In Marie Corelli’s “Sorrows of Satan” Corelli writes, “The sentiments called honour and virtue by the majority of men are the most shifty things imaginable,- set sufficient cash down, and they become bribery and corruption in the twinkling of an eye” (Corelli 32). It is quite surprising the lengths people will go for money. For the right price, many people will do just about anything. This is largely contributed to the desire people have for living the ‘ideal lifestyle’; the lifestyle that has been created and established by the media in an economy based world.
The majority of people always want more. They yearn to be rich, successful, and powerful and much of the time, they don’t care who they hurt in order to achieve such status. Corelli writes, “if you are poor and dress shabbily you are thrust aside and ignored,-but if you are rich, you may wear shabby clothes as much as you like, you are still courted and flattered and invited everywhere, though you may be the greatest fool alive or the worst blackguard unhung” (34). This sentence, as regrettable as it may be, has much truth to it, particularly in today’s world. People of wealth and power get much more respect and in addition, are able to use their stature to prosper in this world. This was quite clear in the Victorian era also. Under their class system, the upper class people, generally the bourgeoisie (the owner’s of the means of production), had the most respect and lived the best, most coveted lifestyle. For these reasons, it is quite tough to blame people for wanting to live in such a way. Unfortunately, as a result of the society that we live in today, money is a very important and vital part of life.
In addition, an existential question can be brought forward at this point; what’s more important, having materialistic goods, or being authentic? The reason this is an important question is because many existential philosophers argue that authenticity is something that EVERYONE should strive for. Materialistic goods are of very little importance given the big picture. They argue this point because they believe that humans get one life to live and this means that they should strive to be the best person they can be given their circumstances. This does not include being rich as wealth is a materialistic goal that existentialists believe is rather inauthentic. In order to become rich, people rarely do what they really want to. They settle as a result of their income and because we only get one life to live, an existentialist would argue that this is not true ‘happiness’.
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