Class and Status

Upper Class

Downton Abbey

The upper class characters in Downton Abbey show their superiority from their clothing, received pronunciation and materialistic possessions. The main family (shown above) care for their their staff and work with charities spending their wealth in helpful ways. Other upper class characters however are more snobby and arrogant fitting the stereotype of upper class.

Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones has a large mix of class divisions and the characters shown in the image above are all of a higher status. Jon Snow (left) is the Lord Commander of the Nights Watch and is therefore in charge of the men of the watch, however likes to be seen on the same level as them. The right three characters are all Lannister's who reign over the kingdom and therefore have a higher status because they are the royal family and treat those below them badly. Daenerys Targaryen (in blue) is the mother of Dragons and rules over the large city Qarth, attempting to help the people and do good but sometimes lets power get to her head and gets selfish.

Middle Class

Pretty Little Liars

The characters in PLL are mostly middle class but with some grey areas. All the characters go to a public school and Emily has a part time job in a cafe. The characters don't really have extravagant possessions, however Spencer is verging on upper class as her parents are both lawyers and they seem to have a lot of disposable income. Emily and Hanna on the other hand live with a one parent family and struggle with money.

Breaking Bad 

The family in Breaking Bad start off as lower middle class. They live comfortably in a home with a pool, but don't have disposable income for cancer treatment for Walt. Walt is a teacher- not seen as a high earning profession- but the family can manage with Skyler not working. After Walt's drug business picks up the family have to launder the money into their banks without people thinking the behaviour and large amounts of money is suspicious coming from a lower middle class family, thus them deciding to dispense of it slowly, keeping the middle class stereotype going.

Lower Class

Skins

Maxxie from Skins is one of the lower class members of the group. He lives in a block of flats with his dad and gets a scholarship to go to dance college when he finishes state school. Sketch (Maxxie's stalker) is a fulltime carer for her mother whilst also being a student, showing that they have no disposable income. Maxxie has a strong Bristol accent and talks using a lot of slang showing his working class characterism and doesn't tend to wear 'posh clothes'.

Misfits

Misfits is a group of criminals in jail for petty crimes and end up doing community service. The majority of the characters fit into the working class as some are chavvy (a stereotype of lower class) and they don't have many materialistic possessions.