Today is a memorable day. I finished my homework, which is vacant for weeks. I can not describe how good I feel right now. :)
My research project deals with the concept of Gentleman in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations from the seminar The Victorian education and development of novel from the spring semester of 2007. What I learn from this? Without a deadline I get nothing on the series: (
nice that I can now my second start building work without a deadline, although, now I have a deadline and called the conclusion, if I even could not spur;...) . For those interested, I have
here my part about the idea of the Victorian gentleman.
The idea of the Victorian gentleman
Everyone knows the gentleman and certain things associated with that term. The picture we have today from that gentleman, is from England and was characterized primarily in the Victorian era. However, as the Victorians saw her now Gentleman? And why he was so as he was? In this chapter I want to address these issues.
a. The need to define
The concept of the gentleman of the nineteenth century is a very complex one. The Victorians themselves were not sure what exactly made up as a gentleman or you could be one. Why is one needed ever so urgently, or actually several definitions?
The nineteenth century was a century of change and progress. In that century modernism was born.
belonged to the changes mean that more and more important, the nobility lost and was overtaken by the bourgeoisie. Thus, this led, among other things to a thinning of the ruling classes. In earlier times put the needle most of the army officers, colonial officials, judges, Teachers, members of parliament, magistrates and leaders of society. But from where should now come in the nineteenth century the skilled people, if the nobility could no longer make? It had a much larger ruling class to be created. And this was defined by the gentleman. The emphasis was less on scientific education than on the education of manners, responsibility and character. This was achieved through the public schools, which are an invention of the nineteenth century.
"The public schools were meant to produce a ruling class, and there was a wide-spread view that great empires of the past had fallen because the ruling classes had grown luxurious and effeminate. […] Hardiness, self-composure, coolness in the face of pain and danger, confidence in one’s own decisions – these were qualities required by the imperial class which a growing empire demanded. […] A boy learned to do as he was told without question; later, he learned to take it for granted that he would be obeyed. He learned to punish and to encourage. He learned in short to rule. That was one reason for the growing number of public schools; quite simply, more rulers were needed.” [1]
Another aspect of change is the development of a feudal aristocracy and dominated by the industrial society to a modern society. The eighteenth century was in the minds of the Victorians a brutal and raw time. It was very different from the nineteenth century, in which took place primarily social developments. And has shaped the nineteenth century, the twentieth century, even the Eighteenth left its mark on a century later.
order to distance themselves from this brutal time, wanted to be a civilized society. Civilization is one of the big words the Victorian era. How can we better distinguish them from barbarism and brutality than by being a gentle one .
The word gentleman has changed over time. Where it initially meant that one had the right to bear arms, but were always add more meanings, so that there could be no more clear definition and it meant something different for everyone.
b. What makes a gentleman?
The simplest classification of the gentleman is probably the one in which one distinguishes three cases. The gentleman by: right of birth, growing wealth and influence and virtue of their occupations . Meant
so was the British aristocracy, which reached even by the birth of the status of gentleman. But, paradoxically, has often stressed that the birth itself constituted no gentleman.
In the second category were the industrial and commercial elite, which, despite opposition of the aristocracy, is that because of their growing influence and wealth to Gentlemen appointed.
The third category represented those who were due to their duty as gentlemen. Among the clergy of the Church of England were army officers and members of Parliament. Other equally respectable professions were not counted.
Another distinction, especially in Great Expectations plays a role is the gentleman from gentleman at heart and in manner. You could be a gentleman at heart , or just a gentleman in manner . The former being higher moral was made. The views of Mr. Pocket in Great Expectations meet and explain the interaction of the two terms best. In a conversation with Pip Herbert explained in terms of Compeyson:
"But that he was not to be, without ignorance or prejudice, mistaken for a gentleman, my father most strongly asseverate; because it is a principle of his that no man who was not a true gentleman at heart, ever was, since the world began, a true gentleman in manner. He says, no varnish can hide the grain of the wood;. And that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself " [2]
They are therefore said to be a true gentleman must be a gentleman at heart you.
