'How To Get On In Society' by John Betjeman

However what is so ironic about this play is its humour. At a quick overview you would believe that Betjeman is trying to discreetly mock the upper classes (Which to a degree he is), but in actual fact this is a very aristocratic poem, as he is infact using the upper classes to mock the life of the petty bourgeoisie. In the poem he talks of how if you do belong to the bourgeoisie, you are in a purgatory of social class, for bourgeoisie have no character traits themselves. They are a newer class of people and so have no defined heritage, and so you will tend to find them, in their portrayed appearance trying to encounter and partake in one of the two extremes, mainly the upper class. The upper class, consists of descendants (about 80,000) of the original 125 nobles in England, and have a very shallow and superficial lifestyle. However they acquire great amounts of respect and interest, as they are part of English History, and live a very extravagant lifestyle, fuelled on old money. Therefore many of the more traditional people, especially the elders, who see nobility under a different light, as being quite everything to want to aspire to, try to copy their ways, so to create for themselves a more prestigious stature. They want to be seen as a somebody and not a nobody, and so pretend to do as the rich do. Betjeman was very interested in the study of the Noblesse Oblige, first conducted by A.C.Ross. This is seen throughout his later works such as 'False Security', where he in the final line says: "I WONDER WHERE JULIA FOUND THAT STRANGE, RATHER COMMON LITTLE BOY?" This apart from being a prejudice and snobby statement, where the boy is deemed just to be common, and so strange to the Upper Classes, as he is not distinguished, is a direct statement to Betjeman and his upbringing, as he was from a NON-U family, and so if seen by his family to be he would have been treated the same as the boy, as an outcast. In fact one can assume that Betjeman may be talking about his current predicament, where he is shown to be the outcast in his family, as his father-in-law never accepts him into his Upper Class sorority. His fascination with class is also seen in the poem 'Thoughts on 'The Diary of a Nobody', where in the final stanza once more he states how we should strive for an Upper Class lifestyle, or at least that being the general wishes of the public. Betjeman seems to postpone his poems, creating a sort of anti-climax, until the final stanza where he draws the pieces of the poetical puzzle together to provide the hidden or underlying meaning, and this is non-different as the final quatrain is most telling and dramatic, as he uses a sort of ambiguity for doilies, so to promote a sound that connotes the company for the party to be of a lower class, or stupid to continue this outrageous charade. So a sort of bathos approach to the poem is achieved.

One immediately assumes the speaker to be a woman, because as a general assumption, women are more critical and bothered about physical appearance, and the good first impression, whereas men are more interested in the sport. This is a very stereotypical view, but upon considering that upon the time of publication, sexual equality was not yet upstanding and women's places were believed to be in the home, you can see the imagery that Betjeman is creating.

The use of the name 'Norman', can be perceived in two separate manors. We can primarily take 'Norman' to be us, the audience, as a direct initial address is made, however 'Norman' could also be the husband or servant, as 'Norman' is a very dull and working class name, and so while not promoting a Upper Class servant it serves its purpose to pose as one for the bourgeoisie, in the form of the husband or partner. This is one of the many hints that Betjeman gives so to expose the fraudity of the middle classes and show their veracity to life, behind the masquerade. The Phoning for fish-knives is also a give-away as the Upper Classes would have their own fish knives, and by the eating of fish the resident and host is trying to air a sophisticated and delicate inclination. The placement of Cook as a personal noun suggests that it is not a cook at all but a member of the household, most likely her, as she tells of her being unnerved. The use of serviettes is also a promotion for the Non-U as it suggests that they are paper, and the word is from French origins, and while the U may be able to speak French they know that this device is actually a napkin, and an English invention, and so why shun it so.

