Poverty and Shame

I love the novel Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. In addition to the humor and the delightful characters, Gaskell provides insight into the British mindset of the mid-1800's. I also wonder if she has put on paper what many of us think:

“Elegant economy!” How naturally one falls back into the phraseology of Cranford! There, economy was always “elegant,” and money-spending always “vulgar and ostentatious”; a sort of sour-grapeism which made us very peaceful and satisfied. I never shall forget the dismay felt when a certain Captain Brown came to live at Cranford, and openly spoke about his being poor—not in a whisper to an intimate friend, the doors and windows being previously closed, but in the public street! in a loud military voice! alleging his poverty as a reason for not taking a particular house. The ladies of Cranford were already rather moaning over the invasion of their territories by a man and a gentleman. He was a half-pay captain, and had obtained some situation on a neighbouring railroad, which had been vehemently petitioned against by the little town; and if, in addition to his masculine gender, and his connection with the obnoxious railroad, he was so brazen as to talk of being poor—why, then, indeed, he must be sent to Coventry. Death was as true and as common as poverty; yet people never spoke about that, loud out in the streets. It was a word not to be mentioned to ears polite. We had tacitly agreed to ignore that any with whom we associated on terms of visiting equality could ever be prevented by poverty from doing anything that they wished. If we walked to or from a party, it was because the night was so fine, or the air so refreshing, not because sedan-chairs were expensive. If we wore prints, instead of summer silks, it was because we preferred a washing material; and so on, till we blinded ourselves to the vulgar fact that we were, all of us, people of very moderate means. Of course, then, we did not know what to make of a man who could speak of poverty as if it was not a disgrace.¹

Should a person who is poor feel shame? In the passage above, Captain Brown is a hardworking man. He is not indigent, but circumstances are such that he needs to penny-pinch. By contrast, the ladies of Cranford take great pains to hide their straitened finances. It seems that Captain Brown is more honest and more content with the realities of life than they are.

This idea of relative poverty being a disgrace isn't just confined to the pages of a novel. I heard two women from Taiwan relate the practice of keeping a piece of cooked pork fat on hand. Before you left the house, you wiped your mouth with the fat so it would look like you were rich enough to eat meat every day. I also read where rising middle-class women in Victorian times would try to find work on the side, but it was a great secret. Everyone was trying to ape their betters, namely the wealthy, so who would want to admit that they needed more than one income to make ends meet?  I could even relate some stories of my own. Maybe you could too.

If you read the New Testament, poverty was the norm. I don't believe Acts 2 is a call for socialism, but it seems the church freely helped those in need within and without her walls.² Did the idea of disgrace come later, perhaps with the rise of the middle class and the industrialization of the West? But the Apostle James offers a strong reproof for the sin of partiality, so it's not just a recent phenomena. ³ Either way, this false cloud of shame keeps those in need from having the need met and deprives others of the opportunity to give and not just financially. Pretense for the sake of appearance doesn't help anyone, but being open and honest at the risk of being awkward  can only help grow genuine community.

1. Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell, Dover Publications, 2003, pg. 3-4.
2. Acts 2:24-27
3. James 2:1-7