Want to give your character a prop that sets him as high as possible in the social strata? Give him a tophat and a monocle. Largely obsolete today, the monocle is a corrective lens applied to only one eye. In this sense it is no different from eyeglasses. But while eyeglasses have never been anything more than a medical appliance (with the possible exception of the pince-nez), the monocle has been a status symbol virtually since its invention. A trope largely as obsolete as the monocle itself, it still turns up in period pieces and parodies, and is gaining popularity in the Steampunk scene.