Nineteenth-century British subjects were well-educated in the social mores as they applied to each class of people. The lines between these groups were firmly drawn.

Crossing those lines made everyone acutely uncomfortable, at best, and subject to dismissal from job and society, at worst. A person protected his reputation since it was his proudest possession. Class was inherited, not earned, leading to prejudices of the working class against the upper middle class, whose privileges were sometimes seen as unearned and without merit.

1. Is there a class system in America today? If so, what criteria would place a person in a particular class?

2. Can a person in today's society move from class to class? How would one accomplish this?

3. Compare the Victorian class system to the class system in America today. Do you think the British influenced the American class system?

4. Compare the middle-class values in the...