Thomas Hardy's "great lady"

Atticus refers to Mrs. Dubose as a"great lady" because she represents herself to the public as brave. He respects her because he can sympathize with her, and feels bad for her. She is old, sick, alone, and helpless. He wants to help because of this. He is attempting to give credit her by addressing her as a great lady. For example:

" She was. She had her own view about things, a lot different from mine, maybe...son, I told you that if you hadn't lost your head I'd have made you go read to her. I wanted you to see something about her-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 do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew."

This passage illustrates that Atticus respects her, and supports her. He likely felt this way because he feels bad for her. He intends to give her credit by calling her a great lady. She had her own view on things suggests that she was likely racist and grumpy. In result to this, she had a negative representation to the rest of the town. It seems that people looked at her like a different outsider, who was grumpy and crazy. She probably therefore didn't have any friends. He wants his kids to have a charitable feeling in them, and wants them to help out. He wants his kids to be nice and read to her. She had courage to live her life the way she did. He explains that courage is when one knows that something isn't going to work out, but does it anyway. She never gave up, and he respects that about her. She rarely wins, but keeps on going and never let's it get to her. She thought positively. Beholden means under a moral obligation to somebody. She didn't have any moral obligation to anybody. She thought that her life had no meaning, but she went on. Atticus entitles her as courageous because he feels bad for her. He therefore says that she was a great lady.