening school run by Mr. Wopsle’s great-aunt that he attended. The author’s wicked eye for the absurdly comical in human behavior is seen in the depiction of Biddy’s grandmother. Here Dickens is satirizing a public education system which teaches children nothing and they have to pay two pence a week anyway for the privilege. There is irony in the fact that the teacher charges the students but falls asleep during the lessons. In Pip’s early efforts to educate and improve himself he doesn’t get very far and later has to turn to Biddy to teach him to read and write.