Category: Charles Dickens

During the late eighteenth and mid nineteenth century oversaw the birth and fast-paced growth of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. (Baker, 2019) Factories overtook the role of previously played by agriculture in the economy and the working-class citizen quickly made his way out of the village and into the workhouse. (Barrow, 2013) Though the economy was thriving, there was a sense of mourning noted amongst the general public which witnessed the increasing mechanisation of the world. The clash between the natural world and the industrial world then became an important theme prevalent in the literature of the time. Charles Dickens’ (Anon 2016) tales gained recognition and approval from their painfully unromanticised depiction of the working-class life. Additionally, the portrayals of the working class contrasted strongly with the middle and upper middle classes. Dickens’ (2013) Great Expectations chronicles the coming of age of the protagonist Pip in his climbing up the societal ladder, moving from the working class to the middle class through his coming into good fortune.

However, Pip’s inevitable decline back into the working class is a telling illustration of the industrialised economy as unstable as well as the higher classes as greatly alienating. Plus, Dicken’s novels are then critical of the rising materialism and misguided priorities of the Victorian individual brought on by industrialisation. The moral decay of the society is contrasted with the growth of the Victorian economy. Dickens’ (2012) novel Oliver Twist this decline set against the background of the gruesome and inhospitable working environments of the Workhouses in Victorian England.

Oliver Twist can be characterised as a “Newgate Novel”, (Pykett, 2017) a style of novel popularised at the time due to its gritty and explicit depiction of crime, murder and the prison life. The Newgate Calendar which was issued and reissued several times in the mid-19th century reflected the lives, legal proceedings, and criminal confessions of the jailbirds in London’s Newgate Prison which burned down in 1780. This increased the public’s fascination with crime and its rationality. Edward Bulwer’s and Harrison Ainsworth’s Jack Sheppard are very powerful examples in this particular century. Although Oliver Twist does not depict life in prison, it is important to note that criminality was driven mainly by poverty and the deplorable living settings induced by the Poor Regulation in 1834. (Grass 2012) Also, while this type of writing was criticised for its glamorisation of crime and immorality, authors deemed it important to illustrate the immoral reality of lower-class life in England.

Additionally, the ‘Poor Law Amendment Act’ of the mid-19th century became a turning point for the lower classes of England. Due to the growing demand of human workforce in the business, poor people had to now work in Workhouses in order to survive, as stated by the Act. Individuals who were homeless were previously provided for by the richer classes of society. The enforcement of the Act can be attributed to the increase of Capitalistic sentiments observed in the increasingly materialistic Victorian society. The Act designated communities to various Panels of Guardians which each ran their own Workhouse.

It is important to establish that the Workhouses in theory appear as an appropriate solution for the state to house its poor while instilling a decisive drive in the public to steer clear of ending up in a Workhouse. However, in terms of execution, the general public was compelled to question the remorseless grounds upon which the idea functioned. (Higginbotham 1865) Families residing in a Workhouse were separated and punished if they engaged with one another. (Higginbotham 1834) People were reported to be near starving due to the small portions of food provided for them. These conditions became notable to a point of inspiring a genre of art and literature termed “Workhouse Literature”. Authors and Journalists alike took it upon themselves to investigate the lives of Workhouse residents.

Moreover, James Greenwood’s article entitled “A Night in a Workhouse” in an evening newspaper called ‘Pall Mall Gazette’ and this newspaper recounts him spending one night inside a Workhouse to witness the debilitating conditions himself. Greenwood describes in painful detail the living space provided to the deprived in the Workhouse. He states his inability to comprehensibly describe what he witnessed upon entering the room, a room of 30ft by 30ft with dingy walls. Greenwood, 1866, narrates the dampness and filthiness of his surroundings. It is essential to note that there seems to be no indication of any carpeting or blanketing to provide warmth for the residents. Green goes on to state how the far too airy shed was coated in stone and the floor was thickly covered in dirt, so much that Greenwood at first assumed it was the natural earth. Greenwood continues to recount how the residents slept, stating, that his bedfellows lay among cramped on the floor, distributed over the flag stones in a double row, on narrow bags stuffed with hay. He recalls noting thirty men and boys sleeping side by side in doubles in the small naked tiled room.

