BRITISH WOMEN’S SUPERIORITY TOWARDS SOCIAL CLASS STRATIFICATION IN POST INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION ERA IN JANE AUSTEN’S EMMA

Abstract

Industrial revolution in Britain has fragmented people into a certain social class stratification namely; upper, middle, and lower class as reflected in Jane Austen’s novel Emma. This paper is aimed at analyzing relationship between characters especially women in novel Emma and people’s manner, attitude, way of thinking, view of life, social perception tendency in postindustrial revolution era in which the novel is written. Emma, Miss Taylor, and Miss Hawkins are representation of the British middle-class women who steadily keeps social limitation to show their existence in community by placing their social status as reference in socializing and interacting with other people. The higher social status people tend to adore and defy their position excessively by despising the lower class. As a result of this, they turn to be superior, more self-important people if they meet the lower-class ones in a social interaction.