In Victorian society, the concept of “genteel poverty” described individuals of high-born roots who had fallen on hard financial times yet clung to upper-class manners and aesthetics. These genteel poor retained education, refined tastes, and often remnants of titles, but lacked the wealth to sustain luxury lifestyles. Writers and social commentators of the time used this condition to critique class pretensions. Genteel poverty was especially visible in women, who could not easily earn independent income yet were expected to maintain decorum. Fiction and society columns often depicted these individuals with sympathy—and sometimes satire. Rather than wearing visibly poor clothing, they might borrow or repair old finery to “keep up appearances.” The concept shows how Victorian society valued performance of class as much as actual economic power.
This phenomenon reveals how class performance could be a kind of theatre in Victorian Britain.
It underscores that identity and perception often mattered more than material reality when it came to class.
Did you know “genteel poverty” was a recognized social condition in Victorian times, blending social expectations with economic reality?
[Wikipedia, turn0search23]