Similarly, George Orwell’s (Orwell 2015) essay “The Spike” penned in 1831 recounts his stay at a Workhouse which is equally disturbing; he describes the excuse for bread afforded to the residents which on some days was worse than usual, because the cook, out of laziness would cut the slices overnight. This would make the bread hard and near impossible to swallow. Perhaps one of the most horrifying aspects of life at a Workhouse then was the undernourishment of the residents after exploitative and hard manual labour. Dickens’ novel illustrates this in his satirical description of the Boards’ “sage” vision of food provision; it was decreed that the residents will be issued three portions of gruel each day and in some cases with an onion twice a week and also, one small piece of bread on Sundays. Also, Gruel could be a lean porridge and can barely be anticipated to support people working physically through the day, particularly more youthful kids such as Dickens’ hero Oliver.

Oliver experiences first hand being underfed; (Anon 1997) The narrator recounting how each boy had one helping of porridge, and strictly never more than that. The only exceptions to the one serving rule were special celebratory occasions, presumably Christmas or Easter, upon which the boys would be given a small piece of bread along with two helpings of gruel. Dickens goes on to illustrate the state of the growing boys subjected to this undernourishment, claiming that if they could have eaten the building bricks of the Workhouse they would have. Also, while waiting for their food, they would suck on their fingernails and eagerly watch for any stray droppings of gruel. Continuing on retelling of the deplorable starvation of the boys, the narrator states how Oliver and the friends he associated with at the time experienced torturous slow hunger for a long period of time, becoming animalistic with hunger and threatening to eat the other boys.

Moreover, the resident boys along with Oliver therefore decide to ask for a second helping of gruel one day which is met is gross inhumanity and fury of the masters; Oliver’s plea for more gruel is met with the fattened master being offended to the point of referring to Oliver as a rebel. Dickens makes it a point to describe the master as “fat” and “healthy”, contrasting with the thinning boys who were severely underfed and exploited in the Workhouse. The scenario takes a horrifying turn when it is contemplated whether to hang the young boy for his demand of a second helping, a man witnessing the exchange exclaims that he thinks Oliver will be hung for his offensive action and audacious demands.

Also, Dickens’ portrayal of the Victorian Workhouse is not stand-alone however, ballads, poetry, artwork and expository articles also sought to bring to the public’s attention the abominable living circumstances of the Workhouse. In addition to the undernourishment it is also integral to note the masters’ attitudes towards the poor individuals’ demand for just treatment. Dickens then rightfully demonises not the “rebel” boys who asked for more gruel in the now infamous line uttered by Oliver saying he wants more gruel, (adding a please before his statement to express his desperation) but the fattened masters benefitting off the exploitation of the poor and hungry.

To conclude, Charles Dicken’s interpretation of the Workhouse life in Oliver Twist is a telling example of literature providing counter-narratives in history for government propaganda of its exploitation of its citizens. Also, the Industrial Revolution, while benefitted the economy greatly, reaped its capitalist growth at the expense of the wellbeing of the working class. The gross mistreatment of the lower class witnessed during the Industrial Revolution is what inspired Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels famous Communist Manifesto; (1997) a compilation of social philosophy reasoning on the simple contrasts and power relations between the working class/lower class “proletariat” and the middle class/higher class “bourgeoise”. Dickens’ novels, although written before Marx’ manifesto is highly reflective of the alienation, reification and objectification of the proletariat. Charles Dickens has produced various different novels which are called Hard Times, Oliver Twist, a Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations and all these tales are important and suggests illustrations of Dickens’ consistency in portraying the unpleasant reality of the lives of England’s working class, especially through the enactment of the Poor Laws at the beginning stage of the nineteenth century.

In the late eighteenth century a moment in art and literature started known as romanticism. Towards the end of the period, prose writing gained momentum especially the novels. Moreover, from 1837 to 1901 novel became the most distinctive and lasting literary achievement of Victorian literature. The rise of the novel in this era was mainly associated with Ian Watt’s influential study “The rise of the Novel” which focused on the rise of fictional realism and it distinguished prose narratives from novel (Stefan, 2019).Additionally, Dickens’s monthly publication of Pickwick papers greatly contributed to the rise of novels in this century. Therefore, this paper aims to evaluate how the novels become the leading literary genre of Victorian era through popularity, use of distinct theme, and availability.

