In this novel, class has more to do with breeding and background than it does with simple wealth. Class is a complex concept, and this has made it very difficult to negotiate shifts and changes in one's class status. The Great Gatsby illustrates that class is capable of producing deep-seated prejudices that cannot simply be altered by external factors like money.

Another very famous novel that affirms these class divisions and the barriers to class mobility is Jane Austen's Emma. The main character thinks of herself as a very good matchmaker, and one of the many conflicts in the novel involves Emma trying to match her friend Harriet up with Mr. Collins, and dissuading her from her romantic feelings for the farmer Mr. Martin. Emma foolishly believes, simply because she likes Harriet as a friend, that Harriet will be accepted into the upper reaches of the eighteenth century British class...
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