Depictions of the Impact of Money, Wealth and Material Possessions in Two Classical Novels - Essay Example

Depictions of the Impact of Money, Wealth and Material Possessions in Two ical Novels Wealth is often described to be material or intangible possessions that individuals or a large group of people deem to have a definitive value or worth and thus can contribute to the possessor’s material or financial gains as well as creating a stratified society in which the highest rungs are occupied with those who are deemed to have the largest amount of wealth, while the lowest ranks have the least (Dant, 1999, p. 2; Smith et al., 2010, p. 19). Some people allow their wealth to be defined by others, which forces them to believe that in order to be deemed wealthy and be treated with dignity and deference they must have considerable amount of measurable wealth. This forces such people to do whatever it takes to have material gain over other people, in order to win their respect, trust, loyalty and even friendship. This is the case of Victorian novels that depict how wealth is seen as a means to an end by upper-class or middle-class people and is sought after in order to advance in society, as shown by plot and characters in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice. Wealth may be the end for all means in some people, but within the same society, some people do not believe this is the case, for some have different notions on wealth. Some think that wealth depends on what a person holds dear, whether it is of value or not to other people, for example leisure time or pursuits (Phillips, 2002, p. 2). This kind of perception of wealth creates parallelisms in Daniel Defoe’s well-loved story Robinson Crusoe, which tells not just how a marooned man becomes accustomed to a few necessities in life, but also his redemption in finding out the truth about wealth by appreciating what he has, what he can do and how he shares this with other people. Due to the differences in how wealth is perceived in the two novels, this essay argues that wealth is a relative term that changes value or meaning depending on the number of people or the size of the society where a person of interest lives in, in which the amount of what is considered “sufficient wealth” also increases along with the increasing size of the society. Short Synopses of the Two Novels Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a story set in Victorian England in a fictitious village of Longbourn, with the main protagonists Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, or Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet having power struggles with each other due to their negative first impressions and their perceptions of each other’s wealth and social status, only ending up to start loving each other after finding out each other’s true natures (Austen, 1995). The story’s setting was during an era when social graces along with a considerable amount of material possessions and powerful connections are deemed to be important in order to get the attention or respect of other equally-powerful people, and the lack of any one of which can cause upper-classes to look down upon those found lacking. However, in the course of the events of the story it becomes a realisation for the main characters that wealth is only a stepping-stone or an obstacle in reaching one’s dreams, with some people becoming happy with it while others only attain comfort but not fully enjoying its benefits. Pride and Prejudice is considered to be a novel that takes into account the intricacies of a highly-stratified society and what it takes to bridge the gaps between each stratum (Becker, 2007, p. 242). While Pride and Prejudice tells the story of a society with clear hierarchies in each social class, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe tells of a different story, on how a single man tries to survive on his own with only a few provisions, minimalistic living and having a few acquaintances only, forming a very primal and basic societal hierarchy. The story was set around the centuries when the age of exploration was already in full mast, in which the accumulation of wealth which depends on shipping trades and the introduction of plantations and slavery were considered to be the highlight of society’s rich members, but were later defied by the protagonist Robinson Crusoe when he found God in his 28 years living in a marooned island in the tropics, learning how to become self-sufficient through trial and errors, sharing his wisdom to some of the natives and strangers that he met, as well as thinking of how morality is shaped by the society that influences its people (Defoe, 2001). In a sense, Defoe’s character becomes the epitome of a person searching for the truth and meaning of life through his own accord, without thinking of how society at large will look at his actions, and in a sense differs from Austen’s novel which shows the strong ties of people in adhering to established societal customs and traditions. The Importance of Material Wealth in Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen’s story with the title Pride and Prejudice tells a story about how pride and prejudice can get in the way of finding one’s true love and having a happy and satisfying marriage. However, this is not the only strong motif as there are strong depictions of the importance of social decorum, of wealthy and powerful connections and of having more than enough material possessions to be accepted into upper-crust society, gain the favours of royalty and be considered to be powerful or influential people (Austen, 1995). For example, knowledge about the background of the Bennet family with regards to few material possessions and lack of strong political associations and connections causes Mr Darcy to look down condescendingly at Elizabeth and her family, thinking that they lack so much finesse and are thus unworthy to be accepted into larger social circle because aside from having less wealth than his own, they were very plain and powerless people with “little beauty and no fashion” (Austen, 1995, p. 9). Mr Darcy’s pride for having enough material wealth and his prejudice against people below his stature also blinds him of the love between Mr Bingley and Elizabeth’s sister, Jane, as well as in acknowledging his growing feelings for Elizabeth, which not only mirrors how upper classes view people of lower status but also Austen’s society’s attitudes toward aristocracy during the time the book was written. The upper-class were not the only