Importance of work in the 18th century

The importance of work is an idea that has changed significantly over the course of human history. Work was an important virtue during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance but 18th century brought an end to this.
This idea of work being important has served as a driving force that while once based heavily on religion, but was forced to change and find a more social reasoning to prevent idleness among the working class. The three novels presented form an interesting show of how the idea of work is scoffed at by the “upper” class of people.
In “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, perhaps one of the most cherished love stories in English literature you have as society of people whose entire goals are the advancement of their reputation and climbing the class hierarchy. Those who succeed are considered better than thos who aren’t. The enters the character Mr. Darcy The son of a wealthy, well-established family and the master of the great estate of Pemberley. He is considered a prize by the women of the novel for his class and reputation among the “upper crust.” The reader eventually realizes, however, that Darcy is more than an airheaded noble. Intelligent and forthright, though he has a tendency to judge too hastily and harshly, and his high birth and wealth make him overly proud and too conscious of his social status. Indeed, his haughtiness makes him initially bungle his courtship. However you have his counterpart the female lead Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
qThe second daughter in the Bennet family. Her admirable qualities are numerous she is lovely, clever, and, in a novel defined by dialogue, she converses as brilliantly as anyone. Her honesty, virtue, and lively wit enable her to rise above the nonsense and bad behavior that pervade her class-bound and often spiteful society. Pride and Prejudice is essentially the story of how she (and her true love, Darcy) overcome all obstacles and actually work towards finding romantic happiness, despite their supposed class differences. Each character has flawed and different views from the rest of their society which cause them to be viewed as sharp-tongued and rude, and it is partially this that sets them aside from the rest of their society.
It is a similar story in Vanity Fair by William M. Thackeray, where Amelia Sedley, of good family, and Rebecca Sharp, an orphan, leave Miss Pinkerton's academy on Chiswick Mall to live out their lives in Vanity Fair , a world of social climbing and search for wealth.
The story follows the two women, Becky Sharp, child of a poor artist and a French opera girl who early learns to shift for herself, with a heritage of Bohemian blood, and a clever mind, Becky lives by her wits. Exactly opposite from Rebecca, Amelia has many advantages. Described as industrious, obedient, sweet, and beloved. However, Miss Pinkerton suggests that she use a backboard for four hours each day for the next three years to improve her carriage. The author indicates her need of "backbone" by suggesting the use of the backboard. Whereas Rebecca's chief quality is ruthless ambition, Amelia exhibits weak humility and blind loyalty.
In this you have another example of two characters whose contribute nothing as far as work goes. The entire goal of both is to apparently attract young suitors who they can then marry for position. The novel as a whole speaks to the tedious trivial nature of the characters and while Rebecca has the money necessary to live in Vanity Fair; she appears to be respectable, she has cut the throats of all around her, and while Amelia loses her family’s fortune she marries William and they are in love.
In “Effi Briest” by Theodor Fontane Effie is the daughter of a German nobleman. At the age of seventeen, she is married off to Baron Geert von Innstetten, a 38-year-old aristocrat who years ago had courted her mother Luise and been turned down because of his insufficient social position, which he has in the meantime acquired. The story tells the tale of a flighty girl who becomes attracted to a notorious womanizer and despite her marriage has an extramarital affair with the man. When found out her husband duels and kills them man and divorces her.
Forlorn and disowned by her fellows, Effi adjusts to a reclusive life and suffers from ostracism for years, during which she plumbs the depths of despair. Since public opprobrium has been heaped upon her, her parents refuse to take her back, believing that it is not right for them to accept her in the midst of their family. Though eventually accepted back by her family she is still overcome with guilt and sorrow over her actions. The novel closes with Effi dying serenely at the parental estate. In a very symmetrical ending that matches the beginning of the novel. In the novel’s final scene, her parents vaguely realize their responsibility for her intractable hardships, but ultimately they do not dare question the social constructs which caused the tragedy
These stories revolve largely around the lives of the aristocracy of the time. None of them ever actually work in the course of their lives save for the character Rebecca whose entire goal is to not have to work for her living. Work is viewed as a dirty thing. Not a single character is shown to work for a living instead living lives of social back-biting and class-based elitism. Even the protagonists fall into this trap, as despite any disgust they may have with the society they find themselves placed in they are in fact just as guilty as the others of sustaining it.
Not one of them seeks a change in circumstance, and not one of them bothers to extol the virtues of a day’s work for its own sake. Work is at best viewed as something to do in order to live leisurely in other circumstances. This is what can be gleaned from these tales. Work had gone from something which can save one from hell to a dirty thing which is only to be resorted to when absolutely necessary and even then it is lowering of one’s self to do so.