Social class and mobility

Social class and mobility
Social class analysis has been used to provide new and perhaps, better understanding not only of the society around us but of texts such as fictional works. In this paper, three short stories are analyzed in the context of social class and mobility. It is argued that through social class analysis, the stories showed how the main characters are wrought by internal and external contradictions distinct of their own social class status. Furthermore, it will be shown how the actions of the characters faced with these contradictions led to various unintended consequences.
“The Necklace,” is the story of a middle-class girl, Mathilde Loisel, who dreamt of a fancy life. Mathilde borrowed a diamond necklace from Mme. Forestier; this will be the one of the prevailing conflicts in the story, the conflict between two different social strata. When she lost the necklace, she immediately found a replacement that cost twice all of the money that she and her husband had. Still, her husband bought it thereby putting them in massive debt and they were catapulted to poverty for the next ten years. Consequently, they dismissed their maids and she had to look over the house, “She came to know the heavy work of the house…” (Maupassant 322). The story ended in a cruel irony.
“Semley’s Necklace,” is a romantic story that revolves around Semley, the young wife of a proud lord. Semley sets off on a journey to recover a necklace with legendary beauty. During her journey, she was taken to a spaceship and brought before the “star lords” where she was able to reclaim the said treasure. She then came back to her castle after what appeared to be a “one long night of travel” only to find out the time dilation effects of NAFAL travel; she was gone for nine years! Unfortunately, her husband had passed away and her daughter was already a grown up. With this, Semley darted off into the forest of the mountainside and was gone.
The Legacy is the story of the Clandons: Gilbert and his wife Angela. They are members of an upper-class society. When his wife died, she left him the collection of diaries that she kept throughout their marriage. In these diaries, she narrated how she had a secret love affair to a certain “B. M.” (Woolf 5). He then found out that her wife did not die, she committed suicide to be with her lover who killed himself earlier because she did not heed to his request that they live together.
The first story is full of imageries of the 19th century class society: the women is subordinate to me...