Class and Gender Essay
Has love ever gotten in the way of your personal life? Some say love isn't a feeling, it's more of a flaw. This flaw can affect what decisions you make like decisions the characters Rose and Nancy made in Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist. These two women from the Victorian era are faced with the high standards that Victorian society has set. Despite their differences (Rose being the ideal standard for women and Nancy a prostitute for a gang of thieves) they share the same struggle of what to love and what to let go. All of this internal as well as external conflict, such as relationships, revolve around the troubling factors of class and gender roles that the society has set in stone.
Due to the social status gap between them, Rose
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"Tears are signs of gladness as well as grief; but those which coursed down Rose's face... seemed to tell more of sorrow than of joy" (Dickens 284). They say tears are the physical representation of joy or sorrow that a person is feeling. It is shown in the story that Rose cries at the sight of Harry leaving after she declines his proposal to her. So in this case, Rose's tears are of sadness and heartbreak. She clearly has feelings for Harry but she fears that she might hurt him if she returned his feelings. It as a hard decision for her but she had to turn down Harry and hurt him. Harry might be hurt from the rejection but Rose knows that the pain that will come from marrying her will be greater. So the only way she feels that she can hurt him the least is to turn down his love. It may seem strange that she is showing that she cares about him by rejecting his proposal but this is the only way she could protect him. During the Victorian Era, social class was what made the person. If they were an underclass then that person would most likely be shunned. "… the underclass beneath them remained much more susceptible to exploitation and were therefore exploited" (Social Class). Rose inherits