class system

It seems to me that this story line depends a lot on the British class system in those times. Not just the "impossibility" of Julie Christie being able to marry the hired hand ("I can't! Don't you see? I can't!") but Marian seems to take it for granted that this little boy, because he is not of their socio-economic standing, should be willing to undertake any kind of demand she makes on him, without complaint. She says "you owe me this, because of all we've done for you." If his name had been "Lord-something-or-other" and he'd been driven up in a Rolls Royce, I don't think she would have acted like that toward him. Of course, you might be likely to see the same thing in the attitude of members of a rich American family toward a poorer visiting child.