To What Extent Are the Representations of the Working Class in Shameless Harmful?
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- Date Submitted: 01/10/2011 08:25 AM
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Shameless is a comedy drama set in the council estate of “Chatsworth” a fictional location in the heart of Manchester. Produced by Channel Four and written by Paul Abbott its success has won the programme various comedy awards. Paul Abbott states the drama was inspired from his own real life experiences of living in an estate similar to “Chatsworth” and being in the company of characters like the ones in the show. The programmes creator lays claim for its authenticity by claiming to have grown up in the environment similar to Chatsworth.
The main family unit in Shameless “The Gallagher’s” could be considered as dysfunctional, un-conventional, and closer to underclass than working class. Frank Gallagher the unemployed Father of nine children spends most of his days wasting his benefit money at the local pub, while his family and house fall apart around him in complete anarchy.
In this essay I plan to explore the different opinions and gather research to investigate the idea that Shameless does nothing more then humiliate, embarrass and shame the working class, by depicting acts of “Shameless-ness.”
A Dictionary definition of the working Class: – Lowest class in most social class systems, including factory workers, miners, and others.
www.regentsprep.org/Regents/global/vocab/topic.cfm 08/03/09
Traditionally, the idea of being working class carried connotations of pride, craftsmanship and dignity, but in recent times rather than simply referring to the industry of work a person is in, it seems to connote much more of negative meaning, the term has now become blurred with the idea associated with Chav-culture and dependency, more accurately described as the underclass. It also conjures up the ideology of a person who is unproductive, a failure, lazy etc.
In an article that appeared in 1977 in the “Journal Of Communication” Lynne Berk wrote a feature article on an American drama called Archie Bunker, who was considered as a “Working class man” Berk studied...
The main family unit in Shameless “The Gallagher’s” could be considered as dysfunctional, un-conventional, and closer to underclass than working class. Frank Gallagher the unemployed Father of nine children spends most of his days wasting his benefit money at the local pub, while his family and house fall apart around him in complete anarchy.
In this essay I plan to explore the different opinions and gather research to investigate the idea that Shameless does nothing more then humiliate, embarrass and shame the working class, by depicting acts of “Shameless-ness.”
A Dictionary definition of the working Class: – Lowest class in most social class systems, including factory workers, miners, and others.
www.regentsprep.org/Regents/global/vocab/topic.cfm 08/03/09
Traditionally, the idea of being working class carried connotations of pride, craftsmanship and dignity, but in recent times rather than simply referring to the industry of work a person is in, it seems to connote much more of negative meaning, the term has now become blurred with the idea associated with Chav-culture and dependency, more accurately described as the underclass. It also conjures up the ideology of a person who is unproductive, a failure, lazy etc.
In an article that appeared in 1977 in the “Journal Of Communication” Lynne Berk wrote a feature article on an American drama called Archie Bunker, who was considered as a “Working class man” Berk studied...