미덕 갖춘 시민과 계급: 세즈윅의 『가난한 부자와 부유한 빈자』를 중심으로

Abstract

Poverty and class division were a big national concern in America in the 1830s. The ideologically constructed ideas of equality and individual liberty were not necessarily supported by social realities. This paper examines how Sedgwick deals with the issue of how to resolve the problems of poverty and class differences in The Poor Rich Man and The Rich Poor Man (1836). Questioning the secular conception of the rich and the poor, Sedgwick proposes that the dispossessed are often better qualified to be a citizen if they educate themselves to develop virtues useful for building a virtuous Republic. Harry Aikin, ‘the rich poor man,’ grows to be a self-reliant man who builds the future on his own abilities and resources, while Morris Finley, ‘the poor rich man,’ inherits riches but cannot prove his own virtues to preserve or enhance them. Charlotte and Susan May are described as typical women paragons who value the Christian principles of content and virtues of poverty. By showing how poor people are more eligible for the positive future of the nation, Sedgwick holds that money should not be the barometer which determines who should be included as a virtuous citizen of the nation. As such, Sedgwick delivers a didactic message, upholding Christian idealistic solution to class differences for the sake of founding a unified American nation. Sedgwick reduces the problem of poverty to that of an individual, and proposes a spiritual solution which an individual can adopt by idealizing the state of poverty and emphasizing more riches in virtues. Accepting the status quo of the social system, Sedgwick's attitude, finally, boils down to lukewarm conservatism in reforming the negative effects of class differences and poverty.