Capitalizing Culture: Trollope's The Way We Live Now (1875) and the Commodification in Victorian Society

In this paper, I will examine the commodified society presented in The Way We Live Now in the sense that the author tries to bring economic and cultural aspects together in a united framework allowing the culture of mid-Victorian society to be purely commercialised.Therefore, drawing on many examples from the text, this paper elaborates on the fact that our contemporary world has not changed that much from the mid-Victorian society exhibited in the novel.A society that is obsessed with money to the extent that they perceive of many cultural and social aspects in their life as commodity that has to bring them materialistic profits.These cultural and social aspects are incorporated in: the commodification of intellectual writings and ideas like the case of lady Carberry, the commodification of social and political status, and in the commodification of marriage and how love becomes a mere business and luxury in Victorian society.