On Taste Construction Of The Middle Class In The Mysteries Of Udolpho

Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) is a very famous female gothic writer in the eighteenthcentury Britain whose works are of great aesthetic value. The novel The Mysteries ofUdolpho (1794) creates the heroine Emily of refined taste which distinguishes both from theextravagant taste of the aristocrat and from the lower class’s vulgar taste. Recently, scholarsattach great value to The Mysteries of Udolpho for its aesthetic sensibility and sublimity,while this paper will apply Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of taste in his social class theory tolink the novel’s aesthetic value with the specific social background to study how the middleclass establish and elevate the middle-class cultural position by distinguishing from otherclasses.The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu argues significantly that the taste is a kind ofsymbolic capital as well as a strategy of distinction. Individuals and groups take advantage ofthis right and strategy to maintain and improve their social position. At the end of eighteenthcentury, the middle class had collected much economic capital which inspired theiraspirations to get more of such symbolic capitals as political and cultural capital. Themiddle-class intellectuals, Radcliffe as an example, try to claim their cultural superiority fortheir refined moral taste in the literary form.This thesis consists of three chapters besides Introduction and Conclusion. The firstchapter analyzes the challenge of the middle class to the authority of the aristocrat. The StAubert family members, a typical middle-class family, have their own judgment of taste anddisregard the extravagant taste of the aristocrats. Contrastive with the aristocrats who honortheir luxurious chateaus with ostentatious decoration, Emily dislikes them for theirtastelessness and the indifference of their masters, while she prefers to the simple and refinedlittle cottage. Besides, Emily distastes the extravagant entertainments of the aristocrats, whichconcerns sensuous pleasures and leads to their moral corruption. Thus, linking the aristocratictaste with moral corruption is at the same time to beautify and finally establish themiddle-class taste. The second chapter discusses Radcliffe’s strategy to distinguish from thelower-class taste and discovers the “symbolic violence” to educate the lower class. On onehand, in the novel, some peasants’ taste for necessary goods cannot rid of the disturbance ofmaterials which in turn displays the superiority of the middle-class taste. But it covers the social reality of the weak economic position of the lower class. On the other hand, manyother peasants in the novel are always enjoying such leisure activities as dancing and singing,which in virtue are to show the middle-class benevolence and to disarm the lower class threatto the rich. The third chapter uncovers that the virtue of middle-class moral taste is tonaturalize the middle-class authority. Communing with nature and loving art effectivelydisplay the middle-class taste. Emily can purify and strengthen herself in the natural worldand be elevated in her good taste in art which enables her to distinguish from both thearistocrats and the lower class. But this distinction, in fact, covers the differences of materialand cultural resources between classes. The middle-class taste, therefore, is legitimate andshows the cultural superiority of the middle class.The middle-class moral taste in The Mysteries of Udolpho is in virtue a culturalconstruction by creating a distinction from both the aristocrat and the lower class hereby tolegitimate even optimize its own refined taste which manifests the middle-class efforts tojustify and elevate their cultural aspiration in social exchanges.