The Victorian age literature was laden with novels. Novel is a narrative in prose with a specific setting, plot; rising action, conflict, climax, falling action and denouement to portray it. The term “novel” didn’t come to existence until 1740’s with the publication of Pamela by Samuel Richardson which consist the components of full fetched novel .Following that in 18th century, English novel was formally introduced as a new genre in literature. Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding and Geoffrey Chaucer were the prominent writers of those era focused on prose writing discarding the classic style of verse and constructing a base for the future novel to rise through it. Following this trend in the 19th century the writers like Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Sir Walter Scott continued and closely observed social satire and adventure stories. Due to the rapid industrialization, social, political and economic issues associated with it, many people commented on abuses of government and industry and the suffering of the poor, who were not profiting from England’s economic prosperity. Their works depicted the stories that portraits difficult living situation in which hard work, perseverance, love and luck wins over wrong doers. They tend to be an improving nature with a central moral lesson at heart, mixed with a heavy dose of sentiment and aim to direct middle class to help create sympathy and promote change towards the poor. Thus, the novel gained immense popularity in the 18th and 19th century.

The Victorian themes were more realistic revolving around domestic characters of the society. A legendary writer like Jane Austen is the greatest English novelist of manners who first gave the novel its distinctly modern character through her treatment of ordinary people in everyday life. She restrict herself to the society of landed gentry, she is a miniaturist and the feminine Augustan. She developed the novel of manners where the major concern is to present the customs, conventions, manners, and habits of the definite social class at a particular time and place. Characterization and plot had a very important part in the novel. She published four novels during her lifetime: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). She vividly depicted English middle-class life during the early 19th century (Southam, 2019). According to (Brophy, 1992), her novels revealed the possibilities of “domestic” literature. Her repeated fable of a young woman’s voyage to self-discovery on the passage through love to marriage focuses upon easily recognizable aspects of life. It is this concentration upon character and personality and upon the tensions between her heroines and their society that relates her novels more closely to the modern world than to the traditions of the 18th century.

One of her notable work which reveals this theme is Pride and Prejudice. According to (Stefan, 2019)her novel Pride and Prejudice describes the clash between Elizabeth Bennet, the daughter of a country gentleman, and Fitzwilliam Darcy, a rich and aristocratic landowner. Although Austen shows them intrigued by each other, she reverses the convention of first impression. Pride of rank and fortune and prejudice against the inferiority of the Bennet family hold Darcy aloof, while Elizabeth is equally fired both by the pride of self-respect and by prejudice against Darcy’s snobbery. Ultimately, they come together in love and self-understanding. The intelligent and high-spirited Elizabeth was Jane Austen’s own favorite among all her heroines and is one of the most engaging in English literature. Through the character of Elizabeth and Darcy she depicted the manners and life of England and her women characters particularly showed the restricted life of women of her era. As per the famous critic Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice describes as the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life. He further added that Austen’s social realism includes her understanding that women’s lives in the early 19th century are limited in opportunity, even among the gentry and upper middle classes. She understands that marriage is women’s best route to financial security and social respect (Alexander, n.d).

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world’s best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the 20th century critics and scholars had recognized him as a literary genius. Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens has been praised by fellow writers for his realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterizations, and social criticism.

As per (Stearns & Burns, 2011), Dicken’s novel became popular with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers. He was famous for his humor, satire, and keen observation of character and society. Like Austen, his novels also depicted the life and society of England of his time. Dickens adopted the style of the picaresque novels and his writing style was marked by satire and use of caricature. Another important thing to be noticed in Dickens’ writing is the catchy names that he had used in his novels. One of his notable works is Hard Times which reflect the society of his time. In this novel he emphasizes on the need of morality in the British educational system and decrease of utilitarianism and Britain’s industrial society in the mid 19th century. Through the characters of Sissy Jupe and Thomas Gradgrind, he points out the negative sides of mechanic world of Britain. Sissy struggles to understand the facts and she is unable to reject fancy demonstration of the system and how people are deprived of their individuality. Dicken’s criticizes how the system based on financial profit robbed many of morality. At the end of the novel, he emphasizes on the need for a balance between mechanized world and human emotions.

An easy availability of novels during that era also contributed to the growth of novels in readers. The novels written by Dickens were published in monthly or weekly installments enabling poor people to purchase it. This pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction that became the dominant mode for novel publication in the Victorian Era allowing the time for audience to review and he could modify the plot and develop the characters depending on the feedback. According to Adelaide, Dickens was extraordinarily popular in his days, with his characters taking on a life of their own he remained one of the most popular authors of this era. His first real novel, The Pickwick Papers, written at only twenty-five, was an overnight success, and all his subsequent works sold extremely well. He worked diligently and prolifically to produce entertaining writing the public wanted, but also to offer commentary on social challenges of the era. Thus, it was believed that most of the novels in those eras were available across all sections of society gaining utmost popularity.

