English Class System

Jane Austin's novel Persuasion, Director Michael Caton-Jones' movie Scandal, and T.W.C. Banning's Oxford History of Modern Europe each portray the English upper class and English class system in a largely unflattering manner. Persuasion shows the pre-Victorian British upper class to be superficial and obsessed largely with appearance over substance. Similarly, Scandal shows a more modern Britain as a society that bases class on superficial constraints, and is quick to vilify and condemn those who dare to aim above their class. In contrast, T.W. C Banning's accounting provides a more balanced accounting of Britain's class system from the late 1700s to the present. Ultimately, these three readings reveal that while Britain's class system has changed dramatically in the past centuries, the ingrained idea of class dominance remains very real within modern Europe.

Persuasion is a deeply romantic novel that satirically examines the social pretensions of the English upper...
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