Social Class and Inequality

The book explores the vast chasm between the ruling classes and the working poor, depicting the suffering of the Blanketeers, the corruption of the workhouse, and the futile struggles of reformers against a system that crushes the lower classes.

The chapter contrasts the domestic comfort of the Colemans with the misery of the Major's lodgings, and discusses the economic exploitation of the poor through taxes and rents.

The chapter highlights the intolerable conditions of the working classes in 1816, with rising wheat prices, incendiarism, and the proposal of a march of the unemployed on London.

The overseer and parson's cruel treatment of the starving weaver; the impossibility of decent illness for the poor.

The description of the town's social hierarchy, from the Hall and vicarage to the shops and the pump, illustrates class distinctions.