Truman Caporte Great Lady

Atticus refers to Ms. Dubose as a great lady because he wants to show jem that she went on with her life, even though she knew that it was lost, and that that showed true courage. She had been a morphine addict for years, just to relieve the pain of her illness, which was an assured death. This is very clear when Atticus explains his theory on what Jem should have learned by going over to her house every day:

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win but sometimes you do.”
p. 149

Atticus describes Ms. Dubose as having real courage. He compares that to fake courage, which is simply the image of a powerful man with a gun. He shows Jem that Ms. Dubose is a great lady because she goes on even though she knows that she will probably not survive in the end. He shows him that true courage, and a great man or woman is formed by ones ability to fight on even when the odds are against you. She did this by using morphine as a painkiller for years because of her fight to survive. This is very similar to Atticus’ situation when he defends a black man. He wants to show Jem what real courage is, and that Ms. Dubose is a great lady despite the fact that she has completely different beliefs from himself.