During the so-called "Golden Age of Courtesans", the most successful, such as Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV, occupied the highest level of society, le grand monde (the great world). Through their elegance and grace they developed an extravagant life style, especially during Second Empire France (1852 - 1870). The courtesans in le demimonde or half-world, occupied a place apart from the aristocracy. They included la garde, or inner circle who, like Violetta, lived in luxury, to the grisettes or working girls, such as Musetta in La bohème). Although not acknowledged by royalty, the support of the most successful ones come from aristocratic male protectors. For them, the courtesans served as status symbols, an index of men's wealth. These women, while sill young and beautiful, exchanged companionship and sexual favors for property and material wealth. They set a tone of glittering gaiety, inventing their own customs, language, and ethics.
The word demimonde originated with one of Dumas's plays Le Demi-monde which, like La Dame aux camélias is set in their world. In it, one of the characters says:
Though they have the same origin, the same appearance and the same prejudices as women of society, they do not belong in it: they constitute the demimonde or "half-world", a veritable floating island on the ocean of Paris, which calls to itself, welcomes, accepts, everything that falls from the mainland — not to mention those who have been shipwrecked or who come from God knows where.
The term demi mondaine was assigned to describe women who were morally superior to prostitutes but lower than legal wives; those who made their living through extravagant gifts rather than money. In 1866, critic Jule-Anotoine Castagnary wrote that "Prostitution was a constitutional state with 40,000, perhaps 100,000, women parading their insolent luxury in the best circles". On the other hand, nineteenth century American Feminist Tenni C. Claflin, in her Constitutional Equality, A Right of Women, expressed her thought-provoking declaration: "Public prostitution is but nothing to that practiced under the cloak of marriage".
On a more established social level, women companions who were independently wealthy through birth, marriage or careers were financially secure. They enjoyed the life of the upper classes: villas, carriages, horses, and boxes at the opera. They held literary salons and vied with one another for publicity. They even exchanged or recommended patrons. Yet the writer, George Sand, whose lovers included the composer Chopin, wrote in her Intimate Journal: "The satisfaction of a personal passion is pleasure or intoxication. It is not happiness. Happiness, to deserve the name, must be enduring and indestructible. Those who try to find happiness in excitement attempt the impossible". And in her final comments at age sixty-five, after rereading her journal, she noted: "We all wanted to be great, and if we failed in this, we fell into despair. I see now that goodness and sincerity were quite enough for me to undertake".
When an actress friend asked Duplessis about her lifestyle, she responded, "Why do I sell myself? Because the labor of a working girl would never have brought me the luxury for which I've had such an irresistible craving....I wanted to know the refinements and pleasures of artistic taste, the joy of living in an elegant and cultivated society". But Dumas says that an intolerable weariness is found in what is called "a life of pleasure". In La traviata Violetta sings of her philosophy: "Let us enjoy life, for the pleasure of love are swift and fleeting as a flower that lives and dies and can be enjoyed no more. Let us take our pleasure while its ardent, brilliant summons lures us on". A little later she responds to love, "To love and to be loved! Can I disdain this for a life of sterile pleasure?" But finally she decides, "Free and aimless I must flutter from pleasure to pleasure, skimming the surface of life's path of joy. As each day dawns, as each day dies, I turn to the new delights that make my sprits soar".
As long as she kept her beauty and vitality, a courtesan could glitter and be gay in a financially secure world, with property and material wealth from her admirers. She was free to mix with whomever she wished, but society would disown any man who formed a permanent relationship with a courtesan. In La traviata, Alfredo's father convinces Violetta that in living with Alfredo, she endangers the futures of his son and daughter. Understanding the rules of society, Violetta makes the grand sacrifice and returns to the life of a courtesan. Alfredo, in a jealous rage, does the most unthinkable, ungentlemanly act possible: he slanders and insults Violetta by throwing money at her feet to "Pay her back in full", like a common prostitute.