Right now the world is full of hatred, war, and disrespect, but it has not always been this
way. During the reign of Queen Victoria, people learned how to control themselves and get
along with one another; this is called the Victorian Era. The Victorian Era is known for being a
time of peace and serenity, but also a time that transformed a culture. Although our own
generation has come a long way culturally, we still use some of the same ideas from the
Victorian Era.
During this time period especially, people’s social status defined who they were and their
capabilities. For instance, if you worked a “hard-labor” job you’d be considered the “working
class.” The working class was mistreated, had poor working conditions and they were paid low
wages. On top of all that they were not allowed to participate in any political affairs and typically
were not the most skilled workers. Therefore, they did not often get promoted to a higher ranking
job. The most popular of the social classes was the rapidly expanding “middle class.” The middle
class workers were the ones that had the opportunity to grow their wealth and status. It was this
group who established the Trade or Labor Unions. The Trade Union allowed the middle class to
improve working conditions, health benefits, and pay. These changes allowed the middle class to
increase their social status and become more easily identified with the “upper class.” The minute
group of people that composed the
The upper, middle, and lower class. The upper class streamed from the aristocrats of earlier time periods. The middle and lower classes were the working classes. The middle class however had jobs with better pay, a better standard of living ,and better sanitation then the lower class but still had struggles with day to day necessities. The lower class were very poor and had difficult lives. Many children worked in the lower class. This relates to A Brave New World as the lower classes were not focused on in society very often, and had difficult jobs and less access to resources from their conception, this caused the lower classes to in general have low
During World War one, the United States Navy Recruiting Bureau, and the United States Treasury Department each commissioned posters featuring women who encouraged citizens to participate in the war effort. The two posters, despite being intended for the same purpose, depict women in particularly contrasting light. Analysis of the contrasting war posters can help illustrate society’s perspective about women during the early 1900’s, their expected roles pertaining to the war effort, the strategies used to engage citizens and encourage them to become involved, and the use of imagery and symbolism that were used to achieve the posters’ objective.
* The middle class lay in the middle and was the group of people in society that had bigger better houses on their own block of land and were quite well off when it came to money and resources.
Three groups that were affected by the Industrialization were middle and lower class, African Americans, and women rights. Middle and lower class workers were affected by Industrialization because the growth of the middle class had expanded, and professional employment had increased, but the lower class was the victims of the industrialization because the assembly line took a lot of the jobs of a lot of workers (Gilder Lehrman Institute, 2009). Another example of the middle and lower class is Union labor groups defend workers because employers just viewed workers as cost of production then regular individuals. That’s when the
rules of life set up for them. The workers left when they made enough to
The wage-earning class was the debtors, debtors who owed money and had to work to make a living for creditors, most of whom made up what would be known as the middle class. The tradition of fathers passing their land on down to their sons was slowly dying such as with Mayo Greenleaf Patch and his sons. Mayo Patch’s life was riddled with owing debts to the middle
forced to work harder to make a living. Often times, the work the lower classmen are forced to
The Working class that made up around 80% of society had little or no bargaining power with their employers resulting in the continuation of unfair working hours, bad wages, and unsanitary and hazardous working conditions. The workers could not even fight for their rights in the political system as only the rich were eligible to vote.
“The working class was divided into various subgroups and categories, determined in this case by skill, wages, gender, and workplace.” (Coffin and Stacey. Western Civilizations.) The places people were working at were atrocious.
The need for a second, less class of citizenry to work is essential and they are referred to by Marx as the labour, Proletariats, or the working class. The working class exists to run the means of production, and they must sell their labour-power to the owning class in order to sustain themselves. Their skills are their only true ‘value’ in the alienated minds of the capitalists. The worker is limited with what they have to offer the capitalist and that is themselves and their individual skills as a commodity.
Although the relationship between the classes was based highly on economic standards set by society, Marx described the class relationships as social exploitation rather than an object of the labor market.5 Marx’s class relationship is described “in these two ways the worker becomes a slave to his object: firstly he receives an object of labor, that is he receives labor, and secondly, he receives the means of subsistence.”6 Marx believed that the Bourgeoisie would eventually lose its power to the working class, which would rebel against its exploitation and eventually bring about the creation of a middle class.
Anthony Giddens (2006) defines class as “a large-scale group of people who share common economic resources, which strongly influence the type of lifestyle they are able to lead.” (pg 300). Karl Marx, a sociologist in the 19th
Karl Marx, a German philosopher, saw this inequality growing between what he called "the bourgeoisie" and "the proletariat" classes. The
Karl Marx describes “Society as a whole [as being] more and more [split] up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other-bourgeoisie and proletariat” (Marx 124). As Marx made his distinction between upper class, bourgeoisie, and lower class, proletariats, it is important to keep in mind the societal structure at the time. To understand how classes were created and the disparity between the rich and poor, or, bourgeoisie and proletariat, it is necessary to examine how people came to be rich and poor. Exploring a time before money existed will help us to process and understand reasons why the binary between rich and poor exists and how it is reflective of low and high art distinctions.
The beginning of the Victorian Period marked when Queen Victoria ascended the British throne in 1837 for 64 years until her death in 1901. She was only 18 years old when she was queen of England. In this era, there was a time when England had political stability and strict cultural patterns. Peace among the society in England was characterized by this era. There was a control in the way that people act and interact due to the cultural rules that needed to be followed. However, people in the British Empire appreciated having the consistency of having one ruler for such a long time. In addition, people lived in villages and worked on the land in the time of this period. At the same time, there were a lot significant changes. For instance, there