Artificial Social Division

The novel Evelina by Frances “Franny” Burney was first published anonymously because during the time period that this novel was written, women such as Franny held opinions that weren’t important…er, wait, I meant women in Franny’s social class weren’t supposed to interject in literary circles –no I don’t think that’s right either…

Burney's Class Motivations

Satirically laced commentary like above is found in Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World. Evelina soon finds that the “higher” class of people that she meets throughout the novel aren’t much superior than others. The men attempt to seduce her, there are feuds in her family between her mother’s relatives and her father and who deserves what and is entitled to which inheritance. Essentially, people fight for money, power, and sex.

Verga's Reality of Poverty

Serendipitously, I was reading an Italian anthology of short stories by Giovanni Verga published in the 19^th century while reading Evelina. Verga follows the impoverished Sicilian people in southern Italy and thematic elements of these stories were the same; the fight for money, power, and sex.

From the high society living of Evelina to Verga’s representation of poverty, I think the question that I wonder is: Why is there tension between social classes if they are founded on the same basic human 

nature?

Our Modern Financial Division 

Modern research shows that this tension still exists! I remember when the finicial crisis of 2007/2008 destroyed my parent’s personal business and left them depressed, anxious and scared. They were looked down on because they no longer had the small fortune that was providing for their large family. In an attempt to identify the psychology and stigma of social division, researchers Miguel Moya and Susan Fiske outlined the negative social impact the Great Recession had on American social class in an article titled “The Social Psychology of the Great Recession and Social Class Divides.”

I’ll let you read the article on your own time but it proves that social class tension still interferes with individual progression today, even with the same innate nature.

As written in Evelina, “the right line of conduct is the same for both sexes [and classes], though the manner in which it is pursued may somewhat vary, and be accommodated to the strength or weakness of the different travellers.”

Image Credit: Homeless New York  and High Class Lady (Public Domain Images via Wikimedia Commons)