ones guilty of having pride and prejudice against people of higher social status, as the story also shows that other social classes define wealth on their own, seeing upper-classes as pompous, arrogant and only thinking of material wealth and not of the welfare of others, thus they consider wealth to be the presence of virtues. For example, Elizabeth makes presumptions of people by stereotyping them, describing Mr Bingley’s sisters as “very fine ladies; not deficient in good humour when they are pleased… but proud and conceited” (Austen, 1995, p. 9), as well as reading Mr Darcy immediately as a cold, heartless person who “allow(s) nothing for the influence of friendship and affection” (Austen, 1995, p. 33). To put it lightly, whereas the upper-class and royalty see material wealth as the line that separates the social strata, those without material wealth see materialism as the source of corruption of human virtue, causing “unjust actions, directed toward the getting and keeping of wealth” (Sturm, 1998, p. 97). The Notion of “Wealth” in Robinson Crusoe compared with Austen’s Materialistic Society Whereas material wealth and possessions were regarded highly in most of Austen’s story, the lack of these at the cost of becoming virtuous and God-fearing was the notion of wealth in Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Aside from repenting for past sins, the main focus of the novel as the importance of only living with basic necessities, developing life skills and helping others with these skills became the central issue in most of the novel’s plot. This was further supported by the fact that the plot allowed Crusoe to live marooned in an island for 28 years, thus seeking solace for only himself and further defining his own wealth based on what he needs, what he learns how to do, and whether he was able to save other people and help them in any way possible (Defoe, 2001). His enlightenment was thorough, as he did not hold any grudges after finding out that his father did not left him any inheritance for believing he was dead, and that he was still able to share what little material possessions he had, before and after recovering some of his monetary gains before he was marooned in a deserted island (Defoe, 2001, p. 440).Contrary to the settings in Pride and Prejudice where wealth is considered vital and thus must not be shared fully with other who have less, in Robinson Crusoe wealth was seen as something that can “help (others) become active and gain property” (Nerlich, 1987, p. 154). In addition, because of the greater reliance on personal skills and not of material possessions, Crusoe gained experiences in dealing with other people better and gaining their respect despite not being as wealthy as he was expected to be, thus showing how his becoming a castaway brought upon his moral and physical development, which was absent in some of the haughty characters in Austen’s Pride and Prejudice relying only on making themselves look presentable and manipulating others to have their own way with things (Phillips, 2004, p. 4). Lastly, the miniaturisation of society in Crusoe’s island allowed him to dictate what wealth was since there was no other comparison other than his own, and this wealth was mostly having a solid and sturdy home, farming enough animals and crops for himself, learning how to believe in God and in Providence again, living in comfort with only basic necessities in life and getting to share this wealth with others, which when compared with larger societies seem nothing more than how primitive and lower-ranking strata would think and believe. As such, wealth is not material possessions in Robinson Crusoe, but rather as a subjective term that describe people’s individual achievements in relation to their pasts and present (Smith, et al., 2010). Conclusions: How the Perception and Depiction of Wealth Differs in the Two Novels Based on the two novels, wealth is something that is defined by society and its individuals. For a highly-stratified society as described in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, wealth is depicted by upper-classes as having many material possessions, strong political affiliations and displaying proper decorum in social events, while those lacking material wealth consider virtues such as kindness and trustworthiness to be a bit equal with wealth. Although material wealth is still regarded in higher esteem due to the level of comfort it brings to its possessors, it is also depicted as a corruptor that causes people to lose virtue and become selfish or cold in the eyes of others. Lastly the measurement of material wealth also causes the wide gaps between the rich, the working class and the poor, which in effect creates inequality and ambivalence or condescension towards people of a different social status. On the other hand, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe tells of another depiction of wealth, in which the lack of a large and highly-stratified society and the absence of numerous people created the notion of wealth as an immaterial object, which comes from a person’s enlightenment, of gaining virtues and skills, and helping other people’s lives through such efforts, considered to be impossible in the presence of external factors such as social pressures, customs and traditions. As such, it is concluded that in describing what wealth truly is, it helps mould people’s beliefs on choosing what is the most important, in choosing their motivations for living and in turn this pushes society to create traditions based solely on identifying the perception of wealth and how it must be gained, either as a whole or individually by the people. Bibliography Austen, J., 1995. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Dover Publications. Becker, H.S., 2007. Telling about Society. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Dant, T., 1999. Material Culture in the Social World. Buckingham: Open University Press. Defoe, D., 2001. Robinson Crusoe. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks. Nerlich, M., 1987. Ideology of Adventure: Studies in Modern Consciousness, 1100-1750, Volume 1. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota. Phillips, A., 2004. Defending equality of outcome. Journal of Political Philosophy, 12(1), pp. 1-19. Smith, E. A. et al., 2010. Wealth transmission and inequality among hunter-gatherers. Current Anthropology, 51(1), pp. 19-34. Sturm, D., 1998. Solidarity and Suffering: Toward a Politics of Relationality. Albany: State University of New York Press. Read More