Charles Dickens Research Paper

Dickens teaches us a great deal about Victorian poverty, in London. The extract and novella as a whole illustrate the hardship and stigma the poor endured, which Dickens experienced himself as a child giving us a more vivid and accurate description. The novella was written, by Dickens, to verbalise the inequality and class division in Victorian society or else there was to be a revolution, like in France. Dickens conveys this through his use of language, literary devices, speech and characterisation.

The entire family worked and some had to work in worse or more dangerous working conditions than others. “‘ At the end of the week, he would carry home three dollars to his family, being his pay at the rate of five cents per hour just about his proper share of the total earnings of the million and three-quarters of children who are now engaged in earning their livings in the United States.’”(p.60). This quote shows how Stansislovas has to work in child labor to earn a living. Jurgis sprained his ankle during his job while he was working at the meat packing factory. Ona’s boss Phil Connor harassed and raped her against her own free will.

Dickens was able to encase the reader in the story by touching the reader’s heart. The reader was exposed to poverty, cruelty, and death, as well as many other circumstances that occurred in the story. Dickens used this to help the reader to become involved with the action that occurred with this story. Honestly who would want to read a story that did not try to get a reaction out of the reader? Dickens tries to open the reader to all emotions such as hate than love even being fearful for the future of the characters.

Along with no education, if they misbehaved or took too long while working, they would get strapped, also known as whipped. According to the document, the children were basically barely paid slaves who were abused, and almost died too many times to count, from all different non-natural reasons. Children working during the Industrial Revolution were causing the population downgrade, and families stopping at that

During the “Cottage Industry”, children often worked on their parent’s farm or in a family business. However, once all factories were built in, children were encouraged to join the workforce in the cities. The unfortunate truth was that children were a lot easier to take advantage of. In other words, they would be mistreated, paid a lot less, and work in unsafe environments.

Richard took over the role of being the Lord Protector, but that’s all at the end of the paper. His parents were, Elizabeth Steward and Robert Cromwell. Oliver was a very smart kid, he attended the free school attached to the

Source twenty shows that families, including pregnant women and children, all had to work long hours, came home exhausted and the children could earn as little as three pence per day. The number of child deaths was astonishingly high because of child labour. In source twenty three, it says that the children had lice, ruined clothing, and they didn’t have any shoes. This, sadly, was not surprising

The society of the 1800s had an atrocious attitude towards charities and the poor. Charles Dickens had a first hand experience to this barbaric society. At a young age, his father was ripped away from him to be put into a debtors prison and Dickens was then forced to work at a blacking factory. There, he was exposed to all the inequitable treatment of the corrupt government. Dickens wanted reform against the unjust system, but improvement didn’t seem to be an option.

The New York Newsboys Strike of 1899 led to the recognition of the poor living conditions and life styles of young children in the urban cities. By the 1900’s, at least 18 percent of children were employed. 25 percent of the children working in the Southern cotton mills were below the age of fifteen and half of the 25 percent of the children were below the age of twelve years old. Up until the 20th century, child labor was an essential factor of the American economy and social life. In 1902, Florence Kelley, a founder the social work profession, and Lillian Wald, the founder of the Henry Street Settlement, persuaded the Association of Neighborhood Workers that they should take up the issue of child labor.

For Instance, one of his best novel was “A Christmas Carol”, which was written in a third person narrator, also he explains with precision why the industrial revolution turned off the sense of humanity of some people in Great Britain. Dickens, was one of the authors that were affected by the industrial revolution in good way, because this event helped him as an inspiration to his work and helped him think about his moral values. He used this period in his novel to recreate and portrait the attitude of rich people towards others with necessities. So his goal was to make others think about their moral values again. To take case in point, this novel is about a man called Ebenezer Scrooge, that was a selfish and self-centered person.

Thus, Dickens uses tone to show his attitude towards the conditions of

Nancy tells Oliver that “It’s a Fine Life” if he is happy to have nothing. The boys are playful towards Nancy and her friend Bet, telling them that “I’d Do Anything”. Fagin has enough of their games and send them out to the streets to pick pocket, getting them to bring back whatever they can find, but “Be Back Soon”. Whilst on the rob Oliver gets into trouble when he makes a failed attempt at trying to take Mr Brownlow’s wallet. He tries to escape but is captured by the

In the film, “The Children who Built Victorian Britain”, shows various roles that children played in aiding the Industrial age. Children workers in England were called, the White Slaves of England. Some children would cleaned chimneys. They would’ve been naked and cleaning chimneys with a brush. The first waves factory in England were made up of Orphans.

Moreover, Dickens thought that one’s position in society could be changed by self-improvement. Then, one’s environment may be decisive to shape your way of being but not to change who you really are. In fact, Oliver’s stay with the Maylies challenges this argument. Whereas Oliver was supposed to be helped and thus, improve, in the city, it is precisely here the moment in which we see the worst side of Oliver: he has no voice, he has no decent opportunities, he is victim of middle-classes prejudices, and so on. Otherwise, in the countryside, where he is supposedly to be a waste for society (not having any opportunity to self-improvement), he finds his true nature, having his own opinion and showing the purest side of Oliver.

Of course, he was aware of the class struggle during the Victorian times as he had experienced it first-hand from an early age. I think this led Dickens to show how social class effect behaviour and also write for the public who would relate and identify to their own circumstances through his novels. From a Marxist perspective, Dickens was born into the lower middle class. Although the lower middle class were not quite close enough to the working class however it's enough to say that they sympathise with the them and yearned for the same ambitions: acess to wealth, rank and education. An example of Marxist in Oliver Twist is how Dickens demonstrate the power struggle between the lower class and higher class to define the character's personality and identity.