Class Divisions in the Whitechapel District

As we can see in the movie, Heather Graham’s character plays a prostitute who encounters bits and pieces of the scandal which causes Jack the Ripper to commit the murders in the movie. At least, in this version of the scandal anyways. There is a great scene in which Anne, former prostitute and friend of Heather Graham’s character, comes back from her new middle class life to visit with her friends of the night and to ask them to take care of her baby temporarily. I say this scene is great because it illustrates the dress differences that are evident between classes, which is depicted in the picture I have chosen to post for this topic. Clearly, one can see that Anne is wearing clothes of a higher caliber than the rest of her friends, not only in the styles in which they wear but simply because she is cleaner and more put-together than her friends.
This scene is also great in demonstrating accents as well. Even though Anne is of a higher class now that she has married Albert, a painter, her accent is still of a cockney variety which is more characteristic of lower class society.

Class divisions are also shown in the evidence in which Depp’s character collects as the inspector looking after the ‘Ripper’ case. By discovering that the killer lures his prey with grapes it can be concluded that the killer is of a higher class since lower class killers could not possibly afford to buy grapes.

Finally, class divisions can be seen in the overall plot of the movie. Queen Victoria wishes to cover up the fact that Prince Albert has chosen to marry and have a baby with a lower class prostitute. Thus, she has Prince Albert’s wife and baby taken away and asks Jack the Ripper to take care of the prostitutes that were witnesses to the marriage. Although in the movie it demonstrates that she did not have murder in mind when asking Jack to take care of these inconvenient witnesses, she still displays a sense of not wanting to be associated with lower class society, something that is particularly characteristic of the class which she is a part of.

So why is class division in Victorian society important? Because class divisions are characteristic of the times. As mentioned in lecture, the Upper Middle Class, wishing to resemble the aristocracy, are also condescending towards the lower classes. The lower classes are self confidence, have pride and are resilient, but are also cynical towards the middle and upper class. Thus, pointing out this very dominant theme in the movie demonstrates that it is attempting to resemble Victorian times in class distinction and division.