The criticism on upper class` attitudes towards social stratification in victorian era through Frederick Fairlie`s characterization in Wilkie Collins` The Woman in White.

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THE CRITICISM ON UPPER CLASS’
ATTITUDES TOWARDS SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN
VICTORIAN ERA THROUGH FREDERICK FAIRLIE’S
CHARACTERIZATION IN WILKIE COLLINS’ THE WOMAN IN
WHITE
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters

By:
HARIO ADI NUGROHO
Student Number: 064214030

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013

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THE CRITICISM ON UPPER CLASS’
ATTITUDES TOWARDS SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN
VICTORIAN ERA THROUGH FREDERICK FAIRLIE’S
CHARACTERIZATION IN WILKIE COLLINS’ THE WOMAN IN
WHITE
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters

By:
HARIO ADI NUGROHO
Student Number: 064214030

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013
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Enough is enough. Life is good when you are many things.

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I tremble for my beloved. For my beloved ones it is.
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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN ORISINALITAS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama

: Hario Adi Nugroho

Nomor Induk Mahasiswa

: 064214030

menyatakan bahwa sebagai penyusun karya ilmiah yang berjudul The Criticism on
Upper Class’ Attitudes towards Social Stratification in Victorian Era through
Frederick Fairlie’s Characterization in Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White,
saya bertanggung jawab penuh atas keaslian gagasan-gagasan yang tertuang dalam
bentuk kata, kalimat, dan paragraf dalam karya ilmiah ini. Segala ide yang bukan
berasal dari hasil pemikiran saya sendiri telah saya rujuk pada sumber atas referensi
terkait.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.

Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal 2 Agustus 2013
Yang menyatakan,

Hario Adi Nugroho

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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH
UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertandatangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama

: Hario Adi Nugroho

Nomor Mahasiswa

: 064212030

demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah yang berjudul The Criticism on Upper
Class’ Attitudes towards Social Stratification in Victorian Era through
Frederick Fairlie’s Characterization in Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada).
Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Sanata Dharma hak untuk
menyimpan, mengalihkan ke dalam bentuk media lain, mengolahnya dalam bentuk
pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di
internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta izin atau
memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai
penulis.
Demikian surat pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal 2 Agustus 2013

Yang menyatakan,

Hario Adi Nugroho
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To begin with, I would like to express my gratitude to the One whose hands
are both invisible and invincible; I cannot show it all with only ‘thanks’, so I would
make this moment, a moment of silence (whoever reading this page, is to make use
the moment to endure this instant to submit prayers of any kind).
I would like to give my gratitude to my advisor, Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani, S.
S., M. Hum., for the unfathomed patient, as well as for the precious advices and

guidance. To my co-advisor, Dra. A. B. Sri Mulyani, M. A., Ph. D., my gratitude also
goes, due to the correction as it also was a pump to my spirit days before the thesis
defense. I would also like to give my gratitude to Dewi Widyastuti, S. Pd., M. Hum.,
for asking great questions and keep thrusting me with a ‘nothing-compare-to’ density
to show the wrongs I made in the thesis.
To all the lecturers in English Letters Faculty, I cannot give any specialization
or exception to any certain one, for you all have helped me living and passing the
‘moment’ during my study in Sanata Dharma University; thank you. To the officers
in the ‘secretary room’, I thank you for the smiles and warmth during the
administration process.
To all my friends who have found me in “Jalinan AKrab SAstra”, I am
grateful to be dug up from the ‘immobilizing mud’. To my comrades both in “Media
Sastra” and “Sesi Pertunjukan”, I thank you all for the pleasures and the findings in
the moment of ‘learning’. To “Sekar Jepun” Community, I thank you for the
technical-crew-recruitments in some of the performances held in Sanata Dharma
University. To “Mentes” grocery store and my aunt Rini who runs it, I thank you for
reminding me the meaning of ‘to work my arse-off to get what I want’.
I would like to thank Ibank, Damar, Yocenk, Victor, Ohsi, Kenan, and Adul
for the ‘selo-tivity’ available every time I step afoot on the doorsteps of ‘our’ small
houses; to Dita-Koka-Oda and Aya for the invitations to recreation which (mostly)

cannot be rejected or even ignored. To Kak Tomo, I thank you for showing me how
beautiful a stage could be with the hard-team-work of the technical-crews behind it.
To my have-founded-sister, Widi, I thank you for being present. You were a
walkthrough; I hope you still will be.
Last but not least, to my parents (Haryanto Wiryo Harjono and Endang Tutie
Widyawatie), my gratitude is nothing compare to your love and devotion towards me
and my brothers. I hope to be a better son for you.
viii

Hario Adi Nugroho

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE.............................................................................................
APPROVAL PAGE…………………………………………………….....
ACCEPTANCE PAGE…………………………………………………...
MOTTO PAGE……………………………………………………………
DEDICATION PAGE…………………………………………………….
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN ORISINALITAS........................................
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA
ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS……………………..
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………
TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………….
ABSTRAK..................................................................................................

