Deserted Village

I think that it is interesting how many of the works that we have read have addressed the high/low culture topic, but Goldsmith is the one who addresses it most blatantly. Beowulf and Canterbury Tales had elements of class such as ring-giver vs. thane or the order in which Chaucer describes the pilgrims based on class. Twelfth Night discusses how Malvolio's desire for Olivia is totally preposterous because he is a steward and she is a lady and then The Duchess of Malfi takes that same plot idea and shows how it would end if it actually happened. The Beggar's Opera boldly states that lawyers and politicians are just as honest as the thieves and murderers of the lower class. All of these works discuss the high/low idea to some extent, but Goldsmith's The Deserted Village seems to go the furthest in saying that the pleasure-loving aristocrats cause the land to be "adorned for pleasure all/ In barren splendor feebly awaits the fall" (285-6). Goldsmith mourns the land and his country because aristocrats have ruined the land and taken it away from the only people who do anything worthwhile--the lower class and the farmers.

Rachel Means