efined and respected. During the Victorian Period "it was also becoming increasingly important to seem genteel" (Olsen 297). The opinions of others were important and being a gentleman was an honorable trait that was looked highly upon. Pip thought that if he became a gentleman, he could win Estella's affection and admiration.
             In Great Expectations and during this time, the difference between classes was very rigid and noticeable at first, but slightly faded over time. Rules were often bent for the higher class, but were more rigidly enforced for common people (Houghton 23). The rich could do what they wanted; so it was easier for influential people to change classes or the status of others. Pip got out of apprenticeship because it was believed that the influential and wealthy Miss Havisham was his benefactor. "Class-based society such as that of Victorian England class discriminations seep into and contaminate the deepest and subtlest levels of human feeling and motivation" (Bloom 13). The majority felt that the rich were superior and could decide the fate of those who were respectable and those who were not. In Dickens' Great Expectations, Estella characterizes Pip as a common laboring boy. People were normally born into the genteel class but exceptions could be made. Miss Havisham was brought up as a lady and was respected for it. She was depicted as the lady of the Victorian Era. Estella felt like she was better than Pip because she was a lady, and he was common, and made sure that she let him know it. Pip became a gentleman although he was born an orphan because of his supposed benefactor. Since Miss Havisham was wealthy and well known, Pip believed that her support made him as important as her. "As long as Miss Havisham was believed to be Pip's patron, his status in his own and the Gargery's eyes, not to mention the Pumplechooks and Trabbs of his world, was enviable and...