Throughout the Victorian Era, the standard of occupations were distinctly divided based on class. These social classes that divided the caliber of work in occupations were: the upper class, middle or working class and the lower class. Occupations that required skilled labor and unskilled labor each employed people in separate classes. Men and women within each class had different jobs in accordance with the type of work in their social class. (Victorian Web.) Men in the upper class had jobs of high ranks and involved less manual work. Occupations of these high ranks would be in the possession of men that were considered Gentlemen. In the Victorian Era, jobs of high skill or importance would qualify men to be a gentlemen. (Victorian Web.) David Cody, in “The Gentlemen” specifies that some of these jobs would be clergymen for the church, parliament members and army officers. Professional occupations in the Victorian Era belonged to those in the Middle Class. In Dickens’s Great Expectations, Jaggers is described as a lawyer. The occupation of a lawyer, being a professional job would belong in the middle class. As displayed within the character of Jaggers, lawyers had to be well educated and skilled in order to be successful. Similar in levels of work of a lawyer, physicians, writers and engineers were jobs that found to belong to those of the middle class. In the working part of the middle class there was difficult, messy work and physical labor that was strenuous on the body. In Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, this is shown when Pip is realizing that he is only common person and meant to be a worker, “I took the opportunity of being alone in the courtyard, to look at my coarse hands and common boots” (92.) Being the ap... ... middle of paper ... ...ctioning society. Works Cited Burnett, John. "Victorian Working Women: Sweated Labor." Victorian Web. 24 Nov. 2013. Bentley, Nicolas. "A Victorian Blacksmith's Shop." Victorian Web. 19 Nov. 2013. Cody, David. "The Gentleman." Victorian Web. 22 Nov. 2013. Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. 1861. Project Gutenberg. 17 Nov. 2013 Harris, Beth. ""Slaves of the Needle:" The Seamstress in the 1840s." Victorian Web. 21 Nov. 2013. Landow, George P. "Domestic Service, The "Mute and Forgotten Occupation." Victorian Web. 24 Nov. 2013. Landow, George "Victorian Occupations: Life and Labor in the Victorian Period." Victorian Web. 24 Nov. 2013. Sullivan, Dick. "Victorian Costermongers: "A Penny Profit out of the Poor Man's Dinner." Victorian Web. 23 Nov. 2013. Wojtczak, Helena. "Women of the Aristocracy and Gentry in Victorian Hastings." Victorian Web. 22 Nov. 2013.
Upper Class are white collar job, jobs in the field of CEO, Politician and doctors, people who work in specialized fields.
The upper echelons belonged to the aristocracy whose positions were granted them by birth and within this group there was a hierarchical system. The king was at the top of the hierarchy and the gentry at the bottom. Wood describes the gentlemen of the gentry as a help to the commoners. These men lent money to those of lower social standing and also purchased goods from them as well as acted as their representatives to the higher social structures. In turn the commoners paid allegiance to the gentlemen through conscription and political support.
“her needle-work was seen on the ruff of the Governor; military men wore it on their scarfs, and the minister on his band; it decked the baby’s little cap; it was shut up, to be mildewed and moulder away, in the coffins of the dead” (57).
An Analysis on the lives of the Upper, Middle, and Lower classes during the Industrial Revolution
Domesticity, as defined by The Merriam Webster, is “the state of being domestic; domestic or home life.” When someone mentions domesticity, an immediate association may be drawn to domesticated cats, dogs, or even simply animals people bring into our homes and domesticize. The household trains to be accustomed to home life, rather than life on the streets. We as people, generally, spend half our time in the home and half outside. Thanks to this we are often seen as domesticated creatures. However, as demonstrated clearly by through Dicken’s writing, as well as Cullwick’s, people can also become domesticized. During the Victorian Era, women left home rarely and were not seen as working people. Despite the limited exceptions most working women constrained to work inside homes other than their own. Hannah Cullwick’s relationship to domesticity is a complex one. Despite the fact that she was a working-class woman, who was employed by various different homes, she did not work in each of them for more than a limited amount of time.
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 Londoners, who tended to dwell in the West End, associated the East End with the lower class.
However, during the Elizabethan Era, there were fashion laws that all families had to enforce, without exception. Queen Elizabeth’s fashion sense was elaborate, the law stated that upper class men and women were compelled to dress to Elizabethan standards. Furthermore, Middle/Lower class families were not expected to dress this way. The only path to becoming an upper class family is through money, which means jobs. Job opportunities , however , were uncomplicated to receive. Careers were broad during this time. Popular jobs included; Barber, Blacksmith, Baker, Physician , and
The Victorian Era started when Queen Victoria took the throne in 1837 and ended roughly the day she died in 1901. Victorian England “was a strictly patriarchal society” (Yildirim 2). It is common knowledge that during the Victorian era men and women had their own specific roles. It is also common knowledge to know that men had complete legal and economical control over the women (Mitchell 1, 142). Women were expected to stay at home to keep house and take care of the children.
