John Collier Middle Class Essay

Collier is once again displaying a double standard in the classes. Undoubtedly men have the power in a marriage, but that power differs depending on the class. While an upper class man can dispose or cheat on his wife at will, a middle class man does not have that luxury and instead may just kill them. Devoid of the protection of family name and already in a precarious social position middle class men who have made their money working are far more susceptible to gossip or backlash by doing something as outlandish as killing a wife. Upon reading this I would assert that this might be a contributing factor to the reason why the narrator is not a member of the aristocracy, but rather a member of the middle class. There is also no threat of the …show more content…
The Narrator advises young ladies that if their husband is home, they should be absolutely miserable and complain. This way his home is now horrible and he will most likely leave and start “associating with his companions abroad” (Collier, 92). Collier then says, “…then the day is your own. You may, the moment his back is turned, resume your spirits, your good-humor, your gaiety, and make merry with your friends” (Collier, 92). The wife has very little power over the husband, but the wife can affect the husbands mood. In manipulating the husbands mood, the wife is able to gain what she really wants, independence. With the husband out of the way the wife can then hang out with friends and have a day that belongs to them, they are in control. If this is the case then why marry in the first place? Collier did not feel the need to. Absence of a man was part of the plight for independence in eighteenth century Britain, rather that was through choice, spinsterhood, or widowed was unimportant, as long as the day was their