3 Most Important Facts About 19th Century Norway
- social classes are used to divide people up
- there are strict standards/margins for the upper-middle class
- the economic boom allowed people to move up classes through hard work and education
Concept of Respectability
“bourgeois respectability” – a member of the middle class, someone whose political, economic, and social opinions are believed to be determined mainly by concern for property values and conventional respectability – expectations of the upper-middle-class included financial success without any debt, good morals
I think being respectable was always important, especially for the upper classes, as they were the ones with the ‘power’ and people looked up to them. As the middle class expanded, more people gained wealth and they could now move up through hard work and education. Being respectable means to be proper and good. Propriety was a major part of the 19th century and that remained as the class grew.