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION…………………………………………
A. Background of Study………………………………………...........
B. Problem Formulation………………………………………………
C. Objective of Study…………………………………………………
D. Definition of Terms………………………………………………..

1
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CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW……………………………..
A. Review of Related Study………………………………………….
B. Review of Related Theory………………………………………...
1. Theory on Character and Characterization……………….
2. Theory on Status and Class Stratification………………..
3. Theory on Symbolic Boundary…………………………..
C. Review on Victorian Era and Its Upper Class……………………
1. The Social Background of Victorian Era………………...
2. Upper Class’ Attitudes towards Social Stratification……
a. Conspicuous Leisure…………………………………
b. In Group Marriage……………………………………
c. (Excessive) Superiority………………………………
d. Individualism…………………………………………
D. Theoretical Framework……………………………………………

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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY……………………………………..
A. Objective of the Study…………………………………………….
B. Approach of the Study……………………………………………
C. Method of the Study………………………………………………

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CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS………………………………………………
A. Frederick Fairlie’s Characterization………….. ………………….

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1. Conspicuous in Living……………………………………
2. Having a Positive Notion
toward In-group Marriage………………………………...
3. Arrogant…………………………………………………..
4. Secluded……………………………………………..........
5. Irresponsible………………………………………...........
B. Representation of Victorian Upper Class’ Attitudes
towards Social Stratification………………………………............
1. A Conspicuous Leisure Style of Life…………………….
2. A State of Agreement on In-Group Marriage……………
3. A Snobbery or Excessive Superiority
towards Lower Class Individuals…………………..........
4. A Secluded Life as A Form of Individualism…………...
C. Criticism on Victorian Upper Class’ Attitudes
towards Social Stratification. ……………………………………..
1. Conspicuous in Living…………………………………….
2. Having a Positive Notion towards In-group Marriage……
3. Arrogant…………………………………………………...
4. Secluded and Irresponsible……………………………….
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION...............................................................
BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................
APPENDIX..............................................................................................

