The Importance Of The Upper Class In The 19th Century

During the 1800s, the social structure changed due to the Industrial Revolution. The middle class expanded. Although not all the members of this class were of the same status, they all shared the same values. They all believed in the importance of hard work and morality. One very important value was family togetherness. During this time period, middle-class families worked to preserve this family togetherness, as well as their prosperity, which they did by raising their children well. Women were more involved in maintaining family unity and the raising of children than men.

They define themselves on the basis of their wealth and are obsessed with being of high status in society because of the upkeep of their material objects. Austen portrays the economic significance of marriage and how fortunes and economic security was built through pressure from family alliances.

In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen introduces the major thematic concept of marriage and financial wealth. Throughout the novel, Austen depicts various relationships that exhibit the two recurring themes. Set during the regency period, the perception of marriage revolves around a universal truth. Austen claims that a single man “must be in want of a wife.” Hence, the social stature and wealth of men were of principal importance for women. Austen, however, hints that the opposite may prove more exact: a single woman, under the social limitations, is in want of a husband. Through this speculation, Austen acknowledges that the economic pressure of social acceptance serves as a foundation for a proper marriage.

Pride and Prejudice illustrated financial wealth as the decisive factor for marriage in the 19th century, because marrying a wealthy

“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.

In the early 1900s, we see that one’s social class greatly affected their financial stability, health, and life-chances. For example, if you were born into a wealthy family, your father worked and maintained a stable income. Because of this, you, as a child, would enjoy the luxury of playing with many toys, receiving a good education, and eating full meals that your mother prepared after staying home most of the day. You and your family were living the American dream. Your father wakes up in the morning, makes himself a cup of coffee, and reads the newspaper in his La-Z-Boy chair in the living room.

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

Class struggles as we american see it everyday. they’re lower, middle, and upper classes. Since the 1800s class been a struggle as well as many people to try to find where they should be places, it was based on on background, race, and wealth. Many people in the 1800s thought they could rise up to different class , that you had to stay in what you grew up in. the lower class consisted of slaves, indentured servants and serfs.

Societies were separated by classes, with the upper, middle, and working classes living in different neighborhoods. This mostly occurred in growing cities. The boundaries between neighborhoods were quite definite and can still be seen in many American cities today. Urban society during the industrial era in the late 1800s differed throughout the different classes. The upper class and middle class lived well, but conditions for the working class and poor were often abysmal.

The economy is mostly made of money, processed goods & services, and it also controls the production and consumption activities. So how did these changes affect the rest of the country? All these components of the economy play a big role on the common people’s way of life. Most people in the United States during the 19th century had many challenges they had to face and overcome in order to be “successful”. In attempt to make the country better , there had been many changes in the economy. The common people in this era had been negatively affected , due to bad working conditions/wages, bad living conditions, discrimination, and job competition.

In Victorian England, the rich were very well off and had a lot of putative luxuries. One nice thing about being rich then, were the beautiful, elegant houses and what went on inside them. “A wealthy family… would have lived in a large house with at least three storeys” (Durham University), many rooms, and servants. It may not seem important to living someone here in America today, but their children got very good educations. As crazy as this may seem, many of the families “would not use their kitchen [because] all their food would have been prepared by servants” (Durham University). Another luxury the rich had were their clothes. Unlike the poor, the wealthy had plenty of clothing, and often the women “needed help getting dressed” (Durham University) because under most of their dress were extremely tight corsets and large hoop skirts called crinolines. The men wore, along with their suits, various assortments and combinations of waistcoats, hats, pocket watches, handkerchiefs, and gloves. The children wore “miniature versions of adult clothes” (Durham University); “boys wore dresses until they were about five” (Durham University), and some kids wore sailor suits, but crinolines were not wore until much older. Both housing

The way a person would act depending on person’s social class/status, and how they are supposed to act. If a person is in a wealthy family, then society wants them to act in a certain way. Mostly. to have people know that they are wealthy. We see Lady Catherine De Bourgh acting superior to everyone that is beneath her, and that she might have a “right” in doing so, since she is rich and all. Just like Darcy is seemed proud, and that she is “better” than the rest.

Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto in order to give a voice to the struggling classes in Europe. In the document he expressed the frustrations of the lower class. As Marx began his document with "the history of all hitherto societies has been the history of class struggles" he gave power to the lower classes and sparked a destruction of their opressors.1 He argued that during the nineteenth century Europe was divided into two main classes: the wealthy upper class, the bourgeoisie, and the lower working class, the proletariat. After years of suffering oppression the proletariats decided to use their autonomy and make a choice to gain power. During the