Although the birth of the English novel is to be seen in the first half of the 18th century primarily in the work of Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, and Henry Fielding, it is with Jane Austen that the novel takes on its distinctively modern character in the realistic treatment of unremarkable people in the unremarkable situations of everyday life. Her modernity, together with the wit, realism, and timelessness of her prose style, her shrewd, amused sympathy, and the satisfaction to be found in stories so skillfully told, in novels so beautifully constructed, that helps to explain her continuing appeal for readers of all kinds hence gaining popularity. Novel becomes the distinctive literature because of the unique literary style of Charles Dickens who uses his style to mock the morality of the society. Further, it was easily available for all works of people during Victorian era. (Word count: 1475)

References

1. Adelaide. (2016). Retrieved from https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/literature/victorian/index.html
2. Alexander, S. (n.d). The Art of Jane Austen. In S. Alexander. Honorary professor of philosophy in the university of Manchester.
3. Brophy, E. B. (1992). Women’s Lives and the 18th-Century English Novel. (S. M. Conger, Ed.) Studies in Novel , 24 (3), 329-331.
4. Hasan, M. N. (2015). The Eighteenth Century and the Rise of the English Novel. International genre of literature and Arts , 3 (2), 18-21.
5. Henneman, B. J. (1904). The British Novel in the Nineteenth Century. The Sewanee Review , 12 (2), 167-173.
6. Ossa, M. P. (2019, 03 14). Retrieved from https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-novel-when-did-appear-what-difference-between-146987
7. Southam, B. C. (2019, February 8). Austen’s novels: an overview. Jane Austen English Novelist , 1-17.
8. Stearns, E. E., & Burns, T. J. (2011). About the Human conditions in the works of Dicken’s and Marx. 13 (4).
9. Stefan, T. (2019). Characteristics of 20th century literature. History of the Novel , 1-5. Wangchuk Namgyel (SC/PGDE180331)

Analysis

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…” (Dickens 4).

Charles Dickens begins the novel by utilizing anaphora. Every two lines in this section of the novel contain contrasting ideas. For example, “foolishness” succeeds “wisdom” and “Darkness” succeeds “Light”. In effect, Dickens hints at the central conflict of the novel between love and family and hatred and oppression. Dickens effectively foreshadows future events in the novel with his use of anaphora.

“All through the cold and restless interval, until, dawn, they once more whispered in the ears of Mr. Jarvis Lorry—sitting opposite the buried man who had been dug out, and wondering what subtle powers were forever lost to him, and what were capable of restoration—the old inquiry: ‘I hope you care to be recalled to life?’ And the old answer: ‘I can’t say’” (Dickens 17).

Dr. Manette’s 18 years spent in jail for attempting to report a crime caused his soul to deteriorate. While in jail, Dr. Manette lost all contact with his wife, he did not ever get to see his daughter, and he became isolated from society. To him, his jail time felt like how death would feel. Shoemaking became his only escape and was what kept him mentally stable.

“‘It’s plain enough, I should think, why he may be. It’s a dreadful remembrance. Besides that, his loss of himself grew out of it. Not knowing how he lost himself, or how he recovered himself, he may never feel certain of not losing himself again. That alone wouldn’t make the subject pleasant, I should think” (Dickens 30).

Miss Pross is discussing with Mr. Lorry whether Dr. Manette recalls and understands why he was imprisoned or not. Miss Pross suspects that he does recall because his daughter, Lucie thinks he does. Miss Pross believes that Dr. Manette simply does not speak on the subject because it may cause him to become mentally unstable. She understands that it took a lot of time and effort for Dr. Manette to mentally recover from his imprisonment and that just speaking about it could set him back drastically.

“‘Repression is the only lasting philosophy. The dark deference of fear and slavery, my friend,’ observed the Marquis, ‘will keep the dogs obedient to the whip, as long as this roof,’ looking up, ‘shuts out the sky’” (Dickens 34).

Charles Darnay makes a remark concerning how other individuals view him to which the Marquis responds with these statements. Darnay believes that people do not treat him with respect; but instead, they fear him. Many French aristocrats of Darnay’s time had a similar outlook on the working class, which led to the French Revolution. This assertion by the Marquis is foul because he juxtaposes the French peasants with dogs remaining “obedient to the whip.”