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ABSTRACT
HARIO ADI NUGROHO. The Criticism on Upper Class’ Attitudes Towards
Social Stratification in Victorian Era through Frederick Fairlie’s
Characterization in Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White. Yogyakarta:
Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2013.
Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White is a suspense novel of which story is
coordinated on Walter Hartright’s tale in struggling for his love, Laura Fairlie’s
striving for her life, and Marian Halcombe accompanying them both through sadness
and joy. This study concentrates its analysis on Frederick Fairlie, Laura Fairlie’s
uncle, as he is significant to the status and class related problem in the story. He was
a part of Victorian upper class society. In the novel, he demonstrated the ways of
living which were regarded as degrading the characteristics of a nobleman—a man
with a noble rank—which was supposed to be honored by their noble actions through
his ignoble characteristics; therefore, he degraded the substance of being a gentleman.
There are three problems formulated in this thesis. The first problem is how
Frederick Fairlie is characterized in the story. The second problem is how the upper
class’ attitudes towards social stratification in Victorian era is represented by
Frederick Fairlie’s characterization. The last problem is about the criticism on upper
class’ attitudes towards social stratification in the era which is revealed through
Frederick Fairlie’s characterization.
The approach applied in this thesis is sociocultural-historical approach. The
method used in this thesis is library research. The primary data were taken from the
novel, Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White. The other data were taken from books,
journal, and references dealing with this thesis.
The result of this study shows the criticism on upper class’ attitudes towards
social stratification in Victorian era which is veiled in Frederick Fairlie’s
characterization. He is characterized as a nobleman who is willing to do anything to
monopolize his leisure time, as in this case it represented the non-material resources
which were normally fought for by the upper class society in the social stratification
system like in the Victorian era. The upper class society made use of the social
stratification system in the era to benefit their selves in monopolizing the resources
provided by it. As the consequence, the lower classes had been barred from accessing
the resources. The method used by the upper class society in barring the resources is
similar to the method used by Frederick Fairlie to secure his leisure time, including
the fact that he had to make the people that were supposed to be dear to him suffered.
People around Frederick Fairlie were suffering because of him, so was the lower class
society suffering from upper class’ attitudes towards the social stratification in
Victorian era.
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ABSTRAK
HARIO ADI NUGROHO. The Criticism on Upper Class’ Attitudes Towards
Social Stratification in Victorian Era through Frederick Fairlie’s
Characterization in Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White. Yogyakarta: Jurusan
Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2013.
The Woman in White berkiblat pada Walter Hartright dengan perjuangan atas
cintanya, Laura Fairlie dengan perjuangan bertahan hidupnya, dan Marian Halcombe
yang menemani mereka dalam suka dan duka. Tapi, studi ini berkonsentrasi pada
analisis terhadap karakterisasi Frederick Fairlie, paman dari Laura Fairlie, karena
karakter ini berhubungan dengan masalah status dan kelas dalam cerita. Ia adalah
bagian dari kelompok masyarakat kelas atas di era Victoria. Dalam novel ini, ia
mendemonstrasikan gaya hidup yang dipandang telah menurunkan nilai daripada
karakteristik seorang ningrat—seseorang yang berderajat tinggi—yang seharusnya
terpandang juga tingkah dan lakunya; jadi Frederick Fairlie telah menodai arti dirinya
sebagai seseorang yang terpandang.
Ada tiga permasalahan yang dirumuskan dalam skripsi ini. Masalah pertama
yaitu bagaimana Frederick Fairlie dikarakterisasikan dalam novel. Masalah yang
yang kedua ialah bagaimana sikap masyarakat kelas atas terhadap stratifikasi sosial di
era Victoria direpresentasikan oleh karakterisasi Frederick Fairlie. Masalah yang
ketiga adalah tentang kritik Wilkie Collins yang tertuju pada sikap masyarakat kelas
atas terhadap stratifikasi sosial di era Victoria yang diungkapkan melalui karakterisasi
Frederick Fairlie.
Skripsi ini menggunakan pendekatan sosiokultural-historis. Metode yang
digunakan dalam skripsi ini adalah studi pustaka. Jadi, data utama yang digunakan
dalam skripsi ini diperoleh dari novel The Woman in White karangan Wilkie Collins.
Data-data lainnya diambil dari buku-buku, jurnal-jurnal, dan referensi lain yang
berhubungan dengan skripsi ini.
Hasil studi menunjukkan bahwa kritik yang ditujukan pada sikap masyarakat
kelas atas terhadap stratifikasi sosial di era Victoria diungkapka oleh pengarang lewat
karakterisasi Frederick Fairlie. Karakter ini dikarakterisasikan sebagai seorang
ningrat yang siap melakukan apapun untuk memonopolisir waktu luangnya, yang
pada kasus ini merepresentasikan sumber daya non-material yang diperjuangkan oleh
kelompok masyrakat kelas atas dalam sistem stratifikasi sosial seperti dalam era
Victoria. Kelompok masyarakat ini menggunakan sistem tersebut untuk menguasai
sumberdaya yang tersedia untuk keuntungan kelompok mereka sendiri.
Konsekuensinya, kelompok masyarakat kelas bawah kesulitan untuk mengakses
sumberdaya tersebut. Frederick Fairlie telah membuat orang yang seharusnya penting
dalam hidupnya menderita; seperti halnya masyarakat kelas bawah yang menderita
akibat sikap masyarakat kelas atas terhadap stratifikasi sosial di era Victoria.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study
Status is a term that is appropriate to describe social stratification in British
medieval society (1200-1500). It refers to social grouping into the nobility, the clergy
and the commoners. Preceding the term class, status is taken directly from the Latin
status meaning ‘standing’, ‘position’, and ‘condition’. However, according to Gary
Day in Class, these two terms are related intimately, that of class refers to economic
grouping in the social stratification (2001: 9).
Medieval society saw people in terms of their functions and duties, rather than
their being and their qualities. It strengthens the appropriateness of the application of
the term ‘status’ that it was acquired through lineage, blood; and it refers to
aristocracy of the medieval society. It was not of the quality as a human being which
was judged to stratify and put them on the top layer of the society, but it was of their
ancestral duties. (Day, 2001: 28)
In Britain: Yesterday and Today, 1830 to the Present, Walter L. Arnstein
explained that later after 1500, the rise of the bourgeoisie had made a big time
transition from feudalism to capitalism, through the display of the dominant
appearance of effort over a birth-based social position. It was then that the term class
was known throughout the society, which refers to a stratification of the society based
on the economic achievement through the individual ability to gain social position

