Essay Sample on Class Divide: Social Classes in Society Through Brecht's & Gay's Plays

Introduction

The society is characterized by capitalism, which leads to the emergence of class divisions. The three standard social classes within a society are low, middle, and upper class. The gap between these classes keeps widening due to the presence of competition in the community. The social class gap has also led to the rise of immorality, crime, and hypocrisy within society. The plays; The Threepenny Opera and The Beggar Opera authored by Bertolt Brecht and John Gay respectively illuminate on the social classes and capitalism within the society. These plays highlight the evils done by the lower, middle, and upper-class individuals to raise their social class in society. The purpose of this essay is to discuss the various insights that Brecht's and Gay's plays provide into class politics as well as discuss the distinctions between Brecht's and Gay's understanding of class and society.

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One of the insights provided by Brecht's and Gay's plays is the competitiveness of the capitalist's societies, which comprises of the low working class, middle as well as the upper class. Brecht and Gay enlighten its audience that the capitalist system consists of the working class occupying the lower class who are determined to move to the middle class or to the upper class regardless of the means they are going to use to reach this status. The play indicates that the major motivation for the people in a capitalist society is profits and ascension from one social class to another. Besides, the play teaches that capitalist societies are characterized by competition for the ownership of factors of production, which are responsible for defining the class that one belongs in society. The more resources one has, the high the social class they acquire in their society.

The Threepenny Opera and The Beggars Opera plays many characters occupying the low class indulge in different activities that might be illegal and immoral in order to make a living. Some of these activities include prostitution, crime, and begging. For instance, Jenny is willing to have sex with Macheath in order to get money despite having been abused by Macheath in the past (Brecht 23). Besides, the Macheath indulges in the crime of stealing from people he owes money to prosper in the banking business. It is noteworthy that these individuals are doing this in order to progress from one social class to another. For example, Macheath wants to move from a low-class person who can only raise money through stealing but by owning a bank, which can make him a businessperson, thus joining the middle class. From these illustrations, Brecht enables the audience to have a deep understanding that class politics in society pushes people to do any form of activity to move from one social class to another.

Another insight gathered from Brecht's and Gay's plays is the hypocrisy among the leaders, business persons, in the society. Through these plays, the audience have an understanding that society is composed of businesspersons, leaders, and criminals who are out there to manipulate others to reach their selfish goals at the expense of other low class and helpless persons in society. Furthermore, the people enlightened by these plays to be wary of the people they think are concerned about their needs and their wellbeing as most of these individuals who occupy high positions of power and class in the society are responsible for their social problems such as crimes. As an illustration, Brecht uses the Peachum and Macheath to demonstrate how hypocritical the society and those people are willing to break the law, violate societal values to get acquire the resources that will promote them from one class to another. Notably, in The Threepenny Opera, Peachum poses as a legal businessperson in need of creating employment and helping those in the low class (Gay 1). However, he creates fake beggars to borrow money from the wealthy middle class and upper-class individuals by selling sympathy. Furthermore, Macheath is a criminal who conducts his criminal activities under the protection of the chief police. By getting support from the chief of police, he can actualize his dream of rising from a low class to a middle class by joining the banking industry to steal more money from the people. In The Beggar's Opera, Gay educates his readers on ways leaders to move from one class to another in the social and ladder through hypocrisy rather than by being ethical and using the legal means. In this play, Peachum is a thief and continues to expand his wealth by reporting his troop members to the law enforcers. He is also willing to rise more in the social ladder by marrying his daughter Polly to a wealthy man. This demonstrates that he is ready to marry her daughter to any man regardless of their moral standings, provided he is wealthy and will enable him to rise from one social class to another quickly.

John Gay understands the lower class as well as those in the upper class as having insufficient morals and ethics. He perceives the lower class to be like the courts and crime offenders as they are all violating the value and morals of society. For instance, in his play The Beggar's Opera, he uses the Peachum, who is on a higher class compared to those helping him orchestrate his unethical business dealings. He uses his position and skills to manipulate the low-class individuals to steal goods on his behalf and then turn them to the police. Furthermore, Peachum is not committed to observing integrity in his business as he justifies his acts of dishonesty by comparing himself with lawyers who represent the lawbreakers and the innocent. Besides, he opines that cheating in companies should be permitted as the cheats are part and parcel of the society (Gay 43). By focusing on this Peachum, he wants to show that the high class is morally decayed as the lower class is. The main intention for perceiving the lower and upper level as immoral people in the society was to get a chance to empower the middle class as he believes that many of his audience is in this class. Furthermore, he perceives that most of the lower-class individuals are emulating the upper class in society, which he finds to be wrong.

Brecht understands the society to be highly capitalistic and comprises of the lower, middle, and upper class. He understood that capitalism glorified competition and the social classes that an individual belonged to. In a capitalist society, the people who possess the production factors such as land, businesses and money always occupy the upper class positions in the society while those who do not have the capital, land or businesses become the sellers of labor to the owners of businesses and capital thus occupying the lower class in the society. In a capitalist society, the upper class is usually focused on producing more wealth and accumulating more capital without considering the ethics of the means they use to retain their upper-class social status. Brecht notes that, in most cases, the upper class is cruel and ruthless to the lower class who are dependent on them.

On the other hand, Brecht notes that lower-class work hard to own the factors of production to shift from the lower class towards the middle class and finally to the upper level. However, the lower class in the society is willing to use any means to reach move up the social ladder without considering the ethics and values of their actions. For instance, in The Threepenny Opera, Brecht paints a picture of a society where the characters in the lower class and upper class are doing whatever they can to survive without considering the moral implications of their actions. For instance, Peachum is determined to facilitate Macheath's downfall to stop the marriage between him and Peachum's daughter as this will ruin his business. Ironically, Peachum is led by the interests to protect his business rather than to protect his daughter from marrying a criminal.

Conclusion

The essay focused on discussing the various insights that Brecht's and Gay's plays provide into class politics as well as consider the distinctions between Brecht's and Gay's understanding of class and society. The plays educate the audience about capitalism in society and how it is propagated and facilitated by intense competition within community. It has emerged that competition within a capitalistic society has led to the emergence of the lower, middle, and upper class. Brecht and Gay's plays also enlighten the readers on the hypocrisy that exists within leadership and business within the society, which is driven by the presence of class divisions. Gay understands class and society as comprising of lower and upper class who have little regard for morals while holds the middle class with high regard as his play focuses on empowering this group. Brecht understands society to be highly capitalistic and with different class divisions competing against each other. He notes that people in such societies are willing to do anything to acquire the resources to rise to the next class. Therefore, the societal leaders should come up with measures to deal with social crimes, immoralities, and illegalities orchestrated by individuals pursuing higher their selfish goals.

Works Cited

Brecht, Bertolt, Desmond Ivo Vesey, and Eric Bentley. The threepenny opera. London: Methuen, 1979.

Gay, John. "The Beggars Opera. Edited by Peter Elfed Lewis." (1973).