“‘O Miss Manette, when the little picture of a happy father’s face looks up in yours when you see your bright beauty springing up anew at your feet, think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you!’” (Dickens 46)

Sydney Carton is very committed to making sure that Lucie Manette and everyone else that she loves is safe and happy. Carton’s remark at the end of Book 2, Chapter 13 foreshadows what he will do to ensure that Lucie’s loved ones can live the life that they desire. It also appears again when Carton is executed later in the novel.

“So much was closing in about the women who sat knitting, knitting, that they their very selves were closing in around a structure yet unbuilt, where they were to sit knitting, knitting, counting dropping heads” (Dickens 56).

Charles Dickens employs evocative imagery in the conclusion of Book 2, Chapter 16. This imagery serves to foreshadow the construction of the guillotine that will behead the French aristocrats and everyone else who defies the French Revolution. Madame Defarge and her peers sit in the audience, knitting silently, watching multiple people get assassinated. The structure that is mentioned not only represents the guillotine but also the human capability to be so cruel and to witness such cruelty in silence.

“The sea of black and threatening waters, and of destructive upheaving of wave against wave, whose depths were yet unfathomed and whose forces were yet unknown. The remorseless sea of turbulently swaying shapes, voices of vengeance, and faces hardened in the furnaces of suffering until the touch of pity could make no mark upon them (Dickens 65).

Once again, Charles Dickens utilizes evocative imagery. In this case, he describes the huge crowd of people that stormed the Bastille, freeing prisoners, assassinating government officials, and marching through the streets with the heads of prisoners and government officials speared on sticks. This scene reveals how aggressive oppressed individuals can get when they get the upper hand on their oppressors.

“‘Judge you! Is it likely that the trouble of one wife and mother would be much to us now?’” (Dickens 79)

Throughout the revolution, Madame Defarge and other peasant women and children have suffered. While they suffered, their husbands, sons, and fathers were falsely imprisoned by the aristocracy. When Madame Defarge and her companion, The Vengeance come in contact with Lucie Manette and little Lucie, they show no sympathy or help. These lines manifest Madame Defarge’s attitude toward the wife and child of an aristocrat (Charles Darnay).

“‘I am not afraid to die, Citizen Evremonde, but I have done nothing. I am not unwilling to die, if the Republic which is to do so much good to us poor, will profit from my death; but I do not know how that can be, Citizen Evremonde. Such a poor weak little creature!’” (Dickens 104)

When Sydney Carton is led to the guillotine along with other prisoners, a young seamstress mistakes him for Charles Darnay and calls him “Citizen Evremonde” (Darnay’s birth name). The seamstress speaks to Carton about dying and asks him to take her hand to comfort her. She is bewildered because she is unsure how her death would benefit the Republic. The Republic was supposed to aid poor individuals like herself; however, it is about to execute her even though she committed no crime. Charles Dickens includes this scene in the novel because it illustrates his point that injustice could cause one to seek revenge.

“‘It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known’” (Dickens 110).

In the concluding chapter of the novel, Sydney Carton grows into a heroic figure as he gives up his own life to save Charles Darnay. This statement by Carton is his final thought as he makes his way to the guillotine to die. Earlier in Carton’s life, he feared that he would never change for the better and he felt worthless. However, his act of self-sacrifice at the end of the novel gives him something to be proud of before he is put to his death.

Charles Dickens was conceived on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, on the southern shore of England. His full original name was Charles John Huffam Dickens. Dickens had 7 other siblings and he was the second sibling born. His dad John Dickens was a naval clerk and his objective was to turn out to become very wealthy later on while Dickens’s mother Elizabeth Barrow wanted to become an instructor and school executive (A&E Networks Television, 29 Aug. 2019). Dickens had a happy family yet even with all the diligent work his folks put in, their family stayed poor. He and his family at that point moved to Chatham, Kent in 1816. Dickens and his siblings had adored investigating the field when they previously moved there (A&E Networks Television, 29 Aug. 2019). He and his family at that point moved again to a poor neighborhood close to London called Camden Town. It was here that Dickens’s family turned out to be truly broke. This led to his father, John Dickens being sent to prison because of debt in 1824. This was hard on a 12-year-old boy when he was in school. Dickens was then withdrawn from school and sent to work in a blacking warehouse run by a family member. He then returned to school when his father became more financially stable. It was at the age of 15, that he became a parliamentary reporter and had to drop out of school again to pursue his writing career (A&E Networks Television, 29 Aug. 2019). By 1836, Dickens had published his first book titled “Sketches by Boz” along with another one of his publications “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.” (A&E Networks Television, 29 Aug. 2019) He also became the editor of many magazines.