The highest social class in Victorian England was the Nobility or Gentry class. The members of this class were those who inherited their land, titles, and wealth . Popular opinion at the time asserted that the noble class women led lives of lavish luxury and wedded bliss. "Ladies were ladies in those days; they did not do things themselves, they told others what to do and how to do it."
“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times…it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair” (Dickens n. pag.). These words by Charles Dickens, one of the most famous writers of the Victorian Period, were intended to show the connections between the French Revolution and the decline of Dickens’s own time, the Victorian Era (“About” n.pag.). Dickens wanted to show how the trends of his time were following a tragic path that had already played out and not ended well in France. According to an article about this historical period, the Victorian Era was “a time of change, a time of great upheaval, but also a time of great literature” (“Victorian” n.pag.). The Victorian Period reflects the great changes in the social, political, and economical shifts of the time.
Mr. Jaggers plays a pivotal role in the novel, Great Expectations, written by Charles Dickens. We are first introduced to him in Chapter 11, where Pip encounters the rather condescending lawyer on the stairs of Satis House. Pip describes Mr. Jaggers as "a burly man of an exceedingly dark complexion." We cannot help but notice that he is extremely pontificating, by virtue of him holding Pip's chin and being almost sure that Pip was of "a bad set of fellows" although he had scarcely known Pip for two minutes.
In Victorian England, people are assigned to a class, depending on their education, social status, or income. In his novels, Charles Dickens comments about the abuses in Victorian England, such as economics and social class. “Throughout the life of Pip, he is constantly exposed to characters that vary greatly in both characters and social class.” (Zhou). Joe Gargery is a member of a working class, having no education and works as a blacksmith. Joe Gargery had pride being in the working class. Joe Gargery is the idea of the working class. Uncle Pumblechook represents the worst in middle class. Uncle Pumblechook is opinionated and hypocritical in Great ...
The time period called the Victorian Era was named after Queen Victoria who ruled from 1837 to 1901. (“Late Victorian Politics” 1). The Era lasted the duration of her reign. She was born in 1819 and crowned in 1837 (“Victorian Events” 1). Queen Victoria married Prince Albert who was her first cousin and had nine children (“Victorian Events” 1). At the age of 42, Prince Albert passed away (“Victorian Events” 2). The couple had only been married for 21 years. Consequently, she spends the rest of her coronation single. Celebrations of her reign occur in 1887 and 1897; they were called the Golden Jubilee and the Diamond Jubilee, respectively (“Victorian Events” 4-5). In 1901, Queen Victoria passed away at the age of 82 (“Victorian Events” 5). The prosperous Victorian Era consisted of a monarchy, three divisions of social class, inequality between men and women, dynamic clothing, different ways to relax, influential inventions, and significant events.
The novel, Hard Times by Charles Dickens revolves around the central idea of English society, including the social, economical, and political issues during the mid 19th century. Fact superior to imagination is one of the main themes of this novel, apparent mainly in book one. Mr. Gradgrind raises his children to ignore their imaginations and anything that is not cold hard fact. For example, Louisa, his daughter, in particular tends to question this rationalism with her curiosity about the circus. There are countless examples in which Mr. Gradgrind bestows his “wisdom” on both his children, and students in the education system located in Coketown. The way Mr. and Mrs. Gradgrind raised their children, described by Dickens, parallels the way in which John Stuart Mill was raised by his own parents in London during the 19th century. John, similarly to Louisa, was educated with the idea that any of his own imagination or creativity was wrong. His parents would burn toys in front of him, emulating the idea that any object or concept that brings happiness is simply wrong. His father, Sir James Stuart Mill, also had a major impact on Mill’s childhood and even manhood. The majority of his infancy was centered on education, and the thought that hard-core knowledge was the solution to any conflict. During this time, his father would make him read Greek and Latin classics to ensure that he were prepared for disciplinary jobs in the future. Through this childhood of fact, and purely fact, along with a lack of moral influences instituted in his life, constituted Mill to become an advocate for utilitarianism. This theory was proposed by Jeremy Bentham who was indeed Mill’s family friend and tutor, emphasizing the idea of maximizing happiness and ...
Throughout Great Expectations, Charles Dickens's attitudes toward crime and punishment differ greatly from his real-life views. Dickens, according to Phillip Collins in Dickens and Crime, "had strong and conflicting feelings about criminals" (1), which explains why he was known to refer to criminals as both "irreclaimable wretches" and "creatures of neglect" (33). The author's contradictions toward crime stem from the fact that Dickens was constantly torn between his childhood memories of prison and poverty and the legal training he gained as an adult. According to Robert Coles in "Charles Dickens and Crime":