They attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were determined by their environment and heredity.
No matter how downtrodden the Roman lower classes might be, a Roman politician or Roman emperor who didn't take the people seriously often came to a bad end.
For instance, the enigma of Great Expectations centers around the potential of Pip, an orphan plucked from obscurity by an anonymous benefactor and propelled into high society.
If we reject conventional explanations, and view the life of our upper and lower classes as it is, with all its shamelessness, it is only a vast perversity.
The deaf serving-woman was rumoured to be wealthy; and a saying had for years gone about among the lower orders of Coketown, that she would be murdered some night when the Bank was shut, for the sake of her money.