Blog #2: A Matter of Class

As several people have already noted in their blog posts, class positions are difficult to pin down for Felix and Esther. Based on various competing class markers, they both seem to be members of the lower middle class, but Felix chooses to identify with the lower class and Esther at first chooses to identify with the middle and upper classes.
 

Felix’s father was originally a weaver and then a quack doctor, so Felix was born into the working class. Felix then acquired an education that would enable him to move up into the middle class if he chose certain jobs. However, much to his mother’s lament, he “made himself a journeyman to Mr Prowd the watchmaker – after all his learning – and he says he’ll go with patches on his knees, and he shall like himself all the better” (57). Felix chooses a trade that places him firmly in the working class, yet this element of choice is a middle-class privilege in itself. Unlike Felix, uneducated working-class men are forced to remain in their social position because they lack other options, and many of them have jobs that involve hard manual labor. Yet, Felix takes pride in his position as a working-class man. He defends his choice of employment to Mr. Lyon, showing his disdain for the middle and upper classes with all of their affectations: “I’ll take no employment that obliges me to prop up my chin with a high cravat, and wear straps, and pass the livelong day with a set of fellows who spend their spare money on shirt-pins. That sort of work is really lower than many handicrafts; it only happens to be paid out of proportion” (63).

In contrast to Felix, Esther highly values outward appearances and upper-class affectations. Esther’s preferences, appearance, and behavior are often shown as incongruous to the life she is expected to lead as a minister’s daughter. Because her father is a minister, Esther can be considered a member of the middle class. However, he is a Dissenting minister, and Esther is well-aware that “Dissenters were looked down upon by those whom she regarded as the most refined classes” (76). In addition, people expect Mr. Lyon and his daughter to live without most middle-class luxuries because “a poor minister must be below the substantial householders who kept him” (76). Even Felix, who does not care for the upper classes or fine ladies in general, observes Esther and thinks that “a fine lady as the daughter of a rusty old Puritan was especially offensive” (67). Of course, the novel later reveals that Esther’s biological father is actually Maurice Christian Bycliffe, an aristocrat with a claim to the Transome Estate. Interestingly, Esther’s upper-class aspirations are often described as an inherent part of her, from “all her native tendencies towards luxury, fastidiousness, and scorn of mock gentility” (76) to various aspects of her physical appearance, like her small feet and long neck (67). Just as Felix is inclined to “stick to the class [he] belong[s] to” (64), Esther’s tendency toward the upper classes is a natural inclination toward the class she belongs to (the class of her heritage).

Felix’s firm decision to remain a member of the working class is tied to his genuine desire for reform. He tells Mr. Lyon, “Why should I want to get into the middle class because I have some learning?...That’s how the working men are left to foolish devices and keep worsening themselves: the best heads among them forsake their born comrades, and go in for a house with a high door-step and a brass knocker” (64). Felix feels a responsibility to the working class and the social ills that his class faces, so he refuses to move into the middle class. When Mr. Lyon suggests that he could help the working class by moving to a higher rank with more power, Felix responds, “Let a man once throttle himself with a satin stock, and he’ll get new wants and new motives” (64). From Felix’s point of view, middle-class and upper-class men cannot truly help the working class because they will inevitably be guided by their own selfish motives. This belief puts Felix and Harold Transome in sharp contrast. Harold Transome is disconnected from the working class and must have his own interests to protect, which is why so many people doubt his Radicalism and think he would change his political beliefs after becoming a Member of Parliament. Unfortunately, if those in power never truly can strive for the interests of the lower classes, it would seem impossible for the lower classes to ever see reform on their behalf.

Felix remains optimistic; when he’s at Duffield, he steps up to speak to the working-class men and argues, “I want the working men to have power. I’m a working man myself, and I don’t want to be anything else” (292). However, Felix does not think that political power is what the working class needs just yet; instead, he has a strong belief in educating members of the working class so that they can change their priorities (which are currently centered on drinking). Felix’s decision to live and work among the lower-class men highlights his dedication to this mission of educating the lower class and thereby making them fit for political reforms. Only be being a part of the working class can Felix have a direct impact on the thoughts and actions of men and women in the working class. Esther’s ultimate decision to marry Felix rather than Harold can be seen as Eliot’s ultimate endorsement of Felix’s Radicalism over Harold’s. In addition, Esther’s choice shows her recognizing the value of her step-father’s class positioning that she was brought up in over her hereditary class positioning.