Coming back to this after some further thought, we are operating (and, I would say, continue to operate) in a real world which is significantly affected by an overt and very real class system.
I'd further suggest that in the British class system (which is the one I know about) class status depends on the following, listed in order of importance though clearly they interrelate:
a) inherited. Family and connections.
b) social - class markers include accent, manners (that is, known and rigorously enforced and very class-essential formal manners - Becky is well ahead of most of the school including its principal when one considers natural courtesy, but the class system doesn't)
c) educational. The Foster Education Act of 1870 made education compulsory but did not make it free, and made it easy for children's formal education to end at 12 and become part time earlier so that they could go out to work. For that reason, btw, I believe Becky is probably younger than the 16 you suggest, especially given the weird age things about other characters. Furthermore, the kind of education given to the working classes through the Board Schools was designed to be different in nature from that given in private education, and private education itself was heavily stratified, particularly for boys (another of Captain Crewe's bizarre decisions is "why Miss Minchen's?" which is clearly a small and undistinguished private school, even given it's a girls' school at the relevant period.)
d) financial. A very long way behind the others*.
If you look at A Little Princess as A Study in Class, Miss Minchen's aim (which Sara consciously opposes, including by studying on her own in the deserted schoolroom) is to bring Sara down the class ladder using her poverty as the wedge strategy. The moral of the rest of the book (and it's even more so with the character of the Rat, in the Lost Prince) is that this effort is doomed to failure. But why?
Speaking on a Doylist level, here, I think it is because Hodgson-Burnett is being pulled in two different ways. I ranked the elements of class indicators a) b) c) d) because that's how they are generally rated (hence the Woosterish 'silly ass' stereotype, who can get away with being shockingly ignorant precisely because he scores so highly on a) and b) as well as doing well on d), but see how nouveau riche characters are treated in that universe).
However, I actually think H-B orders things c) a) b) and also has a touching faith** that d) comes from working hard on e) and b) - and in b) emphasising the "natural courtesy" above "formal structured manners" to boot.
So she's got a different take on the class system, while still regarding it as important. I actually think this is going to be important for Becky's ultimate future, and when the read-through gets there I'd be interested in talking about what we think the final appearance means, and whether it's Becky's last state.
* I've ranked education behind inherited and social, because although some aspects of education - Eton (in the case of Captain Crewe and his dear friend) are important, they're important in their social aspect and not because of their other effects. A First from the "wrong" university counts less than a Fourth from Christchurch, Oxford etc. Also, if one has a) it opens up a lot of opportunities to improve financial status eg flats to borrow from relatives so one can live in expensive cities for unpaid internships, connections to get one into interviews etc
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Date: 2016-06-04 09:08 am (UTC)I'd further suggest that in the British class system (which is the one I know about) class status depends on the following, listed in order of importance though clearly they interrelate:
a) inherited. Family and connections.
b) social - class markers include accent, manners (that is, known and rigorously enforced and very class-essential formal manners - Becky is well ahead of most of the school including its principal when one considers natural courtesy, but the class system doesn't)
c) educational. The Foster Education Act of 1870 made education compulsory but did not make it free, and made it easy for children's formal education to end at 12 and become part time earlier so that they could go out to work. For that reason, btw, I believe Becky is probably younger than the 16 you suggest, especially given the weird age things about other characters. Furthermore, the kind of education given to the working classes through the Board Schools was designed to be different in nature from that given in private education, and private education itself was heavily stratified, particularly for boys (another of Captain Crewe's bizarre decisions is "why Miss Minchen's?" which is clearly a small and undistinguished private school, even given it's a girls' school at the relevant period.)
d) financial. A very long way behind the others*.
If you look at A Little Princess as A Study in Class, Miss Minchen's aim (which Sara consciously opposes, including by studying on her own in the deserted schoolroom) is to bring Sara down the class ladder using her poverty as the wedge strategy. The moral of the rest of the book (and it's even more so with the character of the Rat, in the Lost Prince) is that this effort is doomed to failure. But why?
Speaking on a Doylist level, here, I think it is because Hodgson-Burnett is being pulled in two different ways. I ranked the elements of class indicators a) b) c) d) because that's how they are generally rated (hence the Woosterish 'silly ass' stereotype, who can get away with being shockingly ignorant precisely because he scores so highly on a) and b) as well as doing well on d), but see how nouveau riche characters are treated in that universe).
However, I actually think H-B orders things c) a) b) and also has a touching faith** that d) comes from working hard on e) and b) - and in b) emphasising the "natural courtesy" above "formal structured manners" to boot.
So she's got a different take on the class system, while still regarding it as important. I actually think this is going to be important for Becky's ultimate future, and when the read-through gets there I'd be interested in talking about what we think the final appearance means, and whether it's Becky's last state.
* I've ranked education behind inherited and social, because although some aspects of education - Eton (in the case of Captain Crewe and his dear friend) are important, they're important in their social aspect and not because of their other effects. A First from the "wrong" university counts less than a Fourth from Christchurch, Oxford etc. Also, if one has a) it opens up a lot of opportunities to improve financial status eg flats to borrow from relatives so one can live in expensive cities for unpaid internships, connections to get one into interviews etc
** Borne out in her own life, to be fair