The contrast between the stereotypical view of a ‘gentleman’ and a ‘real gentleman’ is very strong as can be seen by comparing Mr Jaggers, a ‘gentleman’, and Joe, a blacksmith. It is clear that Joe is a far more of a gentleman than Mr Jaggers although in the novel Joe is nowhere near the status of Mr Jaggers, a lawyer.
The exterior vision and the general appearance of the surroundings of a gentleman is, according to pip in the early stages, very important to a ‘gentleman’ so much so that he hires the “Avenger”, a servant of pip, who is dressed expensively.
To pip being a ‘gentleman’ also meant that you had to be respected and when he ‘becomes a gentleman’ he is treated respectfully by Trabb when goes to buy clothes when before he wasn’t even looked at.
Magwitch’s view of a ‘gentleman’ is someone who can be made using money. From the reaction Pip receives from society, Magwitch believes he has made a ‘gentleman’ out of Pip.
Herbert, a ‘true gentleman’ in the novel, is regarded throughout the story by pip as a ‘gentleman’. First it was because of his class and his manners during the fight. Also for the fact that he decided to marry Clara to relieve her from taking care of her drunk father. Herbert's overwhelming politeness and patience is particularly contrasted to Pip's increasing rudeness and bad behaviour when Joe comes to stay. Herbert treats him better than Pip himself. The fact that Hebert is a ‘gentleman’ is surprising as his mother especially is rude and lazy while his uncles and aunts are all money-grabbing and attempt to please Miss Havisham for her money although they have no real love for her.
Another ‘true gentleman’ is Joe, although he lacks the materialistic appearance of a ‘gentleman’, we can see through his actions and words that he is a ‘true gentleman’. He is portrayed by Dickens as an almost faultless character and he tells us about how bad Joe’s father treated Joe and his mother, “‘… and when he were overtook with drink, he hammered away at my mother most onmerciful. It were a’most the only hammering he did, indeed, ‘xcepting at myself’”(pg 44), yet he still had no anger towards him, “‘And it were my intentions to have had put upon his tombstones that Whatsume’er the failings on his part, Remember reader he were that good in his hart’”(pg 45). Joe after suffering so much from his father, did not want to see another soul suffer and see pip being beaten up by his sister, “‘…I wish there warn’t no Tickler for you, old chap; I wish I could take it all on myself’”(pg 48). When Pip becomes ill, it is Joe who nurses him through his illness when nobody else did. Joe pays off Pip’s debt without even telling him. All these qualities show what a ‘true gentleman’ Joe is in the novel.
Many of the same ‘rules’ apply to being a ‘gentlewoman’ with one exception, being chaste. Estella and Biddy are from two very different social backgrounds. Both are educated, but to different degrees – Biddy is self-taught, whilst Estella has had some of the best tutors available. Estella is rich, and the heiress to Miss Havisham’s large property, whilst Biddy has virtually nothing to her name. From all appearances, Estella is definitely the gentlewoman of the two, but this is wrong. Estella is impolite, unkind, proud and behaves very badly towards Pip, a man that she knows would do anything for her, “‘He calls the knaves Jacks, this boy! … And what coarse hands he has. And what thick boots’ Her contempt was so strong that it became infectious, and I caught it”. Biddy, however, always remains truthful and generally kind towards Pip.
It becomes obvious that Biddy’s view of a ‘gentleman’ is very similar to that of Joe - she regards a gentleman as someone who is towards the end of Great Expectations. Pip begins to make the transition himself although a bit gradually.
In the end though Pip becomes a true gentleman and loses the desire for the materialistic looks of a gentleman. He shows gratitude towards Joe and Biddy, forgives Miss Havisham although she made him suffer while he was a young boy and does not show any resent towards Estella after all she put him through.
