This should not be "The Way We Live Now"

This should not be “The Way We Live Now”

    As I’ve been reading, I’ve tried to reconcile the title of the book to the contents of the plot. I think we’ve all grown aware of the massive amount of changes that gripped the Victorian physical landscape, city life, and industrial commerce. I’m always tempted to see every Victorian as working to come to grips with these changes by trying to answer 'who we should be' by questioning and answering 'what we are' through maps, statistical surveys, essays, and  novels.  In many ways, the effort of explaining 'who we are' to get to 'who we should be' seems almost too obvious to make a note of. However, with this title it appears that Trollope (and/or the narrator) demands that the reader take not of these changes from the way he sees them happening in society.

So what’s changing that helps describe life of the Victorians according to Trollope? I think this list could be exhaustive.   For the sake of a manageable post, I’ll point out two: ownership and the exchange of money.

Ownership:

“…as she sits in her writing-table in her own room in her own house in Welbeck Street” (Vol 1; 1)

“They had a house in town,--a house of their own,--and lived altogether as magnates” ( Vol 1; 49).

Ownership of a house in London is a big deal. As is apparent from the first sentence where the narrator describes Lady Carbury writing, ownership is important and the threat of the loss of this ownership is a terrible thing. Because Lady Carbury has a house in London she can help create a livelihood for herself for her son to suck dry because she can invite a literary circle into her home every Tuesday ( Unrelated side note: We also form a literary circle every Tuesday! That’s pretty cool. ). This residence is not just a seat of literary engagement. The ownership of this house in London is a means of power, and who you let into that house is a way of showing who you are in society.

I think this is even more evident with the Longestaffe’s. From the 2nd quote listed above, it is clear that their reputation comes somewhat from the ownership of a house in town. The reputation of the Longestaffe’s changes as the ownership and the reputation of its owners changes. When Mr. Longestaffe sells the place to Mr. Melmotte, the Longestaffe’s suffer the loss of the power of the house, the loss of the appearance of wealth, and the loss of Georgiana’s ability to capture a husband that suits her own perceived station in life. This loss of reputation and power is furthered by the loss of ownership in the reputation of the people who take over the house. In doing so, the place becomes tainted to the point that Georgiana can find no husband but one outside of her social class (although, she doesn’t deserve Mr. Brehgert at all, the stuck-up snob) when she stays with the new residents. The taint to the property continues in the loss of it due to forgery, and when it is somewhat regained by Melmotte’s suicide, the outright selling out it seems the only way for any power to be recovered from its ownership.

Money:

“As for many years past we have exchanged paper instead of actual money for our commodities, so now it seemed that, under the new Melmotte regime, an exchange of words was to suffice” (Vol 1; 423).

The dangers of not having money are apparent throughout this novel. However, to assume the getting of money from mere words or exchange of shares is pointed to as dangerous. I’m not well versed on the history of printed money in England (possibly an interesting context paper here, guys!), but Trollope does makes note of the dangers in commerce when the perceived reputation of having money is as good as having money.  There are several moments this is made clear throughout the novel: the selling of Pickering; the exchange of IOU’s at the card tables that have no real money backed behind them, and the forgeries that bring about further exchanges of shares for money.  

Likewise, Roger Carbury, who has wealth and “lived on his own land among his own people, as all the Carburys before him had done, and was poor because he was surrounded by rich neighbours” (Vol 1; 48). Again, the reputation of wealth is seen as having more cultural purchasing power than the actual wealth itself.  Ultimately, the idea of cultural purchasing power is reprimanded as the need for actual monetary purchasing power becomes a power that moves the novel toward the discovery of shams and the suicide of Melmotte. 

So, to return to the title, it looks like Trollope (and/or the narrator) is hoping for a change in society that looks much different from the changes he sees taking place.