Images of the Gentleman in Victorian Fiction

Abstract

The term ‘gentleman’ has been used in English culture by an enormous number of people, attaching varied meanings to the concept. The idea of the ‘gentleman’ has attracted many historians, philosophers, religious figures and writers. Countless comments have been made and a large number of studies have been written about it, and probably many more will be published in the future. Who were or are called gentlemen, then or now? What qualities are necessary for a person to be a gentleman? How does a historian, a philosopher, a social scientist, a religious figure or a writer define the term ‘gentleman’? In which period of history was being a gentleman fashionable? The complex mixture of qualities expected in a gentleman, such as his ‘birthright’, ‘education’, ‘wealth’, ‘income’, ‘vocation’, ‘civic responsibilities’ and ‘personal virtue’, has made it difficult to pinpoint an exact definition. Although it has been hard to pinpoint an exact definition for the term because of its connotations of ‘masculinity’, ‘social class’, ‘manners’, ‘morality’ and ‘Englishness’, we have brought together varied views of critics, writers and important figures to observe their points of view. We need to see the gentleman’s social position in the English gentry and his evolution from the fifteenth century to the nineteenth century. While the gentleman’s chivalric qualities, as well as his social status and wealth, played an important role in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, his manners and morals gained more importance in subsequent centuries. The purpose of this paper is to offer a clearer picture of the concept of the gentleman, especially in Victorian times.