Discuss the figure of the 'gentleman' in Dickens's Great Expectations contextualising the novel as much as possible.
             To put Great Expectations into context is to build a background and environment in which Dickens own life is directly correlated to the novel as well as a wider social context. I believe Great Expectations is a vehicle used by Dickens in which he cynically cross sections the early nineteenth century ideals about what a 'gentleman' was supposed to be, consciously marking himself with an identity which he tries to reinforce in the novel about morals, ethics and values. I think an important part of understanding Great Expectations is understanding the Victorian social mind because, primarily, Dickens was writing as a source of income. He had to adapt his style to suit his audience more so than if he were writing an ordinary novel so he could get the maximum income from it as possible. The novel was serialised and this obviously affected the form and content for two reasons. Firstly, as it was serialised, there had to be an exciting ending to each instalment to keep the public interested and secondly, it was not as expensive as buying an entire novel so the serialisation made it more accessible to the working classes as opposed to the novel which was largely only read by the middle and upper classes. Dickens also acknowledges that his good friend, and author, Edward Bulwer Lytton pleaded with him to unite Pip and Estella with such fine reasoning that Dickens told Lytton, 'I resolved to make the change...I have put in as pretty a little piece of writing as I could, and I have no doubt the story will be more acceptable through the alteration.' I believe this shows both Dickens thinking avidly about public opinion and his uncanny ability to create superb writing under the conditions and environment he worked in. He uses his accessibility as an author to reach a market yearning f...