The concept of the gentleman is not only a social or class-determining, but also has a moral component. Therefore, the concept was so elusive for the Victorians. What probably led to that was based on the concept, in the nineteenth century revived, chivalrous moral code, excavated from the feudal past.
No wonder that the gentleman a central theme of the Victorian novel is, in which the code of the gentleman was treated.
Almost every Englishman believed to be a gentleman, and therefore played by rules of code of honor. Thus, it is not surprising that being a gentleman was almost a religion.
One of the many writers, John Ruskin, who wrote the following about the gentleman: "The essence of a gentleman is what the word says, that he comes from a pure gene, or is perfectly bred. After that, gentleness and sympathy, or kind disposition and fine imagination. " [3] Likewise, he claimed, "Gentlemen have to learn that it is no part of their duty of privilege to live on other people's toil." [4] Although exactly the most so-called gentlemen did.
Cardinal Newman [5] addressed in his book The Idea of a University , a treatise on higher education for Catholics extensively with a definition of the gentleman.
„It 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, and he concurs with their movements rather than takes the initiative himself. His benefits may be considered as parallel to what are called comforts or conveniences in arrangements of a personal nature: like an easy chair or a good fire, which do their part in dispelling cold and fatigue, though nature provides both means of rest and animal heat without them. The true gentleman in like manner carefully avoids whatever may cause a jar or a jolt in the minds of those with whom he is cast; — all clashing of opinion, or collision of feeling, all restraint, or suspicion, or gloom, or resentment; his great concern being to make every one at their ease and at home. He has his eyes on all his company; he is tender towards the bashful, gentle towards the distant, and merciful towards the absurd; he can recollect to whom he is speaking; he guards against unseasonable allusions, or topics which may irritate; he is seldom prominent in conversation, and never wearisome. He makes light of favours while he does them, and seems to be receiving when he is conferring. He never speaks of himself except when compelled, never defends himself by a mere retort, he has no ears for slander or gossip, is scrupulous in imputing motives to those who interfere with him, and interprets every thing for the best. He is never mean or little in his disputes, never takes unfair advantage, never mistakes personalities or sharp sayings for arguments, or insinuates evil which he dare not say out. From a long-sighted prudence, he observes the maxim of the ancient sage, that we should ever conduct ourselves towards our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend. He has too much good sense to be affronted at insults, he is too well employed to remember injuries, and too indolent to bear malice. He is patient, forbearing, and resigned, on philosophical principles; he submits to pain, because it is inevitable, to bereavement, because it is irreparable, and to death, because it is his destiny. If he engages in controversy of any kind, his disciplined intellect preserves him from the blunder. " [6]
is in this text Newman a clearly only on the moral aspect of the gentleman. A class status is not mentioned. Just as you can see the color of the Christian text. It will be much talked about has to behave like the gentleman to his fellow men. These features are of course justified in the author. But equally interesting are the addressee. Newman has written the text for Irish Catholics. So the text is unique for an oppressed minority has been written. This may explain the strong idealization of the gentleman. They were far away from the ruling classes, so you needed the ideal that one could strive after all.
Newman has a high opinion of the gentleman, which is largely in Christian ethics.
Finally we can say then that there can be no simple definition, but it depends on the perception of each viewer. Roughly speaking, one can see two points of view. For one sees to the gentleman in the sense of class category in which you try to distance themselves from the lower layers, but the other is the concept of the gentleman a classless, moral principle in which the gentleman at heart is the focus.
[1] Mason, Philip. The English gentleman. The Rise and Fall of an Ideal. London: André German, 1982. P. 170
[2] Dickens , Charles. Great Expectations. London: Penguin Books, 2003. S. 181
[3] Cody , David. “The Gentleman”. The Victorian Web .
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/gentleman.html. 27 September 2008
[4] Cody, David. "The Gentleman". The Victorian Web .
[5] John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), pastor of University Church in Oxford and was professor of theology in the Church of England. Through his academic and literary work and for his conversion to Catholic Church he influenced the intellectual life of England and Europe in the 19th and 20 Century deep.
[6] Landow, George P. "Newman on the Gentleman." The Victorian Web.
http://www.victorianweb.org/vn/victor10.html. 27 September 2008. \u0026lt;/ Lj-cut>
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