Suitors and Courtship in the Lower Middle Class in Victorian Times Essa

Eligible Bachelors: Suitors and Courtship in the Lower Middle Class Trying for social advancement, single men and women of the lower middle and upper working classes sought to assume the Victorian middle class rituals of courtship and engagement. Accordingly, this aim joined with the poor finances key to these classes to lead to the complicated struggle of the bachelor. A Suitable Suitor To be considered an appropriate suitor to a lower middle class woman, a man of similar station must address and fulfill several conditions. The importance of class, wealth, and status surfaced in that the â€Å"main requirement for a man was that he be a good provider† (Frost 82). Before attempting an engagement, a man â€Å"had to wait to inherit land or money with which to start a farm or small business† (Frost 62). Economically strained, couples â€Å"had to save carefully before setting up a household;† thus, the engagement period greatly exceeded the courting phase by two to eight more years among the lower middle class (Frost 62). Other factors, such as age, religious beliefs, and compatible temperamen...