In ‘Money Madness’, D.H. Lawrence shows how, in the modern world, man’s only worth seems to spring from the wealth he possesses. People who have no money are treated with contempt.
Since the only worth is the worth of money, even if poor people possess other talents and virtues, they earn no respect. However, in the world full of hypocrisy, they cannot be let to die. Hence bread is thrown at them. But the poor know that along with bread they have to eat the mud of humiliation. This worries them so much that they become victims of delirium. If the only yardstick to measure people is the wealth that they possess, naturally, such an existence has no scope for human relationships. Even before the hand is stretched for a handshake, the hand might have started searching the pockets of the person to know his material worth.
Since the moneyed people would forge relationships only with the wealthy, society would have a great divide between the have’s and the have-nots. Such a society would be a stratified society and human relations would suffer.