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through financial approach. Thus, Victorian society in the 19th century can be
considered as class society, but the remains of the nobility still existed in the era
(1966: 69-76).
According to Arnstein, Britain in the reign of Queen Victoria was engulfed by
the growing condition of the industrial development in the mid-Victorian era. It is
started by the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all nations which took
place in London in 1851. In 1856, Henry Bessemer announced the development of
the first process of making steel inexpensively. It then continued by the boom in
shipbuilding and shipping industries went hand in hand with an expansion of trade. In
only 25 years from 1842, the market value of British exports had increased by 282 %.
All of those are the evidences that during the Victorian era the class struggle was in
tension and still continuously growing independently, and it is the proof to ascertain
the writer of this thesis that Victorian society is a class society. There was also
agricultural prosperity, but it should not be exclusively added as the class prosperity.
It is true that the land gave an Englishman social status, but its financial value lay less
in agriculture. The owner of the land who were the aristocrats, were gaining
prosperity, while the worker subordinated by the landowner stayed the same. In other
words, it was one of the causes of the popularity dropping of the high status society in
Victorian era (Arnstein, 1966: 69-76).
The Woman in White was written by Wilkie Collins who was born in London
on January 8th, 1824. He was the son of a Royal Academician, William Collins, who

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was also a painter. Since he became an educated person at Highbury at the age of
twelve, he wrote his memories of the place he had visited which became his first
historical novel while working as a clerk in a tea warehouse in London. He then
moved up in the world after being called upon by the Bar in Lincoln’s Inn in 1851,
but declined it all along. His next work was the Memoirs of the life of William
Collins, R. A., which was written meanwhile after his father died, and was published
in the following year (Collins, 1903: 9). Throughout the years after, he then actively
writing all of his works; some works accompanied by Charles Dickens in the name of
endless friendship and literature itself.
The Woman in White is Wilkie Collins’ ninth work of prose, published in
1860 and generalized as a detective novel as well as given the genre suspense by the
society reading it. It is a story of a man struggling for his love, a woman striving for
her life, and a friend as well as a sister faithfully accompanying her beloved people
through sadness and joy. Unfortunately, Frederick Fairlie as the character analyzed in
this thesis and object of satirical characterization of the author of the novel is not one
of the characters briefly described above. Frederick Fairlie, Esq. is a character who
can be placed in the novel as both antagonist and protagonist. He is not really related
to the law-based conflict in the story, but he is significant to the status and class
related problem in the story. Frederick Fairlie, Esquire, the name remind us of the
status which was popular in the medieval era. Esquire is a title popularly given to
nobility just below a knight, in the late 1200-1500s. In The Woman in White, the high

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status society filled with the same rank as Esquire, still has a place in the society.
Frederick Fairlie, Esq. was a special character created by the author to display the
profile of the pure Englishman with a high status in a class society in Victorian era,
apart from the other gentleman-sort-of characters in the story like Count Fosco who
was a foreign gentleman and Percival Glyde who held the title ‘Sir’ not by nature, but
through illegal set-up. In this novel, Frederick Fairlie also demonstrated the ways of
living of an upper class society which were regarded as degrading the characteristics
of a nobleman, a man with a noble rank, which was supposed to be honored by their
noble actions, through his ignoble characteristics; therefore he degraded the substance
of being a gentleman. For this reason, the writer of the thesis chooses The Woman in
White, as the object of the study and Frederick Fairlie as the main character which
would be analyzed in this study.

B. Problem Formulation
To analyze the criticism on Victorian upper class’ attitudes towards social
stratification, the problems are formulated and sorted as follows:
1. How is Frederick Fairlie characterized?
2. How are the upper class society’s attitudes towards social stratification in the
Victorian era represented by the characterization of Frederick Fairlie?

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3. What is the criticism on the upper class society’s attitudes towards social
stratification in the Victorian era as revealed through Frederick Fairlie’s
characterization?

C. The Objectives of the Study
The objective of this study is to bring out the criticism on upper class’
attitudes towards social stratification in Victorian era through the characterization of
Frederick Fairlie from within his novel, The Woman in White. To achieve the
objective of this study, the writer will firstly try to analyze the characterization of
Frederick Fairlie, then go on with the attempt to find out how he represented the
upper class society. The objective of the study is to be completed by discovering the
criticism on the upper class’ attitudes towards the social stratification in Victorian era
veiled in the characterization of Frederick Fairlie within his novel.

D. Definition of Terms
1. Criticism
According to M. H. Abrams in his Glossary of Literary Terms 9th Edition,
criticism, or more specifically literary criticism, is the term in general for studies
concerns with defining, classifying, analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating works of
literature (2009: 61). In the matter of action, it is an act to criticize a certain value.

