Baker Street Elementary& The Victorian Web

Presents“The Life and Times in Victorian London”

Baker Street Elementary& The Victorian Web

The Life and Times in Victorian London# 39 – The Victorian Gentleman - - 06/07/201 7

Copyright 2017, Sherwood-Fabre, Fay, M

ason, Mason

Welcome to topic number 39… Today Master Doyle and I will be

looking at what a Victorian gentleman is.

The concept of the 1 9th century Gentleman is a complex one, but is a critical part of

the Victorian way of thinking and behaving.

We are not entirely certain what a gentleman is, what his

characteristics are, or of how long it takes to become one.

Why, then, are so many of us so anxious to be recognized as one?

Members of the British aristocracy are gentlemen by

right of birth.

Now, however, the new industrial and mercantile

owners, against the wishes of the aristocracy…

…are attempting to be designated as gentlemen as a natural consequence of their growing wealth and influence.

Other Victorians — clergy belonging to the Church,

army officers, members of Parliament — are

recognized as gentlemen by virtue of their occupations…

…while members of numerous other

respectable professions —engineers, for

example — are not.

There is also a moral component used to define

a gentleman…

…based upon the revival of chivalry and moral codes

from our own past.

Sir Walter Scott defined this concept of the gentleman

repeatedly in his enormously influential Waverley Novels.

Charles Dickens was an author of relatively humble origins who desired passionately to

be recognized as a gentleman, and insisted, in consequence, upon the essential

dignity of his occupation.

Thackeray, on the other hand, insisted that a writer could not be a

gentleman.

Eventually, we will settle on a

compromise…

…it will be accepted the recipient of a traditional liberal education based

largely on Latin at one of the public schools…

…Eton, Harrow, Rugby, and so on — will be recognized as a gentleman, no matter what his origins has been.

Many think this compromise will help to perpetuate the

English Class system.

… yes, but we’ll be back with another

topic soon…So we have completed topic 39 in our series…

Original Source Material for for this topic:

• David Cody, David Cody, Associate Professor of English, Hartwick Collegehttp://www.victorianweb.org/history/gentleman.html

Baker Street Elementary“The Life and Times in Victorian London”

IS CREATED THROUGH THE INGENUITY & HARD WORK OF:

JOE FAYLIESE SHERWOOD-FABRE

GEORGE P. LANDOWRUSTY MASON &

STEVE MASON

WE ARE EXTREMELY THANKFUL TO LIESE AND GEORGE FOR THEIR SUPPORT OF THIS PROJECT…