The word ‘gentleman’ continues to sound throughout the novel like a knell: what precisely does Pip mean by it, and how did he envisage this phenomenon?

Today, it’s a concept without form or focus, suggesting little more than a male who stands up for a lady in a quaintly old-fashioned way. We find the idea of bettering oneself by refining one’s manners and culture embarrassing and even snobbish: those we admire, like Jamie Oliver, make a virtue of not concealing their class origins beneath any sort of veneer.

In the mid 19th century, however, being a gentleman meant much more,

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George Washington’s Rules of Civility * Based on the Exercise of a Schoolboy*

George Washington, sometime before the age of 16, transcribed Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour In Company and Conversation. (excerpt only the bold for Seminar)

(Original errors in numbering have been corrected; original spelling is unchanged.)

• 1st Every Action done in Company, ought to be with Some Sign of Respect, to those that are Present.
• 2d When in Company, put not your Hands to any Part of the Body, not usualy Discovered.
• 3d Shew Nothing to your Freind that may affright him.
• 4th In the Presence of Others Sing not to yourself with a humming Noise, nor Drum with your Fingers or Feet.
• 5th If You Cough, Sneeze, Sigh, or Yawn, do it not Loud but Privately; and Speak not in your Yawning, but put Your handkercheif or Hand before your face and turn aside.
• 6th Sleep not when others Speak, Sit not when others stand, Speak not when you Should hold your Peace, walk not on when others Stop.
• 7th Put not off your Cloths in the presence of Others, nor go out your Chamber half Drest.
• 8th At Play and at Fire its Good manners to Give Place to the last Commer, and affect not to Speak Louder than Ordinary.
• 9th Spit not in the Fire, nor Stoop low before it neither Put your Hands into the Flames to warm them, nor Set your Feet upon the Fire especially if there be meat before it.
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… even when it is his for the taking.”

A “Gentleman is someone who never takes advantage, even when he has it.”

Anonymous? track it down… maybe the Duke of Wellington said it

Very Difficult Reading… run Dale-Chall analysis…

In The Idea of a University, originally delivered as a series of lectures in 1852, Newman provides a compelling definition and defense of a liberal arts education, arguing that the primary purpose of a university is to develop the mind, not dispense information.

An excerpt from The Idea of a Univesity is “A Definition of a Gentleman,” a superb example of character writing. Note Cardinal Newman’s reliance on parallel structures in this extended definition, in particular his use of paired constructions and tricolons.

A Definition of a Gentleman  by John Henry Newman

 (bizarre, in many ways!)

[I]t is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never inflicts pain. This description is both refined and, as far as it goes, accurate. He is mainly occupied in merely removing the obstacles which hinder the free and unembarrassed action of those about him;

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