Great Expectations

What it means to be a gentleman in Great Expectations and how Pip achieves throughout the novel.




In Victorian society a gentleman was a person of upper–middle class. Usually, therefore one was born into being a part of the gentry as it was almost impossible to move up the social hierarchy. Being a part of this elite sector of the class system is what Dickens explores and in doing so exploits the ambiguity of the term ‘gentleman’ and the complications as to what makes a man become gentleman.
As the novel progresses, Dickens sees two sorts of gentlemen, those (such as Joe Gargery) who are men of virtue and then thethose defined through their knowledge of social etiquette (such as Drummle), the extent of their education, appearance and income. The latter being the form that seems to generally conform to the perception of a gentleman then and the former to be, not only what agrees with the modern ideology of a gentleman, but also what the writer appears to favour. Throughout this novel we are faced with a possibly radical alternative to the status quo of the times and how we can be effected by the power of our station.

In the novel Dickens illustrates how Pip journeys towards becoming a gentleman. Family, history and education are all a key role in what it means to be a gentleman, this is emphasised through Matthew Pocket when he says in chapter 22 that ‘no varnish can hide the grain of the wood.’ clarifying the impression of social immobility as it implies that no matter how hard one might strive to change, nothing can hide who one was before.
Ironically, at the start of the novel, Pip seems to possess many of the virtuous qualities which evoke the ideas of a gentleman, such as honesty and politeness. In the early chapters this is revealed when he addresses the convict as ‘sir’ a term of respect. His natural honesty is also challenged in chapter 2 when he is frightened into stealing from his sister; here Pip ‘felt fearfully sensible of the great convenience that the Hulks were handy’ for him as he ‘was going to rob Mrs Joe.’ The guilt that haunts his mind in this section conveys just how deep his sense of morality is rooted at this point in time, emphasised later on when Dickens writes of Pip having an ‘awakened conscience’ that makes him ‘blubber’ out to an ox with a ‘clerical air.’
However, despite all these qualities, Dickens develops Pip’s character into a boy who is increasingly entranced with the life which is symbolised in Satis House and personified in Estella as in chapter 8 when she is depicted as ‘proud’ and ‘pretty’.From very early on we can understand that Pip is an abused, orphan child that is searching for his identity, one that as time goes on is imposed upon him, by characters such as Miss Havisham, Magwich, and Estella. The pivotal point of Pip’s endeavours to find himself takes place at Satis House. Estella humiliates Pip, describing him, in pejorative terms, as a ‘common labouring boy’ with ‘coarse hands’ and ‘thick boots’: such a demeaning description causes Pip to reassess himself, as well as those around him. This experience results in Pip’s feelings of inadequacy and shame of his family, especially of Joe.

Dickens describes Joe Gargery, blacksmith of the area is at the start, as Pip’s confidante and friend, the one that he trusts and even though, when he keeps his guilty secret of stealing from his sister he still feels that ‘as to him,’ his ‘inner-self was not so easily composed.’ However, as the novel progresses we see how contempt on Pip’s side is formed for Joe, starting in chapter 9 where he discovers that Joe cannot read and then later he desperately tries to escape the history that he has with Joe, this is emphasised in chapter 29 when he Estella are talking on his change of fortune, her comments on how his past companions are ‘quite unfit company’ for him now, decides for him what he must do and so his intentions of going to see Joe are ‘instantly put to flight’. This only evokes a greater sense of class and how social mobility can alter a man whose fortunes have changed.

It is, however, Joe Gargery, who is the true gentleman of the novel, but this becomes apparent gradually. It is a mark of Dickens’s genius as a storyteller that he can reveal this to us in advance of Pip’s own realisation. However Pip’s reaction towards him defines how much power family ties and ones history is integral to ones social status and this is carefully illustrated by Dickens in the novel. It is a significant power behind both forces of ‘good’ and ‘evil’. Pip, being an orphan, and having been ‘brought up by hand’ is destined to remain of low status due to his lack of connections, just as Mrs. Joe Gargery due to hr marriadge with Joe Gargery is never going to become anything more than a blacksmith’s wife. Looking back to the start of the very opening of the novel we can already see the themes of family and of history when the escaped convict leaps from behind the graves of Pip’s family.
Magwich, or Provis as he later is known, is almost Pip’s surrogate father and it is he who gives Pip the means to fulfil his great expectations through becoming his unknown benefactor. It appears that this act of kindness is of mixed origin. Dickens, when considering Magwich, conveys a sense of not only gratitude but self-gratification, which is expressed through the language Magwich uses when addressing Pip, phrases such as ‘dear boy’ in contrast to ‘I’ve made a gentleman of you’ seems to suggest that not only is Magwich benefiting Pip in the arrangement but also himself. In this way Dickens begins to reveal how fragile the class system truly is. It is this same scenario with Miss Havisham and Estella.
Estella is in the novel, the adoptive daughter of Miss Havisham, a girl that has never known her real parents. However, Dickens uses the revelation of her actual parentage to once again mock the concept of social standing. The fact that Pip discovers her mother and father affirming her as the child of two criminals and yet she is considered a Lady, expressed during chapter 38 when Herbert speaks of her as a ‘lady' or 'peerless beauty’, however this evokes doubt of stability in the system due to concept of noble bloodlines and ‘superior birth rights’. In many ways Dickens is challenging upbringing and connections against the entitlements and social standing of a persons birth, this in turn conveys to a reader just how temperamental one’s position is in the novel.

In this way Dickens also explores the controversial issues surrounding his period of time through his novel. Although many may consider the illustration of Pip’s development as an attempt to teach people about the value of other human beings as well as a radical statement against the foundations of victorian society. Pip has to learrn to value Joe again as he realises that despite being so ungrateful towards him Joe is to him still so ‘simply good’ and ‘so simply right’ and also to appreciate Magwich. Just as Estella has to learn to value Pip and his devotion to her.
Throughout the novel, social class provided a standard which Pip looked through like a microscope which he valued people by, Dickens uses this to convey the rigid walls of society and the pre-existance of social class. Characters such as Joe, the true gentleman, instinctively know the values that Pip stuggles to learn. Pip was initially attracted to the luxury and splendor of higher society. Due to the fact that his rise in status essentially corrupts him and his value for those that care about him, he comes to learn that no external social class is able to compensate for the judgements made by ones self. Dickens creates a moralising conclusion and seems to simplify the complex social issues that had plagued the novel.