Strict Social Classes In Victorian England

The Victorian Era was a time of peace and prosperity. During the Victorian Era the society was divided into various social classes like the working class, middle class. Upper class, Dickens/Victorians. Above all those classes the middle class was the most hard working class with all the various occupations but also they also had quite relaxing life also speaking of which let's get into the middle class.

The transformation of English society during the Victorian era brought with it numerous industrial, cultural, as well as social changes. The overwhelming influx of population from rural to urban areas and the various new job opportunities created by factories and London?s sudden shift to industrialism affected not only the public, but also the personal lives of its residents. A new class system had begun to form, beginning with the emergence of a new middle class. Women were especially affected by this, because as they were expected to live off of their husbands and thrive solely on society and their own families, it became increasingly important to marry well and remain in high

“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.

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.

According to the Victorian definition, a gentleman "never takes unfair advantage . . . or insinuates evil which he dare not say out," and possesses, among other qualities, the ability to avoid all suspicion and

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

ln our western culture today, society is not as strict about manners or proper etiquette. This is

Victorian Era England Lifestyles were quite diverse depending on where you lived and how much money you had. The rich were well off while the poor were complete opposites. Although the rich had great lives, I would not wish to live in that time period.

After William IV died, his niece, Victoria, became the Queen of England, starting the victorian era. In Victoria’s reign, the British Empire came to cover over ¼ of the world. The Industrial revolution is created during her reign, producing more products available to the common people of England. On the down side, people working in the mill had a hard life.

The upper classes had all of the political power, and the middle and lower classes had absolutely none. There was also a group below the working class called the sunken class. They lived in poverty and struggled immensely in their daily lives. While the lower class people were working for a living, the rich were living glamorously. They had large houses, plots of land, and maids and butlers. Even with all of these amenities, the upper class paid no taxes. The citizens under the aristocrats paid nearly all of the taxes, even though they worked for pennies a day. This created hostility towards the upper class, and made the class disparity even more severe. In A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, Ebenezer Scrooge was a wealthy, upper-class man. He did not do anything to help the poor or the lower-class society. Meanwhile, Bob Cratchit had a sizable family that lived in a cramped house, and struggled to make ends meet. Scrooge treated Bob Cratchit, his employee, poorly, and said multiple times that the poor should be able to work their way out of poverty. He was incredibly disconnected from the lower classes, and this showed in his treatment of them. He was unaware of the struggles of the poor, and he was unwilling to learn until he was forced to. This is one very apparent example in fiction of the class disparities of Victorian

This idea that being a gentlemen is all you need in life is introduced within the first few chapters of the book and preached all through the novel as the author's way of demonstrating Pip's mind change as he grows. In his journey, he achieves this but in all the wrong ways; by focusing solemnly on the importance of social class and self improvement. He goes too far, and ends up hurting some of the people he loves. Pip begins to lie and look down on others of his original lower class as he rises in status. Like Odysseus, Pip encounters countless struggles along his journey; from falling in love with Estella to just barely escaping murder

A gentleman, as defined by Merriam Webster's Collegiate dictionary is a man whose conduct conforms to a high standard of propriety or correct

Over time, the meaning of gentleman began to change and evolved into something quite different. It was no longer just used for those men who were born into nobility or prominent social status. It had adjusted to also include the men who had worked for their

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 next class during the Victorian Era was known as the middle class. This was the class to which novelist H.G. Wells was a part of. The middle class consisted of factory owners, lawyers, engineers, merchants, traders and other professionals (Bishal, 2008). While the individuals within this class received more money and more rights as citizens, they were still considered to be of no importance compared to those of the higher class.