The Victorian Age saw the development of intricate social classes. These social classes did not just hang over people’s heads, but was an important part of life in the Victorian Age. The classes continued to develop, and distinct classes began to show. The upper, middle, and lower class all emerged, with each class based on their income and style of living (Cody). The classes began to build feelings on one another. The lower class was left out of positions of power, while the upper class controlled most of everything. The upper class kept the lower class down by saying that they were causing their own demise by going against the system. Charles Dickens adds these differences in his books and shows the leisure and the despair of the upper and lower class. This paper will show that as the upper and lower class developed, attitudes between them sprung up to show the difference between their life-styles and how the lower class wanted to break free while the upper wanted to remain in control.
The upper class lived their lives in a luxurious way. They had large amounts of money they could do what they wanted with. Many of them hired maids, caretakers, or other people for around-the-house needs. These people were the lower working class who needed money to take care of their family. Most of the maids and helpers who did chores were lower class women coming after doing many other chores at their own homes (Wojtzcak). The upper class still showed ignorance to their underpaid, hard-working helping hands (Geroux). Ellen Geroux adds, “Little understanding, or desire to understand the needs of the working class existed.” The attitudes between the classes spurred from the upper class's lack of understanding. The upper class cont...
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... the current system. In Ellen Geroux’s “Upper-Class Ignorance of Worker’s Condition-The Evidence of The Illustrated London News,” she points out the articles from the newspaper about the working class and makes conclusions based on them, claiming that, “Therefore the workers who strike, those who are not content to continue in the present system, cause their own defeat.” The upper class is supporting their own system by blaming those who try to rise above it. The upper class used these newspapers as almost “propaganda” to reinforce their system and to help themselves profit (Geroux).
Works Cited
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/work/burnett1.html
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/gaskell/61n_s1.html
http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/wojtczak/living.html
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/slums.html
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/Class.html
The intent of “The Dispossessed” is to convince the audience that the working class still
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