He later on got married in April 1836 to a woman named Catherine Hogarth. During the period between 1837 and 1857, they had 10 children. It was then in the 1850s when Dickens lost one of his daughters and his father. His luck got worse as he split with his wife in 1858. This did not stop him from writing any more novels as a year later he wrote “A Tale of Two Cities.” (A&E Networks Television, 29 Aug. 2019) Dickens wanted to write this novel because he wanted to warn about the Russian Revolution and because he saw similar conditions in England that were the cause of the French Revolution. He also was a very romantic person and wanted to show what love could do in a story. During the period of Dickens writing “Edwin Drood,” he died on June 9, 1870, and the story was left unfinished. Dickens had suffered from a stroke and died at the age

The story “A Tale of Two Cities” published by Charles Dickson is a very well-written book that was set in London and Paris. The book is very long with a page count of 524. Included in those pages are well-detailed introductions and a table of contexts to guide the reader in the complex background of the book. The author also includes a preface in the book describing his thoughts and actions as he was writing the novel. The novel also has an appendix section at the end of the book along with explanatory notes. The book is in chronological order because it’s based on historical context such as being placed in the French Revolution including chronological events that happened during that period and it includes historical fiction from the author. The book is also made up of three books with their chapters. This makes a 3 in 1 book. The amount of time the novel covers goes from 1757 to 1792 during the war. A form of foreshadowing we can see from the book would be when wine is dropped on the street in St. Antoine’s neighborhood. When the wine spilled on the ground it flowed around in patterns and everyone started drinking the remains on the ground. The wine foreshadows the blood from the war and all the people trying to drink the wine foreshadows the Parisians becoming drunk during all the violence. One form of comparison to the beginning of the book was Carton living a difficult life and in the end, his death was the same way. In contrast, the beginning of the book is very calm while the ending takes a dark turn when Carton is introduced to the guillotine.

The story had a rough shift from being calm to overly intense and dark later on. Although, the author the story is being told in a third-person point of view. It is Dicksen himself being the narrator of the novel. The narrator himself is anonymous as he is not included in any events so we have no way of knowing who is telling the story. We can also tell it’s in the third person because the narrator is not involved with any action in the story and since he’s able to describe what other characters are thinking about in private in the story. This ultimately shows the narrator as the god of the story.

The ugliness of Industrialism in Hard Times by Charles Dickens

In his novel Hard Times Charles Dickens represents capitalist greed, the fragile education system, and the inhuman treatment of factory workers in a realistic perspective which were happening in Victorian in the 19th century.

Introduction

Charles Dickens is a quite well-known novelist of the Victorian Era credited with many voluminous novels. When we look at his novels one striking quality appears which is that no matter what the subject is Dickens places a mirror within his novels that reflects the social life of his time and thus, he succeeds in bringing us to his day and makes us feel the age that it reflects. Hard Times one of the best novels of Charles Dickens is relatively a shorter book compared with other novels and can be regarded as one of the best mirrors written in 1854. The book has quite an earlier background when Charles Dickens took a trip to industrial towns 15 years ago before writing his piece. He had a chance to see the industrial town with all its problems such as urban blight and environmental problems that came along with the industrial revolution such as the wrong implementation of utilitarianism among society and class divisions occured due to the unbridgeable gap between the rich and the poor. We learn from his letter to his wife that he had planned to write a book in which he meant to strike the heaviest blow in his power. Thus we come across with many problems that occured due to the industrial revolution both individually and socially among the society and its members in the novel Hard Times. Majorly, unitarianism, the poor condition of the working classes, and the capitalist order occupy a more significant place in the novel.

In Hard Times Dickens attacks the industrial evils practiced during his age. The novel Hard Times contains a vivid picture of the ugliness of industrialism which was raising its head in the Victorian age. Coke town represents all industrial towns and is described as a town of machines. Dickens not only attacks industrial evils but also portrays capitalism and factory owners’ inhuman behavior. Dickens suggests in Hard Times that citizens, specifically the lower class, were becoming dehumanized as a result of the Industrial Revolution. This dehumanization can be seen through Gradgrinds and Bounderby’s attempt to suppress the expression of emotions and imagination within the factory, the school, and the home. The description of the workers at Bounderby’s factory demonstrates how machines as they have become. The Industrial Revolution gave birth to a capitalist system that breeds economic imbalance and gives birth to capitalist greed.

