Social Classes

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.