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2. Social Stratification
According to Dictionary of Sociology and Related Sciences, social
stratification means the arrangement of societal elements into groups on different
horizontal levels. It is the establishment of status on terms of varying superiority and
inferiority (Fairchild, 1970: 293).
3. Characterization
In his A Glossary of Literary Terms (Ninth Edition), M. H. Abrams defines
‘characterization’ as a method for establishing the distinctive characteristics on
characters in a literary work (2009: 42 – 44).

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CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Review of Related Studies
In this thesis, the writer analyzes one of Wilkie Collins’ novels, The Woman
in White. This part contains the related studies that deal with Collins’ The Woman in
White. To enrich the writer’s knowledge in understanding the novel, several studies
are presented below.
According to www.wilkie-collins.info, the title of the novel became the ‘label’
for many commodities produced in the late of 1860, such as “Woman in White”
cloaks and bonnets, “Woman in White” perfumes and all manners of toilet requisites,
“Woman in White” Waltzes and Quadrilles. Again, Edward Fitzgerald also named a
sailing boat after Marian Halcombe, a determined woman character in the novel. The
popularity of The Woman in White is no doubt a credit for Wilkie Collins, as the
novel was regarded as the first Sensation Novel.
The story in the novel is based on condition during the nineteenth century of
Victorian era, of illegal seizure and unlawful imprisonment. The theme of the novel is
about substituted identity and the misuse of lunatic asylum. The seizure of Lady
Glyde or Laura Fairlie, named after her marriage with Percival Glyde, is conducted
by his own husband discreetly in order to claim a certain amount of money inherited
by the lady. The imprisonment of Anne Catherick, also by the cunning Percival
Glyde, into the lunatic asylum is one of the confusing plot in the novel which end up
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in the substituting identity between Laura Fairlie and Anne Catherick, as a perk of
identical appearance. Overall, the story ends by the reunion of the two lovers Laura
Fairlie and Walter Hartright, and the reclaiming of good clean name for Laura Fairlie
in the name of justice and legal law.
Arini Wulandari, in The Portrayal of Victorian Upper Class Society as
Revealed through the Characters in Henry James’s Daisy Miller, which is her
undergraduate thesis, portrayed the upper class society in Victorian era through the
characters. She said that the manner and behavior of the objective characters of the
thesis are influenced by the culture of upper European society (2008: x).
In her undergraduate thesis, A Satire on Social Class and Gender in Victorian
Society Reflected through the Main Characters in J. M. Barrie’s The Twelve-Pound
Look, Naris Eka Setyawati described the satirical view of the author towards the
Victorian society in relation with its ideal social class and gender. Barrie satirized the
upper class’ ambition, point of view on human value, and bad treatment towards the
lower class (2009: ix).
While Arini Wulandari portrayed the upper class society of Victorian era and
Naris Eka Setyawati described the satirical view towards the upper class society, the
writer of the current thesis is trying to analyze the upper class group in the class
society in the 19th during the Victorian era in order to reveal the criticism on the
upper class’ attitudes towards social stratification in Victorian era. So, this
undergraduate thesis will be much different from the former ones.

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B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theory on Character and Characterization
In A Glossary of Literary Terms (Ninth Edition), M. H. Abrams described:
Characters are the persons represented in a dramatic or narrative work,
who are interpreted by the reader as possessing particular moral,
intellectual, and emotional qualities by inferences from what the persons
say and their distinctive ways of saying it—the dialogue—and from
what they do—the action. (2009: 42)
The book also defined characterization as a method for establishing the
distinctive characteristics on characters in a literary work. The method is divided into
two kinds of establishments, namely by showing and telling. The showing method is
when the author lets the characters describe themselves through their acts and
behaviors. While the telling method is when the creator of the literary work
authoritatively intervening in order to describe yet often to evaluate the motives and
the personal qualities of the characters (2009: 42). Providently, the characterization
method used in the characteristics establishment in The Woman in White is the
showing method.
Character is one of the important elements in a novel. According to M. J.
Murphy, a reader is to regard a character as one of the human being in real life, so
that we are able to get to know characters in a novel like how we get to know people
in the real life. To gather the information of the person we want to know about from
the way he or she dresses, walks, looks, gestures, and so on. This knowledge is useful
for us in order to understand the way he/she acts at the present time. Below are the

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key points, by the author, provided to make a character understandable to and come
alive for the readers (1972: 161 – 173):
a. Character as Seen by Another
Here, the reader can absorb the knowledge of the character from the reflected
image given by another character, of course, in the current novel.
b. Speech
A clue to the knowledge of a certain character can be derived from whenever
the character speaks, having a conversation with another, and stating opinions
on something.
c. Conversation of Others
A character can be described through the things the other characters said
about him/her, for example when the other character converses with others.
d. Reactions
The reaction of a character towards a certain situation or statement can give us
clues about his/her personalities.
e. Thoughts
The author is like a God in his novel. He is able to tell the reader what the
character is thinking, and this is one of the ways the reader is able to read a
character

