So, I randomly decided while working on my paper that I wanted to see how much the 600quid that Gaskell got paid would translate into modern currency.
The web is not loaded with sites willing to provide these sorts of calculations, but according to a site of unproven integrity (http://futureboy.us/fsp/dollar.fsp), that 600quid is roughly equal to $60,000. So, that's a lot of money.
Out of curiosity, does anyone know a slightly more reputable source I could use to verify this?
Edited 10:47
I LOVE the British National Archives. They actually had a reasonable converter for this sort of thing. ^_^
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
How Did I Miss That?
This is about to make me sound as dumb as a brick, but I swear I never really gave much thought to consumer culture in North and South until, well, today in class. And, really, that's just weird, because this book is all about people marking class through physical objects. (Oh and strikes and love and stuff, but who cares about that?)
One of the central indicators of Margaret's family's fall from the middle classes (to only the lower-middle class really, but they really care loads) is that they can no longer afford the extravagant objects and possessions they used to. The biggest indicator that Thornton's family are nouveau-riche (hideously so in the eyes of the Margaret's class) is how they treat and acquire material possession. Admittedly, these are things I had thought about before. What makes me the prize fool is that I didn't realize the obvious indicator.
The obvious indicator of obviousness that I totally missed until today: MILTON IS A MANUFACTURING TOWN.
Yes, this novel actually takes place in a town where people make the fabrics that people use to indicate class statues. So, it turns out, even the broke and starving factory girls know how to tell someone's class by how they dress. The best example that springs to mind for me is when Margaret -- who hasn't realized that these people, since she isn't rich, don't see her as high class -- tells her friend Bessie, a poor mill girl, that she's having dinner with Thornton and the mill owner families, and Bessie thinks that Margaret couldn't be fit to mix with such fine company, since she doesn't dress rich: "'But them Milton ladies dress so grand,' said Bessie, with an anxious look at Margaret's print gown, which her Milton eyes assessed at seven-pence a yard" (148). Aside from obvious proof that Bessie's got skills, it sort of sums up how people in this town think about Margaret: Girl, I know exactly how much money you got, because I know what that fabric costs, you do not talk down to me."
Consumer culture in a surprisingly pure form.
One of the central indicators of Margaret's family's fall from the middle classes (to only the lower-middle class really, but they really care loads) is that they can no longer afford the extravagant objects and possessions they used to. The biggest indicator that Thornton's family are nouveau-riche (hideously so in the eyes of the Margaret's class) is how they treat and acquire material possession. Admittedly, these are things I had thought about before. What makes me the prize fool is that I didn't realize the obvious indicator.
The obvious indicator of obviousness that I totally missed until today: MILTON IS A MANUFACTURING TOWN.
Yes, this novel actually takes place in a town where people make the fabrics that people use to indicate class statues. So, it turns out, even the broke and starving factory girls know how to tell someone's class by how they dress. The best example that springs to mind for me is when Margaret -- who hasn't realized that these people, since she isn't rich, don't see her as high class -- tells her friend Bessie, a poor mill girl, that she's having dinner with Thornton and the mill owner families, and Bessie thinks that Margaret couldn't be fit to mix with such fine company, since she doesn't dress rich: "'But them Milton ladies dress so grand,' said Bessie, with an anxious look at Margaret's print gown, which her Milton eyes assessed at seven-pence a yard" (148). Aside from obvious proof that Bessie's got skills, it sort of sums up how people in this town think about Margaret: Girl, I know exactly how much money you got, because I know what that fabric costs, you do not talk down to me."
Consumer culture in a surprisingly pure form.
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