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Maria Fernandez
Ms. Gardner
English 10 2.
11 March 2014

A High Class Gentleman
To be a gentleman is to open doors, be polite, and be respectful towards others,
or is it to be an educated wealthy man who spends an excessive amount of their income
on gambling and other unimportant things? In todays society, the polite and respectful
gentleman is the idea prefered by most. Personality and how someone treats another is
considered the ways of a gentleman for most, not wealth and power. In Charles
Dickens coming of age novel, Great Expectations the social classes define the identity
of a gentleman: in a higher class, a gentleman must have money and power; in lower
classes they are shaped by personality.
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The novel portrays a man who is entirely amiable: Joe Gargery
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. Joe is a mild,
good-natured, sweet-tempered, foolish man; such qualities are those of a
magnanimous gentleman that is caring and is Hercules in strength, and also in
weakness (Dickens 5). He can be kind, yet strong and shows veneration towards other
people in the novel. Joe is of a lower class as a blacksmithearning little money
making him immediately viewed as lesser than others.
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He was brought up by hand,
(5) which may not have happened if he was of an upper class, causing his personality to
be changed if he was raised differently. Joe could have evolved into a selfish person if

1
Colon with general and specific statement
2
Colon with Independent clause and modifier
3
Modifier with dashes
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he had been wealthy in an upper class, or if he was not raised in such an environment
that changed his good intentions into a more self-involved person, and the definition of
an upper class gentleman. When Pip is younger he aspires to Joe, and respects him,
without particularly realising it, Pip wishes to be a gentleman. Not the gentleman he
later aspires to be but the kind, caring character that can be seen in Joe.
After his visit to Miss havishams, Pip casts a new idea of what it is to be a
gentleman in his head. This idea includes schooling and raising his level of class so
others will see him as higher which can translate into him becoming a man who can
marry Estella. On Pips second visit to Miss Havishams he encounters three ladies in
the room and one gentleman, (62). Pip sees the man as a gentleman because he is
clearly of a higher lass. This reinforces Pips image of a gentleman is a man of higher
social status; he thinks his social rank is what qualifies this man as a gentleman.
When Pip gets news of his inheritance and that he is to be brought up as a
gentleman in a word, as a young fellow of great expectations (107) he is being told
that the future of him becoming a gentleman will consist of him moving to London and
being educated. The young man is going to be crafted into an upper class gentleman
with money and education, eventually receiving more power from this experience. Pips
definition of a gentleman is changed when Jaggers reveals that he will become of such
status, but only after completing the education and tutoring necessary. How he dresses,
who he is associated with, and his large inheritance will now be Pips perception of a
gentleman.
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Aspiring to be like Joe and developing his caring personality are not the
higher classs definition of a gentleman, making Pip feel as all of his dreams of
becoming could come true. Pip does not realize if he became a blacksmith with Joe he

4
Sentence that begins with parallel phrases
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could also be a gentleman, just a gentleman with a different meaning.
The people in Pips life shape his journey to becoming a gentleman. Whether Pip
actually became the right kind of gentleman with the right values and qualities is
unknown, but the definition of a gentleman can surely vary through the different levels of
social classes seen in the novel. Pip also changes his understanding of who he
admires. The impact Joe has left on Pip is indelible, he always admires Joe for his hard
work and love towards him, but his wish to be just like Joe quickly fades as he is
introduced into the higher levels of society and creates new expectations for the true
meaning of a gentleman.