Class Disparities In The Victorian Era

Imagine being born into the Elizabethan Era where your social class is already determined for you and you cannot switch classes ever. This is the case during the Shakespearean era. There were six total social classes of Elizabethan England. The social class system listed in order from highest to lowest is; Monarch, Nobility, Gentry, Merchants, Yeomanry, and Laborers. Depending on which class you were in this would affect your living conditions, authority, wealth, work, lifestyle and religion. There were also many cultural differences among the social classes during Elizabethan times.

The novel, like many other classics, paints the society and time period in which the author lives through. Victorian England, which is the basis of Dickens setting, was a time where social principles were focused on the hierarchy and human nature. The

Although the United States was a British Colony in the early 1700s, the differences between the two were definitely noticeable, especially in the socioeconomic fields, mostly due to the fact that slavery played a much larger role in the United States.

As class and race had some influence on The Gilded Age and Progressive Era, gender explains the character of these periods because there were several instances were manhood was threatened, which pushed males to reassert their manhood. Gender was also critical in displaying women’s active role in American society. There even were cases in which these periods sought to protect women and demonstrated the emergence of women’s new identity.

“There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully” (Chopin 129). One can interpret this to mean that parents in the 1800s (and to some extent today) desired a higher marital status for their daughters, so they could be well positioned for a stable life. As discussed in class, social status still exists in modern America which can significantly attract many candidates who want to marry a person for social status but not necessarily for love. These attitudes that continue to dominate America today stem from the aristocratic Old South as a means to achieve control of wealth for the few at the expense of impoverishing the masses.

Karl Marx’s theory of social class took unprecedented amount of relevance in America’s Gilded Age. Each social class in this era had a set of identities that were associated with each class. The wealthy elite prospered from what some may believe to think was the epitome of the Dark Ages. The wealthy elite capitalized on new technology and business’ which allowed them to have a sense of superiorness and caused to emerge very distinct social classes. The middle class has the best chance for class movement however it was unlikely to happen.

Social class systems in the nineteenth century were comprised of the upper class, the middle class, the working class, and the underclass. The different social classes can be “distinguished by inequalities in such areas as power, authority, wealth, working and living conditions, life-styles, life-span, education, religion, and culture” (Cody). The poor, also known as peasants, were usually mistreated and segregated from the wealthy, or those of higher class. During his time, Charles Dickens “seen as a champion of “the poor” by some of the poor themselves” (“What was”). It is said that one of his greatest achievements “was to bring the problem of poverty to the attention of his readers through introducing varieties of poor persons into almost all of his novels, and showing the “deserving” majority of the poor, bravely struggling against the forces arrayed against them” (“What was”). This is clearly evident in A Tale of Two Cities. During the nineteenth century Victorian era, social class systems were a common excuse for the division and mistreatment of many individuals, as evidenced in Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.

One Victorian sentiment was that a civilized individual could be determined by her/his appearance. This notion was readily adopted by the upper classes and, among other things, helped shape their views of the lower classes, who certainly appeared inferior to them. In regards to social mobility, members of the upper classes may have (through personal tragedy or loss) often moved to a lower-class status, but rarely did one see an individual move up from the abysmal lower class. Although poverty could be found almost anywhere in Victorian London (one could walk along a street of an affluent neighborhood, turn the corner, and find oneself in an area of depravity and decay), most upper-class

The lower class consisted primarily of Native Americans, African Americans, and impoverished whites. Author, Howard Zinn revealed many examples that showed the congregation of lower class individuals, in spite of their differences “ In spite of such seventeenth century, there is evidence that where whites and blacks found themselves with common problems, common work, common enemy in their master, they behaved toward one another as equals. As one scholar of slavery, Kenneth Stampp, has put it, Negro and white servants of the seventeenth century were “remarkably unconcerned about the visible physical differences” (Zinn 68).When it came down to real talk, the lower class rose above their differences and worked together to achieve one common goal, freedom. However, the upper class knew they wouldn't be able to withhold all the power with the lower class citizens joining forces. The upperclass attempted to divide the lower class by the separation of race, sexuality, and wars and ideas of war. In between this conflict lied the middle class, who struggled to chose, as they were tempted by the upper class wealth. Although early settlers envisioned a country of liberty and equality, the upper class used their wealth and power to obstruct the lower class from achieving complete freedom, which lead to the oppression of lower class individuals.