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f. Mannerisms
A habit may describe a person. This is beneficial for an author to explain
about a character to the readers.
2. Theory on Status and Class Stratification
The latin status meaning ‘standing’, ‘position’, or ‘condition’ (Day, 2001: 9).
Status group is an exclusive society with their strong sense of membership as to keep
the contact with the other group to a minimum (Weber, 1948: 191). The marking of
the exclusiveness is not only expressed through the privilege of wearing special
costume, eating special dishes, but also to be expressed through activities and
attitudes, making it more similar to culture, that it creates its own values different
from other groups. Its differentiation is based on social value.
According to Gary Day the word ‘class’ is defined to refer to divisions in
society (2001: 2). In Class, Day mentioned that the appearance of the word ‘class’ in
the mid-seventeenth century was associated to fundamental changes in economy and
their effect upon social relation (2001: 6). The foundation of this stratification is
economy. Since 1830, the class is divided into upper class, middle class, and working
class.
As terms in English, status and class are closely related, but they are
differentiated by fundamental aspects. As status pre-dates class, it is defined in terms
of communal actions. Groups that share the status differentiation have the same
values, style of life and their sense of group membership are strong, and that is why

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they keep the contact to each other status groups as minimal as they can (Weber,
1948: 181). But, class group is defined by the difference of a person’s ability to earn
high income, to purchase high quality goods, and to enjoy higher personal life
experience than the other class. In this logic, class situation is market situation
(Weber, 1948: 182). In Victorian era, which is based on class society, the group
which had the high family line such as the nobility was considered as the upper class
society. They have the characteristics of the high status society, but consisted in the
class-based society, so they have to adapt to the class stratification system.
3. Theory on Symbolic Boundary
This theory is to be applied in chapter four of this thesis to ease the
elaboration of the analysis. The boundary is made to differentiate one thing from the
others. In the matter of social concepts, a boundary is made between and/or among
social groups for a certain purpose, that is, monopoly of resources. Somehow, the
social differences created by the social boundary are artificially institutionalized. This
kind of boundary is called a symbolic boundary (Lamont, 2002: 168). The recent
study by Lamont found that the social boundaries made by the symbolic boundary are
manifested in the unequal access to and unequal distribution of resources (material
and non-material) and social opportunities. For example, the manifestation is in the
form of connubiality and commensality.
To differentiate social boundary and symbolic boundary, Lamont stated in
The Study of Social Boundaries in the Social Sciences that at a causal level, symbolic

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boundary is a necessary but sufficient condition for social boundary to exist. Social
boundary is the effect demanded by the upper class society by demonstrating the
symbolic boundary (2002: 169).
Lamont, as an illustration, explained the relationship between symbolic
boundary and social boundary through the example of class inequality reproduced in
the educational process. Because of the society’s familiarity to the culture of
dominant class, the educational process in the society gave negative effect towards
lower-class student. This negative effect was caused by the symbolic differences
manifested in the higher class student’s easy access to the educational resources that
resulted in their having extensive vocabulary, wide-ranging cultural references, and
command of high culture which are valued by the school system. While the upper
class students acquired this broad and easy access to the educational system, the
lower class students, as they were not aware of the hideous culture of dominant class,
suffered the self-blaming behavior for their failure which led them to giving up from
educational institution and more or less classified them to the lower prestige
educational tracks. The symbolic boundary is marked by the different amount of
access to the educational resources between of the upper class student and of the
lower class student. The social boundary is marked by the different level of
educational prestige that can be acquired between the upper class student and the
lower class student (2002: 172).

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Bourdieu and Passeron also added that the dominant group succeeded in
legitimizing their ways as superior to the lower classes through concealing the power
relations that are the basis of its force (1977: 4). The upper class society is aware of
its access to the material and/or non-material resources and monopolizing it in order
to be superior to the lower class society and maintaining this privilege to be
unrevealed or at least untouched by the other lower class, because somewhat this is a
kind of a benefit to their position in the society.
Lamont also stated that this symbolic boundary process cannot be separated
from the process of differentiation that aims to categorize society in smaller groups.
This process of differentiation is called collective identity (2002: 170). Another basis
of collective identity is to achieve superiority over an out-group society (Tajfel &
Turner, 1985: 16–17). Thus, for certain group with certain benefit under their position
in the society, this kind of differentiation process should be maintained to the fullest
in order to stabilize their standings in the society, for example, through marriage.

