The Upper Class Gentleman Expressed in Felix and Roger Carbury

I have many ideas floating around about the expression of class, taste, and gentlemanly roles, and how these relate to Bourdieu. I'm not sure I can express myself as clearly as I would like to since some of these ideas are still being realized, but I will give it a shot. I apologize in advance for the length of the post as I sketch some of these ideas.

I begin with Bourdieu who states

One's relationship to the social world and to ones' proper place in it is never more clearly expressed than in the space and time one feels entitled to take from others; more precisely, in the space one claims with one's body in physical space, through a bearing and gestures that are self-assured or reserved, expansive or constricted... and with one's speech in time, through the interaction time one appropriates and the self-assured or aggressive, careless or unconscious way one appropriates it (474).

In this passage, Bourdieu is discussing taste and how it becomes second nature, an aspect of a person's character that becomes so deeply trained into a person's surroundings, even unto the person's body so that every movement, every gesture, etc. is indicative of their taste and, therefore, of their class status.

This passage reminds me of Felix and his cousin Roger and how they assert their upper class status through this "bodily hexis" described by Bourdieu in the passage above. Felix and Roger are both upper class, but where one has the higher noble status (Felix), the other has money and land (Roger). Both also reinforce their class through the space they take up, their bearing, gestures, speech, and they way they "feel entitled to take from others." In this sense, we have a good old-fashioned "pissing contest" between Felix and Roger and the behavior of the modern youth and that of the traditional mature man of the upper class.

Felix, as a young baronet, feels it's his right and duty to take money, time, affection without consideration of those around him. I'm thinking specifically of his taking money from his mother to gamble, then not wanting to pay her back after he wins a large amount because it will be needed to make him appear to be a wealthy, gentleman with fine clothes and horses in order to woo Miss Melmotte. Also, I'm thinking of when he shows up in the wee hours of the morning (around 4 a.m.) at Carbury Manor though he promised to come earlier in the day. As a result Roger is inconvenienced by sending the cart and horse for Felix twice (something difficult to spare) and is also required to get out of bed to serve his guest as a proper host. Finally Felix uses up the affections of his mother, Miss Melmotte, and Ruby without any sort of real return of affection or love. He behaves in the world as though everyone and everything is placed for his amusement and entertainment, to serve him and his needs. But this very way of being and moving and behaving in the world is, as I read Bourdieu, an expression of his perception of an upper class gentleman without the proper training/education in how a gentleman ought to behave. But I believe we are also meant to see Felix as a variant of an upper class gentleman; a man from the seedy underside of the upper class where the young rakes waste their time in going to the club, hunting, gambling, amassing great debt, drinking, and philandering, unwilling to settle down and take on the responsibility of marriage, family, and good stewardship of money and estates.

Roger may be seen as the other end of the spectrum of the upper class gentleman. For instance, on page 116, when Hetta and Roger are discussing Felix, she says, "They say that young men do have to be bad, and that they do get to be better as they grow older." Here, Hetta says that Felix is going through a phase of the young upperclass gentleman. Either way, Roger hates Felix because he does not live according to Roger's own tastes. Roger is more traditional, takes pride in his ancestral roots, his lands and money, and the fact that he always pays his debts. He is very concerned with the hospitality he expresses toward guests in his home. His role as host is closely akin to the medieval chivalric code of hospitality. Roger does not see it as his right to walk all over people and is very conscientious about not giving offense, especially to ladies and guests in his house. This is why, though he hates Felix and is furious about serving him at 4 a.m. in his home, he fulfills his role as gracious and generous host. He also lives by a code that youth should respect their elders, young men need the guidance of male authority, and women should be protected, which, in his eyes, gives him the right in Chapter VII to come to London to speak with Felix in an attempt to set things right and to have the twenty pounds returned to the impoverished Lady Carbury.

Further, Roger has little respect for newly made titles such as Felix's. He cares more for the actual ancient bloodline of the Carbury's which dates back to the 1400s (The War of the Roses). Interestingly, Felix and his family are just the opposite, not really caring about the history of the bloodline so much as the title. Nevertheless, Roger believes he is much more of a gentleman than Felix because of his code of honor and the carrying out his duties as chivalric host. And so we have here in the characters of Felix and Roger a conflict in the expression of an upperclass gentleman and how that status is expressed through their bodies (or estates in Roger's case) and behaviors.