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Bellamarie - there had been a habit by some writers and very evident in earlier plays - Shakespeare and other playwrights - to have a small play within a play. Trollop does use many references to
Hamlet. Hamlet does ask some strolling players to perform the
Murder of Gonzago, that appears to have little to do with the goings on in the main story and yet, there is always a sublet shadow of some aspect of the main story.
There are few other opportunities in Trollop's story to bring in seamlessly a secondary group of characters, who are temporary to the story so that the 'garden party' or 'fair' arranged by the Thorne's is a perfect venue especially, that it includes games etc from an earlier time in English History when the class system had less players.
It is still spritzed among Brits the deep divide of class - just as we are becoming more tolerant of race but there are still issues - issues of race differences to the US is parallel to class difference in Britain.
Before the Civil Rights acts and the integration of schools in the late 60s and 70s the lack of professional jobs and the large amount of poverty was typical in the Black Community. It would have been a shock of complete disbelief to find a Black neighborhood of 100s of $500,000 + priced homes as there is in for instance Atlanta - During the years before WWII seeing a Black man or woman dressed similarly to a white couple meant they were in show business or underworld activities.
That kind of viewpoint of differences is basic to Britain over class. We can make in fun or think it silly or judge any way we would like but it is serious to the Brits - the schools you attend, the way you dress, even to the way you talk, your hobbies, your topic of conversation, your friends, are all poster board signs of your class. On the surface being the active owner of a large country estate working side by side with the game keeper or others who tend the land seems like they are amiable friends and yet, they both know their class and place far and above any system of filial relationship within the jobs. That side by system between owner, usually a noblemen, and supervisor or hired hand, whose job is often inherited from past workers on the estate is a working relationship that is dependent on traditional class boundaries far more than employer and employee.
And so, this little vignette, that Trollop includes shows how within the lower class (their language and how they describe proper dress is the tip off), within this lower class of folks attached to the land, there is a level of class within class based on association. Like the many who instead of using their extra income to build a healthy investment portfolio or acquire more land, use it to buy the trappings of a wealthier lifestyle with hopes of gaining admission to the next level, based on owning the trappings, so they can then have their sons and (since the later half of the 20th century) their daughters considered for admission to the schools and opportunities that allow them to climb a ladder of success.
We as a nation did it when we decided high school was to prepare students for collage and collage became the only worthwhile goal so that schools were stripped of industrial classes and the status of mechanics, plumbers, electricians, cosmetologist, even massage therapists, not only have less pay than a job requiring a collage education but, they are socially considered among a lower class - In the US class is not as important and all classes participate in positions like school board or putting on a community event - and judging things like a 4H project or a baking contest is not reserved only for the wealthy or even the collage educated where as, in Britain that would be normal.
And so, what I see in this chapter Lookalofts and Greenacres (
their names give them away) is a bit of class one-upmanship and the squabbles among those who judge others because of their desire to improve their family's lot in life one way versus, the 'judging' parties chosen way. All this station of life is a counter and shadow-squabble to the shenanigans for position among the clergy and highlights the various class levels of clergy; Bishop versus the Dean, versus the Chaplin versus the lowly Warden etc. (I missed a few steps) - The Lookalofts and Greenacres are showing us how these levels of class importance play out among the clergy in how each are addressed, their levels of income, if they wear a suit or a robe or a surplice when they preach, whom they marry and that partner's family's class which is noted by the way the wife dresses etc etc. (big difference in how Eleanore and Mrs. Gravely dress as compared to Mrs. Quiverful) The class differences are within the church just as, the class differences are within a certain class as well as, the class differences over all.
The top of this food chain starts with the crown and then those families whose noble ancestry was established before the fifteenth and sixteenth century when the head of the family was predominant supporting the crown and were in return given title, status, land along with the obligation to fight in any war in order to protect the king and to collect the taxes that financed the crown/government. Originally, the higher class were these nobles, the church and the military. Later, merchants and scholars according to wealth and success were elevated to this higher level and their children also attended the established public schools, that we call private schools.
As to farmers, even those with larger land holdings, consorting with the likes of Mr. Thorne, whose family was probably among the nobility, is jumping many steps in the class system - The milk of human kindness mentioned is the way Trollop alludes to the nature of all the nudity that is so offensive to those who think as the puritans but, for sure denotes their class status that did not include dressing as the likes of the Stanhopes.
Knowing this class structure helps to understand further the humor in the film when Bertie befriends a drinking yokel and they are both lying on some hay as if equal and friends. No different than any white kid who befriends a black kid in school, back in the 1960s when the first Blacks were attending what were all white schools. (One thing to play together outside school, that happened all the time. Another, to be openly friendly in the formality of a tax based institution or within a business.)
all that to say it is a play within a play and it shows how some attempt to climb the ladder in a class structure and how those, who choose not to make the jump or, who were passed over by those that could elevate, would bad mouth those involved on both class levels and consider any effort to advance into the next class level as colluding with the lofty.
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