The Duchess - Book Review - Time of Virginia Woolf Lived in England

The novel reflects the times in which Virginia Woolf lived in England. It was a time of transition. The higher class of society was becoming corrupt, dishonest, and lazy because of their wealth and privileged place in society. The lower class of society was using whatever means they had, whether honest or dishonest, to move up from being lower class people into the highest class of society.

In the story, Mr. Bacon is the example of the lowest class of society. The duchess is the example of the highest class of society. In any society, the lowest class looks up at the highest class because they have the wealth, the prestige, the respect that the lowest class wants and will do anything to get. The highest class in society has all of the wealth and prestige that they will ever need but they need the lowest class to help them with the menial tasks which they do not want to do and they despise the lowest class of people

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In this story, Mr. Bacon represents the lowest class of society. He was born of a poor family in a filthy alley of London's poorest neighborhood. As a child he stole dogs and sold them in order to begin getting his wealth. He sold cheap watches to further his wealth. He made the transitionoutwardly from being a low class person to being a high class person. Inwardly, in his mind, he would always be a low class person. Because of this, no matter how wealthy he became or how high he rose in the high class of society, he would always have a low self-esteem which caused him to constantly seek to get more wealthy and rise higher in society.

The Duchess represents the high society. She born in that high social class. She married into that high social class. She was wealthy. As a result, she was careless with her money as she gambled it away. She had learned to be manipulative to get her desires met. She did not hesitate to use people for her own advantage.

These two people, like so many in different levels of society, are both friends and enemies for several reasons:

1. Since they were of two different backgrounds and levels of society they could never really be friends. However, he had something that she needed so she must be a friend to him to get what she needs. On the other hand, the duchess had something that he needed so he had to be a friend to her to get what he needed.

What did she need? She needed money. She was dishonest, careless, lazy, and gambled away her money. He was rich and could help her whenever she needed his money.

What did he need? He had a low self image and needed to be respected by the upper class of society and wanted to be accepted by them and party with them. She could bring him into that social class. He also loved her daughter and she could help him to have quality time with her daughter