While Pip never fulfills the original ideal
that he possessed of a gentleman, I would argue that he does eventually
become a gentleman, in the figurative sense of the word. When Magwitch initially
(secretly) expresses his great expectations for Pip, he desires for Pip to be wealthy
and to exhibit high class. For Pip, wealth and class are also what he envisions when he
strives to be a gentleman. However, as Pip develops into a snob, gets himself into
financial difficulties, and has to figure out a way to keep Magwitch safe, Dickens
begins illustrating through characters such as Joe and Wemmick what a true gentleman is.
While neither Joe nor Wemmick is incredibly rich, they both demonstrate loyalty and
financial common sense, attributes which very few of the literal gentlemen
(Compeyson, Jaggers, and Drummle) in the novel possess.
By
the end of the novel, after Pip has made peace with Magwitch and Joe, he obtains a
steady job which requires detailed skills that he would not have learned had he remained
a blacksmith. Similarly, he has been able to travel internationally; he is
self-sufficient, and he possesses the loyalty and class that true gentlemen of his time
were supposed to demonstrate.
In regards to reasons why Pip
does notexhibit the traditional characteristics of a gentleman from Dickens' time, most
of those reasons are societal. For example, even though some of the limitations upon the
British who were not aristocrats had started to disappear, during Pip's time, there was
still a natural divide between the aristocracy and the "working" gentleman--even if that
gentleman had earned more money than an aristocrat inherited. Because Pip is not born
into wealth and class, societal standards are already against him when he begins his
"training" in London. Pip, of course, does contribute to his own downfall by his
excessive spending, but his warped view of what a gentleman is has also come from
society.
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