Social Class of Victorian England
Research Task: Attitudes and values relating to the Social ClassThe social classes in the book, Pygmalion, are presented as a very rigid and distinctive system. Bernard Shaw's renowned play presents a wide variety of conformist values based upon the Victorianism of that era. Though classes in the past were much more widespread and valued than at present, this was because society had not reached a sufficient state of its own knowledge, understanding and advancement in comparison to the now modern pop cultural era, in other words, more socialist-based in regard to broader perspectives and deeper awareness on society inducing such actions like Human Rights Acts. The sources provided here encompassed a wide range of rich literal interpretations of society in different time allocations, many of which were also produced in varying lifestyles and locations as well. The sources presented here generally showed the gradual deterioration of the rigid social class system. Shaw's 'Pygmalion' is based on a classical myth in Ovid's 'Metamorphosis'. A man named Pygmalion is drawn away from the women in his society as they afflicted his sense of femineity. As a result, he choses to live alone where he creates in his view the most perfect
woman in the form of a statue, Galatea. Greed and power in those times completely determined who gained and who lost. These ways could be not only complementary, but also noticeably divergent. As always, the appearance contradicts the substance, for the critique of order and class in their more complex forms had been gaining momentum for some time before the 1960s. These particular historical figures demonstrate the refinement of society with the abolition of classes as outlined in the book Inequality and Stratification: Race, Class and Gender. These conditions can be intrinsically entwined with the notions presented by the structural social class in Pygmalion. 'Social order' and 'class' are near obsolete terms nowadays in both societal contemporary meanings and contexts. In Shaw's Victorian rendition of this allegory, he exposes the inadequacy of myth and romance. It is evident in 'Pygmalion' and 'Metamorphosis' that feminism is the most prominent form portraying the classes in society as well as the values and attitudes towards it and further ideas generated from it. A reason for this was because anyone who questioned the system would have been outcast by the upper class who wished to maintain power and influence. The stiff barriers between each social class were looked at a different angle by Shaw, he saw them as being able be broken through as suggested with the half-hearted manner in which Higgins and Pickering wagered with each other about the outcome of Eliza's transformation. As always with social categories, the difficulties in discussing the composition of an order or a class become the more apparent the closer one approaches its confines. Examples could be taken from the medieval times when the presence of classes and social division was most prominent; life then, was viewed in a less significant light than now.
Common topics in this essay:
Social Stratification,
Edwardian England,
Rights Acts,
Higgins Pickering,
Shaw's Victorian,
Bernard Shaw's,
Socialist Shaw,
Marxism Capitalism,
Edwardian Era,
Pygmalion Social,
social class,
social categories,
social classes,
class system,
lower class,
upper class,
soviet union,
wide range,
historical figures,
outlined book,
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Acceptance Essays
