A little, lean, wiry old woman was Dame Dermody--with fierce black eyes, surmounted by bushy white eyebrows, by a high wrinkled forehead, and by thick white hair gathered neatly under her old-fashioned "mob-cap." Report whispered (and whispered truly) that she had been a lady by birth and breeding, and that she had deliberately closed her prospects in life by marrying a man greatly her inferior in
social rank. Whatever her family might think of her marriage, she herself never regretted it.
In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gradation of
social rank. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations.
The new abode of the two friends was with a pious widow, of good
social rank, who dwelt in a house covering pretty nearly the site on which the venerable structure of King's Chapel has since been built.
Her manner had all the charm which fine breeding can confer--exquisitely polite, easily cordial; showing that perfect yet unobtrusive confidence in herself which (in England) seems to be the natural outgrowth of pre-eminent
social rank. If you had accepted her for what she was, on the surface, you would have said, Here is the model of a noble woman who is perfectly free from pride.
He was annoyed at the manner in which his gift had been returned, an though he had condescended, under the influence of passion, to place himself on a level with Ptitsin and Ferdishenko, his self-respect and sense of duty now returned together with a consciousness of what was due to his
social rank and official importance.
Despite these warnings, the lure of a career that would better one's
social rank and economic condition, regardless of the uncertainty of the outcome, continued to drive a considerable number of students to educational institutions at all levels, including the university.
He explicitly shows that "there is significant difference between the methods used in hunting deer employed by gentlemen and by those of inferior
social rank" (20).
Only those children born of women of sufficient
social rank could be considered for the succession, high marriage, or noble honors.
Jordan shows lucidly how arguments from cultural relativism affect gender characterization, and how the question of equality relates to
social rank and the notion of equity; she concludes that Renaissance feminist discourse is pan-European and transgeneric, never producing an 'actionable program', but succeeding in 'feminizing society'.
"Such small pretty brooches were worn by ladies of every
social rank - other examples reported from the county have either been plain or have included religious inscriptions - so this example is a little different from the norm."
They also said that they 'can no longer watch idly as they (politicians) flaunt their
social rank on ordinary people, even accuse the waiter of staring at the lawmaker when he was merely performing his duties.'
In feudal Japan, people of every class submitted to strict laws about what they could and could not wear, according to their
social rank. In Medieval and Renaissance Europe, the nobility policed the clothing of the middle classes, making sure to keep them in their place.