英语论文网

In the Middle Ages, the social structure was basically a fixed and static two-tier social structure, with kings and nobles at the top and laborers at the bottom. All social classes were strictly located on their own position according to customs, and the whole society lacked mobility and openness. Lawrence Stone believes that “the most basic structure of western European traditional society is divided into gentlemen and non-gentlemen. This two-tier social structure was formed in the early Middle Ages of western Europe, but it was more detailed in the late Middle Ages and early modern times.” (Lawrence Stone, 1966: 17) Since the 16th century, this two-tier social structure gradually changed into a three-tier social structure with aristocrats, middle class and wage earners as the main body. The three-tier social structure has a certain degree of openness and adaptability. In the 17th century, there were still three layers of subjects, but Everett points out that there was a special class in the 17th century, namely “pseudo-squire.” (Everett, 1996: 70) This group always includes the second son of gentleman, fallen gentlemen, priests and their children, officers, son-in-law of businessmen, doctors, heirs of law office. In addition, Moreel notices that there was also an “upstart class” (Xu Jieming, 2004: 68) different from the old aristocracy. This class began to take shape at the end of 17th century. In the second half of 17th century, after absorbing the most successful people in English society developed from other social classes and professional identity groups, these people transformed into an aristocratic group in the new era, that is, the “open elite” often mentioned by Stone. After entering the 18th century, according to Mingay in his English Landed Society in the Eighteenth Century, he points out that “the upper class of society included land aristocrats; The middle class includes businessmen, professionals, squires, big farmers and free farmers. The lower class includes not only groups of wageworkers who sell labor, such as agricultural workers, urban workers, miners and servants, but also groups of potential wageworkers such as vagrants and beggars.” (C.E. Mingay, 1963)

1.2 The Class Mobility through Marriage

In 18th century in Britain, marriage became an important way to achieve class mobility. Especially the middle class, both men and women, choose their spouses based on material conditions in order to stay in their original class or move upward. For middle-class men, in Keith Wrightson’s book, there is a survey about the marriage of factory owners and businessmen in London.

“The results show that more than 25% men choose to marry widows in order to have a better starting point for their economic conditions. In the 18th century, there were many such widows, and their conditions were particularly beneficial to businessmen, who could not only obtain capital, but also expand their own business scale.” (Keith Wrightson, 1982)

For middle-class women, “as the daughter of parents , the noble本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。