Historical Context Essays - Ethics, Philosophy, Humanities

Historical Context Essays - Ethics, Philosophy, Humanities Historical Context The Beginnings of Social Change British society was divided at the end of the eighteenth century roughly into three classes: the aristocracy, the gentry, and the yeoman class. Yet the revolutionary fervor at end of that century, exemplified by the American and French Revolutions, was seeping into the social fabric of England. In the following several decades, class distinctions began to relax and be redefined. As people in the lower middle classes became more prosperous, they began to emulate their social betters, as did the landed gentry of the upper middle class. During the nineteenth century, increasing numbers of people rose financially through commercial work and factory production. These middle-class individuals increasingly became absorbed with a cultivation of the proper manners, dress, and dcor, practiced by the gentry and lesser members of the aristocracy. Examples of this rising middle class can be seen with the Murdstones and the Steerforths in David Copperfield. David's parents, his aunt, and the Wickfields are members of the middle class, but they do not try to adopt the pretensions of the aristocracy. Nineteenth-Century London The contrast between the wealthy and poorer classes, however, was evident in London during the nineteenth century. A small portion of the city was occupied by well-kept residences and shopping areas. Upper and middle-class residents stayed in these areas, predominantly in the West End, fearing to venture into the remaining threefourths of the city, especially in the rough East End, which was teeming with poverty, dense population, and corruption. The gulf between the rich and poor widened each year. New villages continually emerged, especially near the docks, but even though Londoners found work in the city's busy port, wages were not high enough to adequately provide for workers. The extreme stratification of the English urban centers was studied by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Together, they wrote the Communist Manifesto (1848), and Engels wrote The Condition of the Working Class in England (1844), in which he describes graphically the living conditions in the center of London and Manchester and how these contrast with the wealthy residences on the outskirts. Together, they outlined the causes, effects, and political solutions to the problem of poverty which became the inspiration for the communist revolutions of the twentieth century. Benthamism Benthamism, also known as utilitarianism, became an important ideology in Victorian society, especially among the middle class. The term was associated with a philosophy of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), explained in his Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789), which was widely accepted among the Victorian middle class, affecting their habits and beliefs. By the 1820s, the philosophy gained a number of disciples who promoted Bentham's theories in debates. Supporters gained political power in the 1830s when approximately one hundred were elected to the first reform-focused Parliament in England. At the core of this philosophy was the belief in "the greatest happiness for the greatest number," a phrase borrowed from Joseph Priestley, a late eighteenth-century Unitarian theologian, which appeared in Bentham's Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. In Victorian People and Ideas, Richard D. Altick explains: utilitarianism was wholly hedonistic; it made no allowance for the promptings of conscience, or for the forces of generosity, mercy, compassion, selfsacrifice, love. Benthamite ethics had nothing to do with Christian morality. At the heart of this belief was the supposition that self-interest should be one's primary concern and that happiness could be attained by avoiding pain and seeking pleasure, qualities that emerge in James Steerforth's character. Evangelicalism Another important middle-class movement in the nineteenth century was evangelicalism, a form of Protestant pietism. Evangelicalism focused less on doctrine and more on the day-to-day lives and eventual salvation of its followers. It set rigid patterns of conduct for its practitioners to follow in order that they might find atonement for their sins. Altick notes that "the Evangelical's anxious eye was forever fixed upon the 'eternal microscope' which searched for every moral blemish and reported every motion of the soul." Edward Murdstone and his sister's treatment of David provides good examples of this type of rigid, moralistic code. Both utilitarian and evangelical movements, however, are also noted for their involvement in humanitarian activities during the Victorian period and especially for their calls for social reforms. Benthamites supported universal suffrage and education while the evangelicals successfully fought for amelioration of brutal prison conditions. A Victorian Woman's Place During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, women (like men) were confined to the classes in which they were born, unless their fathers or husbands moved up or down in the social hierarchy. The strict rules for each social class defined women and determined their lives. Women in the upper classes had