Dickens shows the dehumanizing aspect of the industrial revolution in urban Victorian society, social criticism saw the novel as a passionate revolt where there were no villains or heroes but only oppressors and victims, and the culprit if there is one was the industrial revolution.  

According to that information, each of the major elements used by Charles Dickens to reflect the ugliness of industrialism and the social condition of the age will be examined by applying the realistic approach in this very paper.

Research Question

How does Dickens highlight the negative effect of industrialization in Victorian?

• Research Objective
• To Highlight the inhuman treatment of the factory workers by the industry owners in Victorian society.
• To Highlight the fragile education system of Victorian.
• To Highlight the ugliness in Victorian because of industrialization.

Significance of the study

This research paper will help students understand the novel Hard Times and also help students understand Victorian society and the negative effects of industrialization.

Delimitation of the study

The present research will be limited to analyzing the text of the novel Hard Times by applying the realistic approach.

Theoretical framework

This research analyzes the first research question about the negative effect of industrialism through the analysis of Charles Dickens’s novel Hard Times.

The research study is based on the theory of Literary realism. Literary realism is a literary movement that represents reality by portraying mundane, everyday experiences as they are in real life. It depicts familiar people, places, and stories, primarily about the middle and lower classes of society. Literary realism seeks to tell a story as truthfully as possible instead of dramatizing or romanticizing it.

The understudy research will focus on Charles Dickens’s novel Hard Times from a realistic perspective. The story of Hard Times circulates the stance of the industrial revolution and the ugliness the iIndustrial Revolutionbrought to Victorian.

Literature Review

The Litchart magazine in his recent blog analyzes several themes of Charles Dickens’s novel Hard Times including the ugliness of Industrialism which is the prominent part of this novel he says, ‘Hand in hand with the glorification of data and numbers and facts in the schoolhouse is the treatment of the workers in the factories of Coketown as nothing more than machines, which produce so much per day and are not thought of as having feelings or families or dreams. Dickens depicts this situation as a result of industrialization; now that towns like Coketown are focused on producing more and more, more dirty factories are built, more smoke pollutes the air and water, and the factory owners only see their workers as part of the machines that bring them profit. The workers are only called ‘Hands’, an indication of how objectified they are by the owners. Similarly, Mr. Gradgrind’s children were brought up to be ‘minds’. None of them are people or ‘hearts’.

As the book progresses, it portrays how industrialism creates conditions in which owners treat workers as machines and workers respond by unionizing to resist and fight back against the owners. In the meantime, those in Parliament (like Mr. Gradgrind, who winds up elected to office) work for the benefit of the country but not its people. In short, industrialization creates an environment in which people cease to treat either others or themselves as people. Even the unions, the groups of factory workers who fight against the injustices of the factory owners, are not shown in a good light. Stephen Blackpool, a poor worker at Bounderby’s factory, is rejected by his fellow workers for his refusal to join the union because of a promise made to the sweet, good woman he loves, Rachael. His factory union then treats him as an outcast.

The remedy to industrialism and its evils in the novel is found in Sissy Jupe, the little girl who was brought up among circus performers and fairy tales. Letting loose the imagination of children lets loose their hearts as well, and, as Sissy does, they can combat and undo what a Gradgrind education produces.

Data analysis

Dickens’ social commentary, ‘Hard Times’, explores the destructive impact of industrialization on humanity in a period of unprecedented economic change. Dickens realistically represents his era to his reader as the 19th century the Industrial Revolution was in full swing because of the Industrial Revolution the Victorian saw many changes, some good and some bad. In this novel Dickens only realistically talks about the negative effects of industrialization. Dickens based most of the characters in his novel on real people. Most of the characters are meant to represent the entirety of the groups they belong to. Nevertheless not only do the characters represent a real counterpart, but Coketown also represents a real element. In his novel Hard Times Dickens mentioned three main problems of the Victorian brought about by the Industrial Revolution: number one The fragile education system number second the wrong implementation of utilitarianism in society and number three the capitalist greed and the inhuman treatment of the factory owner.  

The Fragile Education System

‘Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my children, and this is the principle on which bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!’