C. Review on Victorian Era and Its Upper Class
To have a better understanding of the upper class society in Victorian era, this
part of the thesis provides a brief description about social background of Victorian
era and the understanding of the attitudes of Victorian upper class towards the social
stratification. The information given in the first part is about the social background of
Victorian era, concentrating on describing the form of a class-based stratification.

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Then, the second part is about the upper class’ general characteristics, their attitudes
towards lower class, and their ways of living as the reflection, or as a mere
application, of their attitudes towards the lower class.
1. The Social Background of Victorian Era
Acknowledging David Cannadine’s statement which said as follows, “It was
hierarchy which remained for many people the natural, omnipresent, and timehonoured and divinely sanctioned way of seeing British society and understanding
their place within it”, Gary Day explained that it does not fit to say that a class-based
view of society superseded the feudal view of it (in Day, 2001: 115-116).
The basic social division of the era before the class society is still between
those who are ‘gentle‘ and those who are ‘common’. According to Henry Fielding
(1707-54) in his true-story based novel Jonathan Wild, people in the land of Britain is
divided under two divisions, those who use their hands and those that employ the
hands of others, and this statement creates a thinking that a growing awareness of
class is merely sculptured in the mind of the man of the era. It slowly generates the
conception of class in the society, along with the development of the industry in the
land. (1743: 12)
According to David Cannadine in Class in Britain, there are also people who
contemporarily think in terms of tripartite, the division is between the upper orders,
the middle ranks, and the rest. This is only the new form of the old structure, the

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traditional tripartite that consists of knights, priests, and labourers, and this is called
the great chain of being (Cannadine, 1998: 29).
Knight, baron, squire, esquire, lady, and of the sorts are in the one unity of
gentle man and woman, the highest status of the medieval society. In accordance with
Cannadine, the class based view of society does not completely supersedes the old
one, the status based view of society. The people from the upper sort blood lineage
still exist in the society with their inheritance of richness, title, and lifestyle. They still
hold their land where they employ the farm hands, who are called the lower or
working class, and bring their ‘culture’ in the business interactions with the rising
middling sort of the society, which is the bourgeoisie. But along with the increasing
wealth, influence, and power of the middling sort in this industrial society, the
traditional ideal of the gentleman has eroded, and also because of the buying and
selling of titles and offices in the seventeenth century. Thus, even Defoe, cited in
Cannadine’s Class in Britain, has made a phrase ‘a born gentleman or a bred
gentleman?’ (in Cannadine, 1998: 33).
According to William Otter’s opinion, cited in David Cannadine book’s Class
in Britain, an ideal social stratification lay in the ‘coherence and adaptation of its
several parts, by which many ranks of men, rising in orderly gradation, and melting
as it were into each other…compose together one solid, well compacted and
harmonious whole (1998: 62). In nineteenth century Victorian era, there was a change
of emphasis where class was determined by the relative position of groups within the

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industrial productive system; and this made the relationship between classes to be
more functional and antagonistic (Crossick, 1991: 153).
Industrialization led the society to individualism, and of course it could
plainly be seen in the life of the upper class because of their confidence towards their
sole independence from downward vertical social mobility as long as they could be
on top of the social strata; they would need no interaction with the filthy low class
individuals; leave them alone doing their job. Robert Owen stated that industrialism
changed the relations between employer and employee ‘to the consideration of what
immediate gain each could derive from the other’ (1816 & 1972: 69). In other words,
only the powerful that may gain the benefit from the other; only they who have the
higher position in the social strata that can manage to gain the profit.
William Otter considered the laborers in the manufacturing town to be the
isolated class (in Cannadine, 1998: 68). Rhyming with Otter’s consideration, Gary
Day stated that through the poems of infamous poets such as William Blake, Percy
Shelley, and William Wordsworth, it could be seen the emphasized matters at hand
which is the importance of human relationship against the competitive individualism.
There would be no possibility that the isolated class individuals like laborers with no
power of capital could survive the competition with the powerful individuals like the
upper class (Day, 2001: 117).

