How we cite our quotes: (Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
For half a century, the bourgeois ladies of Pont-l'Évêque envied Madame Aubain her maid Félicité.
What is bourgeois, anyway, besides a word that sounds kind of like bougie? Well, it's the French term for the middle class, and turned out to be pretty important in the class-revolution-filled mess that was the 19th century.
Quote #2
Outside the inn, she approached a bourgeois lady in a widow's wide-brimmed hat, who, as it happened, was looking for a cook. The girl did not know much, but seemed so willing and so undemanding that at last Madame Aubain said, 'All right, I'll take you!' (2.16)
Félicité is able to tell the social class that Madame Aubain belongs to just by looking, and instinctively knows that she's the kind of woman who she can ask for a job. French society at the time was built on strictly divided class lines, which made it clear that someone like Félicité would work for someone like Madame. So simple, so stratified.
Quote #3
Every Thursday, a group of regulars came for a game of boston. Félicité would prepare the cards and the foot-warmers in advance. They would arrive on the stroke of eight, and leave by eleven. (2.19)
It might not be clear what this quote has to do with society and class, but think about what factors have to be in place for such a game night to take place. First of all, everyone has to be pretty stable in their positions, they have to have free time, and they also have to be educated enough to play the game. They also need the lower class to warm their feet for them. Who would have known something as simple as a card game would require so much work.