The poem continues in this manor, but before continuation, I must point out that this poem was a competition poem, sent into the 'Time and Tide'. This was a series of letters by John Raskin addressing the British Workers. There is much evidence of the Ruskin ideas inside this Betjeman work as like Betjeman after, Ruskin rebelled against the aesthetical murder and socially subservient effects which had taken place due to the boom in technology and formation of the Industrial revolution. Betjeman is therefore promoting an inherited nobility, as nobility cannot just be inserted into ones life through the guides of French derivatives and exotic dishes. This is said very tongue in cheek as Betjeman is assaulting himself, as he married into nobility, despite the objections, and so he is laying to death an age old theory, of the Nobles being of a higher mould, as he is suggesting to take himself and his contemporaries as examples to what, in a capitalist system can be gained and installed. Hence while this is a direct link to the works of Ruskin, it can also be seen as an attack upon him. Betjeman through this poem keeps none happy, and aggravates the majority of stable social classes. He is suggested that U formation cannot just be acted in a reciprocated fashion, much like the parrot talk of the lady or the constant self assurance and checks she puts herself under, in rehearsal for the actual moment.

Betjeman is showing a commodious amount of arrogance and ignorance, as he is very hypocritical, as while he berates the lower classes through his barrage of abuse, he forgets that he too endeavoured to be something that he is not, as he is no Noble, but a poet, and not a very good one at that, of working background. He is creating through his work a manifesto into his decisions regarding social classes, where he is now protecting his achievements, by creating an untouchable, yet invisible socially defined border which segregates the elite and intellectuals from the mere peasants, or commoners, as he recalls them. A radical fascist movement is apparent in this body of his writing as he is outlining the pleas for an Elitist Elite. Therefore we can see that Betjeman is writing to an enclosed audience consisting of mainly the aristocrats themselves, and not the victims of the wrath of his tongue. From this poem a darker side to Betjeman is shown, one of similar fashion to his ethnic cleansing ideals, present in 'Slough'.

The second stanza shows more of the linguistic differences that Betjeman has conveyed, more of the suave French such as "cruets" and "requisites". The frills around the cutlets, is also a myth of the Upper Class, as well as the wooden fire conception. It is supposed that the house be so big that classic wooden fire be used to heat the house, but this ideology is replaced by the usage of the plastic wood decorated heater, a tasteless and tacky invention, to promote a feeling of historical class. The "toilet" instead of the lavatory; the "lounge" instead of the sitting room; "vestibule" instead of the hall or lobby; "riding on horseback" instead of riding horses. The next quatrain tells of using a fork to eat pastries when all nobles know that you need to stay in-touch with your raw primitive side and eat with your hands, and so act in devine splendour. The couch being used for feet, promotes a dirty and slobbish image which is not generally accepted, as a 'Pouffy' is used. The use of sweet instead of dessert and the serving of trifle, a manufacture good are all non- U ideas. The notion of traditional England, put forth by afternoon-tea is shown, but the use of paper doilies, preserves, and not jam, is an atypical Non-U mistake. It is all rather like a fashion parade, of separate styles. Betjeman only uses one metaphor ("…soiling the doilies"), along with only a small piece of alliteration ("…sufficient for sweet"), and one piece of assonance ("…soiling the doilies"). However through these pieces of grammar and interior rhyme is picked up on, where a joyful and playful mood is detected.

So we can see the evidence of the mocking of the middle class, yet also under the humorous exterior an attack is progressing on the defining Social Class; the peak of the hierarchy; the Upper Class. He is showing their arrogant ways and beliefs, that they are of a higher entity and so should control the masses is not directly, then through their valuation of self and mind, and so through society. Betjeman is using the society issue as a tool, to get to the foremost of his hatred of self-evils. In this poem he portrays much of his own self-demeanours, and so is repenting against himself. He is revising his own choices of life, or lie, and exposing not only the humiliated bourgeoisie but also the anguished governors of the collapsed feudalist system. And so an aphorism is shown in this satire and rhetoric poem, where, to 'Get On In Society', one needs to become 'Normal and Common'.