Oscar Wilde and
Jonathan Swift provide their perspectives on social classes by ridiculing the
social hierarchy of upper class England and Ireland. By using comedy of manners
they showed varying sides of classes. I
believe class discrimination is of vital pertinence in today's society. It has
grown to be of broader range than ever before. There is discrimination between races,
religion, gender, relationship preferences, and of course social class.
In “The Importance of
Being Earnest”, Lady Bracknell who is of high class society is a very pompous
character. She frequently brings up the
issues of money and even more ridiculously backgrounds and characteristics when
she tries to find out if Jack and Cecily are suitable spouses for her daughter,
Gwendolyn, and her nephew, Algernon. The story also insinuates that marrying is
sometimes about the name not the personality or compatibility. In “A Modest
Proposal”, Jonathan Swift provides a fake proposal about eating babies to help
feed Ireland. He voices of the problems between the people living in poverty
and the elite upper class man. Both bring up ignored issues of social classes
that they think should be fixed and people should pay attention to.
Although we have dealt
with discriminatory factors throughout the years, more recent in society is gay
rights. People are still fighting to be able to marry and be with who they wish
without being judged. Those who are "straight" feel superior to those
who have different sexual preferences, and discriminate them as a separate
class in society. Discrimination in the workforce is also a big factor in
today’s society. Because of color or status, workers are sometimes underpaid,
overworked, and burdened in the workforce. The rich and elite are also hurting
the poor and lower to middle classes they gain from those beneath them by
taking advantage of their will less power. I see people around me going through
this every day, people I know too afraid to speak up to those in power because
of their status, but to keep silent is allow for more injustice in
discrimination.
We can only hope to
improve these problems with better solutions by enforcing more equality and
allowing people to have equal opportunities. But unfortunately social classes
have always been obstacles in gaining success; people go through their whole
lives seeking to go up in the social hierarchy we live in. It may even appear
that sometimes those esteemed as being in the higher classes have more value
and control, thus giving them more power. I also believe that people everywhere
want to keep moving up in life to gain better social positions; it’s a never
ending system in which it is inevitable that we have social classes, but we can
improve conditions.
