Ladies and Gentlemen
Great Expectations Ch. 37-40
What does it mean to be a
gentleman or a lady?
Is it possible for anyone to
become one?
Gentleman
• Modern definition: any man
of good, courteous conduct.
• Original meaning: a man of
the lowest rank of the English
gentry (hereditary ruling
class), standing below an
esquire and above a yeoman.
By the 19th century, a
gentleman is:
• any well-educated man
of good family and
distinction
• a man with an income
derived from property,
a legacy or some other
source
• one who is
independently wealthy
and does not need to
work.
A man of morals: Joe
• A “mild, good-natured,
sweet-tempered, easygoing, foolish, dear fellow
– a sort of Hercules in
strength, and also in
weakness.”
“Which this to you the true friend say.
If you can’t get to be oncommon
through going straight, you’ll never
get to do it through going crooked. So
don’t tell no more on ’em, Pip, and
live well and die happy.”
A man of manners: Herbert Pocket
“Herbert Pocket had a frank and easy
way with him that was very taking. I
had never seen any one then, and I
have never seen any one since, who
more strongly expressed to me, in
every look and tone, a natural
incapacity to do anything secret and
mean. There was something
wonderfully hopeful about his general
air.”
A professional man: Mr. Jaggers
“The magistrates shivered
under a single bite of his
finger. Thieves and
thieftakers hung in dread
rapture on his words, and
shrank when a hair of his
eyebrows turned in their
direction. Which side he was
on, I couldn’t make out, for
he seemed to me to be
grinding the whole place in a
mill.”
A man of letters: Matthew Pocket
“He was always so zealous and honourable
in fulfilling his compact with me, that he
made me zealous and honourable in fulfilling
mine with him. If he had shown indifference
as a master, I have no doubt I should have
returned the compliment as a pupil; he gave
me no such excuse, and each of us did the
other justice. Nor did I ever regard him as
having anything ludicrous about him – or
anything but was what was serious, honest
and good – in his tutor communication with
me.”
A self-made man: Abel Magwitch
“I’ve done
wonderfully well.
There’s others
went out alonger
me as has done
well too, but no
man has done
nigh as well as
me. I’m famous
for it.”
Lady: a civil term of respect
for a woman, specifically
the female equivalent to
gentleman or lord.
Once confined to usage
when specifically
addressing women of high
social class or status.
A well-mannered lady: Miss Skiffins
“Miss Skiffins – in the absence of the
little servant who, it seemed, retired to
the bosom of her family on Sunday
afternoon – washed up the tea-things, in
a trifling lady-like amateur manner that
compromised none of us.”
A lady of wealth and power: Miss Havisham
“An immensely rich and grim lady
who lived in a large and dismal
house barricaded against robbers,
and who led a life of seclusion.”
A lady of grace and beauty: Estella
“Proud and wilful as of old, she had brought
these qualities into such subjection to her
beauty that it was impossible and out of
nature – or I thought so – to separate them
from her beauty.”
A self-made lady: Biddy
“How am I going to live? I’ll tell
you, Mr. Pip. I am going to try to
get the place of mistress in the
new school nearly finished here. I
can be well recommended by all
the neighbours, and I hope I can
be industrious and patient, and
teach myself while I teach
others.”
Your assignment:
Choose a well-known person whom
you think is a gentleman or lady.
Describe this person. What makes this
person a lady or gentleman?
Which category of lady (manners, wealth
and power, beauty, self-made) or gentleman
(moral, manners, professional, intellectual,
self-made) does this person fall into?
Be prepared to discuss this character and
the qualities that make him or her a
gentleman or lady on Tuesday.