Poverty + The Working Class

Poverty + The Working Class

1. Context

   • Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by different breeding, are fed by different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws ... THE RICH AND THE POOR.
   • Victorian society did not recognize that there was a lower class. 'The Poor' were invisible. Those members of England who worked as chimney sweeps, ratcatchers, or spent their days in factories had no place in the echelon of the upper class, although their services would be needed from time to time. The prevailing attitude was that the poor deserved the way they lived. If good moral choices had been made, the poor wouldn't be living the way they did. The best way for society to deal with the poor was to ignore them. They were 'burdens on the public'.

2. Quotes

   • Prose
     • 'Are they not all human beings, with the same qualities and power? And with the same interests in being happy?'
     • Written by Frederick Engles, in the Condition of the Working Class in England.
     • Technique- Rhetorical Question.
   • Drama
     • 'If you throw bread at the poor, it is merely to keep them quiet for the season'.
     • Spoken by Hester in A Woman Of No Importance, against the other women.
     • Technique- Satirical / Upper Class tone.
   • Poetry
     • 'Poverty leads to loss of morals in order to survive'.
     • Spoken by the maid in 'The Ruined Maid' when referring to prostitution.
     • THEME