Research Guides: Jane Eyre and the Victorian Era: Station 2

Social Classes in Victorian Society

Research the social roles of women and men in Victorian society by clicking on the database link. Do note that you can have the article read to you while you are reading by clicking on the listen button.

Select two class types. Create a a bulleted list on the societal roles and expectations with at least six distinct qualities.

ARISTOCRACY
BOURGEOISIE
LOWER MIDDLE CLASSES
WHITE-COLLAR PROFESSIONALS AND SERVICE WORKERS
WORKERS
PEASANTRY

Research Materials

Class and Social Relations
Class is a relationship between producers and those who extract a surplus from their labor. A variety of social classes existed in Europe between 1789 and 1914, and the relations among these disparate classes raise some of the most interesting problems of nineteenth-century European history. Class transformations were characteristic features of nineteenth-century Europe, and relationships among classes changed significantly over time. But class transformations and class relationships followed no inexorable logic. They were profoundly shaped by historical conjunctures and by cultural and political forces as well as by economic forces.