Great Expectations ~ Questions About a Passage

There is a small passage that i couldn't follow very well that I have had to read a couple of times to get, but it still kind of confuses me.
"... The fire to flare for them, the smoke to hurry away in pursuit of them, Joe to hammer and clink for them, and all the murky shadows on the wall to shake at them in menace as the blaze rose and sank, and the red hot sparks dropped and died, the pale afternoon outside almost seemed in my pitying young fancy to have turned pale on their account, poor wretches. ( 33, Chapter 5)
I have sort of an understanding of this, but this sentence kind of rambles on so I am not completely clear what some of this means. Does anyone have any views on what Dickens is saying in this passage?

Group Essay

Hey guys, so I was trying to think of my last point to make.
so far i have: poking fun at characters by showing their backgrounds, and the amount of money they have. Any ideas on the last one?