Contempt in Good Country People

It seems to me that there exists between the character's of "Good Country People" a hierarchy of contempt by which they measure themselves and one another. Mrs. Hopewell has a kind of patronizing contempt for the Freemans because of their lower social class and the implied subordinant status of tenants. Mrs. Freeman has a quiet contempt for Hulga that expresses itself through her prodding use of her legal name, and is contemptuous of the bible sailsman's supposed "simplicity." Hulga is contemptous of the other three, openly and directly, for their perceived ignorance and the annoyance their interactions cause her. Finally, the bible salesman has contempt for Mr. Hopewell and Hulga because he knows he has tricked them and, in fact, seems to derive his contempt from the knowledge of theirs; his humiliation of Hulga is an act that turns her patronizing contempt around on her. The salesman makes Hulga stop thinking of him as a country bumpkin but instead as an equal and possible companion, which puts him in a position to dominate her and throw the contempt she held for him back upon her tenfold. Its an act of revenge with no real goal but to demonstrate his cleverness to those who think themselves intelligent.