Essay on Social Position Reflected in Roxana and Emma :: Roxana and Emma Essays

Social stick Reflected in Roxana and Emma There were severe conflicts between the city party and the state of matter party in 18th century Britain. The pastoral party, mainly serene of gentry, was based on set down interest and the metropolis party do money through trade and was based on moneyed interest. The Country party passed the Landed Property Qualification Act to maintain their power. However, this wreak merely encouraged more men of wealth to buy surface area estate, in many cases displacing old landed families who truly represented the landed interest.11 We can see this changing of power through these twain works, Roxana and Emma. Daniel Defoe was natural in London, so he naturally engaged in urban center party. Roxanas background is mainly city while that of Emma is the little boorish society called Highbury. As we can see the difference of the background of two works, we can also find some different attitude toward City and Country in these two works. I will write astir(predicate) these differences in point of the conception of military personnel, rank and different attitude to City cognises. Defoe indicates that younger sons who have careers in law and trade are the mainstay of the English landed estate. The uneducated eldest son is an insult to the word gentleman he is a man of no use to himself or to others.22 He thinks that trade is more important than land. We can find this attitude in Roxana. Roxana says, a true bred Merchant is the best Gentleman in the Nation that in Knowledge, in Manners, in Judgement of things, the Merchant out-did many of the nobility (Roxana 170, The page numbers of further references from Roxana will be put in parentheses in the text). She also says That an Estate is a Pond but that a Trade was a Spring(170). The Dutch merchant also says that the Tradesmen in London, speaking of the better sort of Trades, coud spend more coin in their Families, and yet give better Fortunes to their Children, than, ge nerally speaking, the Gentry of England from a 1000 l(170). We can know that Roxana has a very constructive view to a merchant from this. She thinks that a merchant is better than gentry. However, it is viewed differently, as shown in Emma. When Emma talks about the father of Mrs. Elton, she says like this a Bristol ? merchant, of course, he must be called but, as the whole of the profits of his mercantile feel appeared so very moderate, it was not unfair to guess the dignity of his live of trade had been very moderate also(Emma, 164).