Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Throughout the Victorian era humanity was obsessed with social status

and took every opportunity to search for meaningful existence within

society. ‘Great Expectations’ follows Pip’s journey from childhood to

adulthood, acquainting with both the true and false qualities of a

‘gentleman’. All through the novel, social class provides an

arbitrary, external standard of value by which the characters judge

one another. During Pip’s progression of becoming a ‘gentleman’ he

realizes appearance is not the main quality a gentleman should posses.

Dickens provides Pip, the protagonist, with extreme challenges

involving his genteel qualities to expose the obvious need of being

accepted in the social hierarchy, even if this acceptance included

dismissing known loved ones.

Pip longs to be a “gentleman” in one sense but learns to be a

gentleman in the truest sense of the word. This longing to become a

gentleman arose when seven year old Pip first encountered with Estella

and has followed Pip through every memory and incident which occurred

afterwards. As a child, having met Estella, Pip changed his

perspectives about his surroundings and his family, but most of all

about himself. His longing to marry Estella from young age on

influenced his behavior throughout his life and the book. “I want to

be a gentleman on her account” Pip explains to Biddy. Pip’s desire to

be a gentleman is to live up to Estella’s expectations and impress her

by changing himself.

Estella’s harsh words and thoughts towards Pip affected his thoughts

about his family, surroundings and himself. “He calls the knaves,

Jacks, this boy...

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...novel, Great Expectations, Pip summed up all the qualities desired to

be a true gentleman. These qualities included upbringing and

education, financial status, social standing, moral views such as

Christianity, occupation, respect, politeness, aristocratic attitude

and civilized. Every character who appeared in Great Expectations

taught Pip a few things about true gentility, whether it was negative

or positive.

“No man who was not a true gentleman at heart, ever was, since the

world began, a true gentleman in manner. He says, no varnish can hide

the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more

the grain will express itself” This advice was given by Mathew Pocket.

I feel that Dickens tried to explains that a true gentle man has to

posses the qualities on the inside before having them on the outside.