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2. Upper Class’ Attitudes towards Social stratification
In Victorian society, the appropriate term to define the structure of the society
is the word ‘class’. In this class society, the differentiation among the class persists in
the manner of economic reasoning; a social consciousness of class that social position
is rather be made than inherited by blood (Day, 2001: 95). In this era, the class is
divided into three major classes. They are upper middle class (upper class), middle
class, and the last but not least is lower or working class. According to Hill in A
History of Western Society, this kind of structure does keep the gap between the rich
and the poor, and probably it is the greater gap after the age of agriculture and
aristocracy (1983: 846). So, it is like to say that the more diverse the society, the
more enormous is the gap among the society. A competition among the member of
the group is also keen; there are ones trying to upgrade their position in the society,
but there are also ones who hold theirs in the social order.
In accordance with the book A History of Western Society, upper class society
consists of the successful families that have a long reign in from banking, industry,
and large-scale commerce. These are the part of the society who is the prime of the
beneficiaries of the modern industry in the Victorian era. A large income has set the
upper class family to have its own-style household, which generally has its own male
servants. The more male servant they have, the richer the family. It stands for their
opulence and their position in the upper class society, just like the aristocrat’s style of
life (Hill, 1983: 847).

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Hill also stated a good point that generally a rich businessman is able to be a
careless person towards his business, but a devoted one towards their ‘culture’ and
living easily than the one with the less time and wealthy; in the manner of speaking,
the middle class society (1983: 847-848).
As it is understood, the social stratification of the Victorian society consists of
three major classes. They are the upper class, the middle class, and the lower class.
As it is also has been stated, the upper class society is in the top position in the social
stratification, and this happened to be influencing this class’ way of viewing the
relationship between their powerful class and the other lower classes; they were
under-dogging the lower class. They tended to see that they were different from the
lower class; in fact they consciously made the distinction to be clearer. This did not
come without motive; in fact the motive was clear, that was to create a boundary
between the upper class and the lower class in order to monopolize all the resources
provided in the society whether it was material or non-material. It also affected their
way of living. Somehow, they had consciously set their way of living to demonstrate
their powerful benefit as a rich people, also, in order to magnify the distinction
between the rich and the poor, between their class and the lower ones. The following
set of paragraphs conduct the matter involving the ways of living that were applied by
the upper class society in relation with the vision to clarify the distinction between
their class and the lower class as their domestic attitudes towards social stratification
in Victorian era.

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a. Conspicuous Leisure
The upper class society had a luxurious life. They were infamous for their
consumption of luxury goods. They bought many things to ornament their house;
beautiful vases, and many other grand furniture that consumed a lot of money. They
also enjoy many of pleasing and extravagant things such as theatre, and sport that
involves horse (www.lonympics.co.uk.htm). They also demonstrated their power of
money through their interest in culture coined in the form of hobby of collecting
historical-valued goods such as paintings, photographs (Hill, 1983: 847-848). This
kind of lifestyle was not a possibility for the lower class which had no kind of
enormous capital like the upper class did.
b. In-Group Marriage
For upper class individual, marriage was considered to be a strategic way to
maintain their position in the society; to make them invulnerable of the possibility to
be poor. They regarded marriage as a financial strategy and a matter of reputability;
as it is stated in The Nineteenth Century British Class System, that someone who is
able to provide financial stability is someone who has a high prestige
. Wealth and social status become an important matter in its relation with
marriage.

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c. (Excessive) Superiority
The fact that the upper class consisted of rich individuals, has made them a
superior entity; of course when it is compared with their inferior partners, the lower
class. Superiority is neither a sin, or false actions, or wrong attitudes when it is
contrived with compassion. It would be a troublesome behavior when it is walking
side-to-side with greed and the sense of egoistic temper. It was what happened with
the socially awkward upper class society, the fortunate class bestowed with enough
capital to live under the umbrella of enjoyment and merriment; they hence turned
their epic fate with a single toss of greediness by treating the weak with bad attitudes.
Stated by Friedrich Engels through his essay, The Condition of the Working Class in
England in 1844, it was as if the upper class society stirred a calm water into a
whirlpool when they decide to act snobbishly, regarding other people, which were
they employed, as only useful objects, making the entire classes to live in social war.
They exploited the weaker ones, financially, to support their economical existence; as
like the stronger ones treaded the weakers with their feet, monopolizing everything to
the fullest and leaving the weaker ones nothing until they cease to exist (Langbaum,
1967: 60). As it is also compiled by Langbaum in The Victorian Age, the essay by G.
Kitson Clark, The Making of Victorian England, stated that after 1848, the upper
class never cease to exist to achieve what they hold dear, that is the power and
influence (1967: 33).
There was nothing at least in this group I have loosely called the
Eccentrics that disturbs the general sense that all the generation was part

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of the sunset of the great revolutionary poets. This fading glamour
affected England in a sentimental and, to some extend, a snobbish
direction; making men feel that great lords with long curls and whiskers
were naturally the wits that led the worlds. But it affected England also
negatively and by reactions; for it associated such men as Byron with
superiority