Purgatory
Certain classes in society demand certain expectations of the people to which they belong. In the lower class there is minimal pressure or convention compared to the wealthy and the nobles but maximum and criticism from the rest of society. The upper has a certain template that must be filled in order to fit in with that class. The middle class is a fusion of the two opposing classes, resulting in the “middle class morality”(75). Constructed by meshing the negative aspects of the poor and negative of the rich, leaving a character hanging somewhere in purgatory. In Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, Alfred Doolittle is constrained to conform to the three classes: upper class, lower class and middle class. Mr. Doolittle adapts to the conventions that socitety has placed upon him, giving him the “middle class morality”(75) that is so disliked. Given the circumstances Mr. Doolittle is forced to go through with the trials of alternating classes throughout Pygmalion. In Pygmalion Shaw develops the idea that out of the three different classes middle class is the worst, because the rich can do whatever they want and because “the undeserving poor”(75) have nothing to live up to, no standards of life, morals.
The lower class in society is free to do as they please because there aren’t any set standards that need to be attained because nothing is expected of them. Shaw demonstrates the simplicity of the lower class by displaying their lack morals when Alfred sells his daughter for a “five pound note”. What does Alfred Doolittle have to lose, nothing therefore Doolittle will do whatever he can to gain no matter how disgusting and crummy it may seem to the rest of society. When someone has nothing to lose there is nothing to worry a...
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... they shackled him in the middle without a place to really comfortably settle such as purgatory.
Alfred Doolittle went from being a happy man with nothing to his name to a miserable man with a fortune. The lower class was the life; all freedoms, no complaints. At first glance the upper classmay appear to be marvelous, but very quickly that the world of money and power is a caged life. Doolittle was quickly placed in the middle class: torn between the upper and lower class. The circumstances of his inheritance caused him to make an effort to conform and try to fit in with the other classes. The conventions of the situations that entered his life gave him the terrible “middle class morality”(75). “Middle class morality”(75) is the middle, nobody likes the middle, people want a place to fit, being part of the middle class left Alfred stuck in limbo such as purgatory.
But I think this book is more for those people who aren’t that aware of social class, or for the ones who feel that we live in a society that is classless, rather than the actual people who have realized the consequences that class really has on someone’s life. Many people can relate to what stories are told in the book; if not, they know of a person that can relate to these stories. As a person that grew up in the lower class, I can definitely relate to most of the stories told in this book. From experience, there is a big difference in this country between the rich, middle class, and the poorest that we see daily. Even those in the so-called working class have to make continuous sacrifices and live very differently from those positioned firmly in the middle class.
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...t Fielding tends to mock the upper class more and it can be argued they are the ones with worse characteristics however he also ridicules lower class characters such as Mrs. Slipslop, the middle aged plump lady's maid who is also a bully ; Peter Pounce, the swindling skinflint, Mrs. Tow-wouse, the scolding innkeepers wife and Pamela's hypocrisy in the sense she once saw Fanny as her equal but now deems herself to be superior. In conclusion we see that Fielding does not so much then make a distinction between class, but shows us that hypocrisy, vanity, unkindness and cruelty are vices that belong to all members of society and it is only those who see the goodness in humanity and who treat all others with kindness and respect regardless of class that are superior individuals.