Wilde's tale attempts to take in all the levels of the English society that he now lived in, from the exalted aristocracy .... The upper class is isolated and distant, ...
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While the monarchy live a life of constant pleasure, it is the middle-classes that effectively control and fashion society after their own image. ...
In both Victorian London and Wilde's mythical ..., the middle class preach the gospel of respectability, improvement and courtesy. They formulate an ideological manifesto implicitly designed to defend and extend their social position. For example, ...; the pampered princess frets over the laziness ... and is concerned that her dress 'will be ready in time for the State-ball' (173); ... The middle class protect their privileged position of power by constructing an impenetrable discourse ....
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... Crudely, if you were rich, you were saved. ... Indeed, by the mid-seventeenth century, most Calvinist groups seem to have equated worldly success with the possibility of salvation. As Max Weber puts it, [the] acquisition [of wealth] as a performance of duty in a calling, [was] not only morally permissible, but actually enjoined. Such a theology, of course, allowed for the type of capitalism evidenced in the story. ...; the lady-in-waiting criticises anything she sees as laziness; ...
