Class System In Victorian England

The commercial development of the nineteenth-century had considerably a grand affect in Victorian England. In particular, the remodeling of London’s West End contributed to the separation between class systems as the lower class could not partake in the same activities as the upper class. It also divided the male and female gender identities into public or private spheres after centuries of working together in unison. The two sexes were now forced to live out the particular roles society had laid out for them to keep the development of the city running (Rappaport, 103). Men would be part of the public sphere to work and socialize, while women’s rightful place was in the kitchen (Nead, 172). However, the reconstruction of West End encouraged women to enter the private sphere and permitted them to shop at department stores and have access to public restrooms. The rise of imperial capitalism not only made London’s West End a commercialized institution, but it affected its inhabitants by organizing them into two particular spheres that forced them to live out a collective identity that brought prejudice amongst the sexes and classes. The nineteenth century was a time of great change within central London. The new buildings allowed for more activities to occur but it did create a barrier between class systems.

As Erika Rapport states, the new West End was “devoted” to upper middle class sociability (2002). Upper class men began to parade their identities wearing flashy and expensive clothing (Rendell 2002). This discouraged the lower class from ever going to the West End as the space became devoted only to the aristocratic class, specifically males. The West End had almost become a competition between the two classes and the lower class could not live up to the upper class’s