The Relationship between Literature and Society

Britain also changed in agriculture and industry that increased the wealth of the country. Industrial revolution brought new technology in agriculture and industry. Kemp states that “Britain was the pioneer industrial country, the classic theatre for the transformation of a traditional agrarian economy into an urban society based on machine technology” 1969: 1 Industrial Revolution that increased the wealth of the country changed the social condition at that time. Industrial Revolution brought new factions in society, such as the bourgeois. At that time, England was a commercial country. It remained intensely aristocratic and gain a differences in social status. The richest landowners were welthier than ever and lived in great state in the country houses and they were the most powerfull class in the country. On the other hand, the labors and the workers were paid badly and lived in the miserable condition Dartford, 1949: 5 According to the The New Encyclopedia Britannica Vol. XVI, social classes in Britain were devided into three. Here are the explanations. a. The Upper class The upper class people or the aristocrats are the richest and highest class that had much influence upon economic, political military and intellectual policies. They worked in the government, navy, army and church. People from this class had the best houses, food, clothes, education, and entertainment. They enjoyed music and theater in the luxurious hall. Their child went to high quality schools that built specially for the richest class. 1983: 949. b. The Middle class The middle class mainly defined in terms of occupation, unlike the other classes. They worked in various levels of clerical workers, in technical and profesional occupation, suervisors and managers, farmers, self-employed workers, etc. 1983: 949. Christian Educational morality was reaffirmed and preached tirelessly by the middle class society. They like gambling, drinking, sexual purity, and fidelity. Young men and women were watched intensly by their parents, although for young men it was not vigilantly done. 1983: 949-950. c. The Lower Class The Working Class About four to fifty percent of the society belong to the working class. The working class were people who their life depend on physical labor and who did not employ domestic servant. They were lack of property and associated relatively with low level of living and education. Its just a few of children of this class who entered to higher education. 1983: 949-950. From all classes, the upper class were the one who could get better life and education. The members of the nobility and wealthy class had privat tutors and the public schools. By the 19 th century many of these schools had became means of upward mobility for the middle-classes. This middle-classes wished to move their children into aristocracy. Schools concern to producing gentlements with ability in economic, political and technological. Abrams, 1962:930