Discussion Of Class In Jane Austen

Jane, as a child, was brought up by family members of a higher class and Elizabeth was self-educated and brought up by her family in a low class, neither treated well by those higher than them. Due to Jane being of a lower class than that of her aunt and cousins she is constantly treated like scum. Her cousins, especially John Reed, would bully her just for entertainment. Jane explains, “He bullied and punished me….every morsel of flesh on my bones shrunk when he came near” (Brontë 4). This caused Jane to constantly feel less than her cousins. At that young age she did not understand why she was treated this way and by her family no less. However, “Mrs. Reed was blind and deaf on the subject” (Brontë 4); She would always take her children’s side over Jane’s and would punish her for acting out. She could not fight back for the risk of being locked in a room for hours on end.

The idea of “social classes” is predisposed as an awkward subject among Americans; therefore it is rarely talked about because it makes people uncomfortable. Generally when interviewed, people claim there are no classes in the area where they live (Fussell). Class and status are two completely different things because status associates a range of things and class is simply a unit (Goldschmidt). Americans often give away their class merely by the criteria they use to define what the word “class” means (Fussell). The United States’ ideology of a classless society has changed immensely over time. In modern-day America social class is concerned in everything from the diversity of citizens, mobility, and political issues.

‘British society in 1975 was different in every way to the one seen in 1951’ Discuss.

Jane Austen portrays the low social status of women and its relation to wealth in her novel Emma. The book revolves around Emma Woodhouse, the supposed matchmaker who claims she’ll never get married herself. She goes on to make unsuccessful matches that eventually ruin one of the only friendships she had with Harriet Smith. As Emma realizes her faults and what she really wants, she finds the love of her life and get married. Along the way, she encounters the characters Mr. Elton, her first priority to find a wife for, and Miss Bates, one who has watched Emma grow up throughout the years. As the novel progresses, wealth guides the characters, like Emma, to find the one they marry. In Jane Austen’s Emma, financial status of women directly

Even though Jane faces limits to opportunities in her life because she strictly belongs to neither the upper nor poor class, her thinking isn’t limited and she is able to grow as an individual unlike the characters who have been assigned to a specific class. Through Jane’s point of view, Charlotte Brontë expresses her view that the class system is harmful Jane and thus to the society in which she lives in her novel Jane Eyre.

Race still predominantly plays a role in everyday classism. Discriminatory housing practices traps minorities in the lower class for generations. Moreover, America’s healthcare system unfair to people who have low income. Also, Public transportation does not properly serve the needs of those who use it; as well as, it makes it formidable to secure, and maintain a stable job. Additionally, education for the poor unequal in graduation rates; along with, a social polarization against lower class students. Classism in America is an old, yet consistent problem that, creates an unfair economic divide of

Another fundamental aspect of “class” is that it is a universal phenomenon and thereby manifests itself all over the world. As such, the tendency to subject members of society to a certain class status or label within a social system is not a concept that is specific to the United States. An illustration of this is Great Britain’s famous class system which has traditionally been divided into three classes. These are: the upper class/ruling elite who are aligned to the monarchy; the middle class who are people born into wealth but not on the same class level as those with “good breeding;” and, the working class who provide labor but did not own any many of production. These divisions show that in the United Kingdom, class is only partially related to money and greatly owing to family ancestry (Liddell, 2013).

It has been said by many that class is becoming more diverse with wider reference points within the structures. Some sociologists have gone as far as to say that 'class is dead ' (Pakulski and Waters, 1996) although a survey in 1996

“Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her” (Austen 3). The opening words of Jane Austen’s Emma served to highlight the rest of the novel’s themes concerning social class rankings. As the heroine of the story, Emma Woodhouse represented all the benefits that came with her high social standing. In nineteenth-century England, the issue of social status and rank pervaded everyday life and determined almost everything about a person. Social status in regards to marriage greatly affected one’s options, and society only deemed marriages within one’s social class as “suitable.” In her novel Emma, Jane Austen illustrated the nature of nineteenth-century social classes by introducing diverse characters and used Emma’s errors in judgement to satirize preoccupation with social class.

In addition, the resources in a society are unevenly distributed. An example of this is, the wealth distribution in the United States, where the top twenty percent have seventy-two percent of the wealth of the country, and the bottom twenty percent only control about three percent, that is a great deal of inequality (Inequality.org, 2017). When social inequality comes to mind, we often think about our society and how it is structured into different classes. One way we do this is by labeling classes by labeling society as containing the upper class, the working class, the middle class, and the lower class. These class

Many Americans have the false ideology that the divides in class come from the lower classes not working hard, being lazy or being drug addicts. However, in many cases this is untrue. People in the lower classes are branded into categories and often looked at as less than human. They learn to be ashamed of their status, unless talking to someone of lower status than them. Therefore, their lives do not only become physically hard but also mentally. In fact, a person’s class is also passed down by generation, resulting in an unfortunate cycle. In America class does matter as the view of an individual by a society, the fitness of an individual, and the potential for an accurate democracy are all class dependant.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is set in the 18th century, when the future of society relied on social class. According to social class, the relationship between Mr.Darcy and Elizabeth should have been impossible, but they are able to break through these restrictions.The progression of Elizabeth and Darcy’s relationship through the obstacles of breaking through social class dominates the novel. Jane Austen illustrates the restrictions of the social construct of class based on wealth along with her own views on social class in the fiction novel, Pride and Prejudice, through the relationship of Elizabeth and Mr.Darcy.

Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice, was originally to be titled First impressions. Austen suggests she chose the original title late in the novel, after Elizabeth has seen the change in Darcy's manners at Pemberley and feels it can only be due to her influence. However, in 1801 another novel was published using that title so Austen renamed and published her novel, Pride and Prejudice, in 1813. (Stovel “A Contrariety”). The former title accurately depicts the attitudes of several characters toward main themes of the novel. The most illustrated themes are family, love, pride and social class. Through Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen illustrates the differences between social classes, pride and vanity, families and men and women during

Marriage has no always been about the love and happiness two people bring eachother; instead it was concidered to be more of a business transaction. Emma by Jane Austen takes place during the early twentieth century, this time period was completly absorabed in social classes and had a much different view on marriage than today. Through the young, bold, wealthy, and beautiful character Emma Woodhouse, Jane Austen exposes the protocol of marriage as well as the effects marriage held based on social standing during the early twentieth centuery.

Jane Austen lived from 1775 until 1817, a span of four decades that saw significant changes in English social, political, and economic life. At the time her birth, England was embroiled in a bitter struggle with its American colonies, the loss of which, several years later, proved to be a tremendous blow to English political and military prestige. Under the rule of George III, England's political climate became increasingly unstable with constant struggles between the King and Whig politicians. Ireland received its independence in 1782, although the violence that had long plagued the country continued to rage. Across the Channel, the French Revolution had begun and the English aristocracy watched in horror as royal heads began to roll.