Thursday, August 22, 2019

What are examples of classism in "The Beggar Maid"?

Rose lives with her stepmother, Flo, and her father in a poor part of a poor town. Despite her humble background, Rose aspires to better things. She's well-read and highly intelligent, and she manages to obtain a scholarship to college. While there, she plays up to the snobbery of her middle-class friends by regaling them with stories of growing up poor. Yet despite her background Rose doesn't see herself as working-class; in fact, she explicitly says that she'd never heard of the working class before she came to Dr. Henshawe's. At home, Flo comments acidly on the fact that theirs is the last part of town to have sewers installed:

"Of course," Rose said coolly. "This is the working-class part of town."
"Working class?" said Flo. "Not if the ones around here can help it."

Though Rose and Flo live in a rundown part of town, they still consider themselves superior to their neighbors. For one thing, they're intelligent and learned; they actually read books. They also work, and as Flo's comment strongly implies, many of their neighbors don't know the meaning of the word.

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