The difference in class structures of Victorian England was dependent on the lifestyles and jobs of individuals. The Victorian era of England lasted from 1837 to 1901. The Victorian England hierarchy was divided into three different classes; the upper, middle, and lower class and was reliant of occupational differences. The hierarchy was very rigid and there was little social mobility, because of the fact that normally a person was born into their class and even their future career. In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens displays the model of class structure through the character Pip Pirrup. Pip struggles to find his place within the hierarchy. Throughout the novel, Dickens writes about the different classes in England. Pip belongs the working class due to his family and is set to be a blacksmith, but finds himself in the societal shift that occurred in England in the nineteenth century. Pip wants to achieve his great expectations and change the path that his life was going on. He wants create a better life for himself than what he would have had if he followed in the footsteps of his family. Dickens also creates various characters in the different classes to expose the relationship between each class. An individual’s class was a dominant factor in creating an identity. People of the upper classes thought very little of the people “below” them. Throughout his journey, Pip reveals information about how the different social classes lived and how members of each

If the lower classes are not controlled it will be hard to maintain the social structure and prevent internal conflict.

The Victorian Period was a great influence to the authors who composed novels at that time where distinctions between social classes as well as between men and women were strongly marked. During this period, it was precisely a woman who ruled. Alexandrina Victoria who was born on May 24, 1819 became Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from June 20, 1837 until her death on January 22, 1901. Victoria’s reign was one of the longest of a female in history. At only the age of 18, after her uncle William Henry IV died, she began a span of 63 years of reign. In spite of her independence and power, Victoria fell into a deep depression when her husband died in 1861 and ever since she wore black every day for the rest of her

The lower class, also known as the “working class”, were those individuals whom partook on the strenuous and dangerous jobs. These individuals were expected to work each and every day for multiple hours as a time and without a break. Although they worked extremely hard, the lower class was not paid well for their effort. Instead, they received the very minimum wage that one could, and were expected to live off of this (Allingham, 2002). Because the people of this class did not have as much money, their material items such as; housing, clothing, and food were very minimum. Even with the small amount of income that they received, the “lower section of the society was also burdened with numerous taxes that made their life miserable.” (Bishal, 2008) Lastly, the working classes remained shut out from the political process, making these individuals in reality separated from the rest of society (Allingham, 2002).

England was rapidly becoming urban society. But in spite of wealth created by industrialization, people still suffer from poverty. There are many factories but in a miserable state, low wages and harsh conditions. Industrial Revolution creates a middle class (neither rich nor poor). The irresponsible of practices of social institutions, as well as the evasion and abuses of responsibility by individuals, a reality which expresses the general atmosphere of man's isolation and disintegration. Some novelists, like Dickens has revealed the world of the poor class in his novels and reinforced his novels with “ factual details [ that ] .. really shocked the novel readers.”20 of his time.

The Victorian period started in 1837 through 1901 under Queen Victoria’s reign. The period got divided into three stages: Early, middle and late Victorians periods. During, the early Victorian era took the throne. Under the middle years, the industrialization of the country began and everything stay steady. On the last few years, a lot of problems rise up with Ireland and the English colonies. In her 63 years of ruling lots of cultural, political and economic changes arise. The country became highly industrialized and expanded its land to some parts of the middle west of the World. However, under the period, many diseases were developed such as typhus and cholera because of the food distribution and hunger. Social changes such as women’s vote and rights were proclaimed. New science and technological theories were promoted such as Darwin’s Evolution Theory and Charles Lyell’s Theory of Uniformitarianism. Other social and economic changes