Dickens depicts a terrifying system of education where facts, facts, and nothing but facts are pounded into the schoolchildren all day, and where memorization of information is valued over art, imagination, or anything creative. This results in some very warped human beings. Mr. Thomas Gradgrind believes completely in this system, and as a superintendent of schools and a father, he makes sure that all the children at the schools he is responsible for, and especially his children are brought up knowing nothing but data and ‘-ologies’.

As a result, things go very badly for his children, Tom Gradgrind and Louisa Gradgrind. Since they, as children, were always treated as if they had minds and not hearts, their adulthoods are warped, as they have no way to access their feelings or connect with others. Tom is a sulky good-for-nothing and gets involved in a crime to pay off gambling debts. Louisa is unhappy when she follows her mind, not her heart, and marries Mr. Bounderby, her father’s friend. As a result of her unhappy marriage, she is later swept off her feet by a young gentleman, Mr. James ‘Jem’ Harthouse, who comes to stay with them and who seems to understand and love her. Louisa nearly comes to ruin by running off with Harthouse. Cecilia (Sissy) Jupe was encouraged when she was little to dream and imagine and loved her father dearly, and therefore she is in touch with her heart and feelings and has empathy and emotional strength the other children lack. Sissy, adopted by the Gradgrinds when her father abandons her, ultimately is the savior of the family in the end.

Inhuman treatment of factory owners.

In Hard Times Dickens sharply criticizes and realistically represents the poor living conditions of the working class in industrial towns. He depicts life in a fictitious industrial town Coketown as a symbol for a typical industrial town in the Northern of that time. It is a place full of exploitation, desperation, and oppression. Soot and ash are all over the town; it is a dirty and suffocating place.

The workers have low wages and work long hours. The work begins before sunrise, the production is important and there is no regard for the rights and suffering of the lower class.  

In Coketown, machines cause great pollution. Industrial workers have no chance of progress in life. The upper middle class ignores their misery (Bounderby) and denies imagination and creativity (Gradgrind).

The factory owners call their workers Hand means they are part of the machine.

The novel Hard Times contains vivid pictures of the ugliness of industrialism which was raising its head in the Victorian Age. Coketown is described as a town of machines since the people living in the same town are supposed to have souls. Instead, they all go in and out at the same hours, with the same purpose upon the same pavements, to do the same work. These pictures express the monotony of the workmen’s life in the Victorian Age. As the Victorian Age was assumed as an age of Industrialism and Capitalism, the workmen were not men at all; they were ‘hands ‘, so many hundred hands, ‘So many hundred horse steam power ‘. These men are not supposed to have any souls; they are hands who have to work upon ‘the crashing, smashing, tearing mechanisms, day in and day out ‘. Industrial towns now give importance to human beings for their competence to work and generate income, therefore the towns are like machines where materials are used, fuel is consumed and money is made. It is the fact that the man who makes money through the labor of these hands regards the smoke of the chimneys as meat and drink for the capitalist.

Capitalist Greed

The Industrial Revolution gave birth to capitalist greed Dickens not only attacked the industrial evils of his time but also portrayed capitalism and factory owners inhuman. As a manufacturer, Bounderby adopts an arrogant attitude towards the workmen and does not feel the least sympathy for them in their troubles or their desire for a better life. He always expresses the view that these workmen want ‘to ride in a coach drawn by six horses and to be fed on turtle soup and venison, with a gold spoon ‘. His treatment of the workmen shows a mechanical mind; he looks upon the workmen as so many hundred ‘hands ‘, so many hundred horse steam power. Although Dickens tries to convey to us all the ugliness of the factories and the industrial town.

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is the philosophy that leaves nothing to the imagination; everything is to be explained with the help of logic and facts. The goal of every individual should be to receive the most pleasure out of life. Utilitarianism intercedes for utility, well-being, and pleasure in life. From the beginning of the novel, Dickens introduces us to the utilitarian way of thinking. Gradgrind and Bounderby are the most outstanding representatives of utilitarian philosophy.

Children are taught factual school from an early age (Louisa, Tom, Bitzer). Gradgrind thinks that only facts are important in every situation,e.g. for him love is not the major issue in marriage. Louisa gets free of the fact school in the end, but cannot stand up to the world of fancy and imagination because she’s taught the opposite all the time. Tom commits every action out of self-interest.

At the end of the story, when Louisa becomes desperate for her father, Mr. Gradgrind says that he never knew she was unhappy; he wasn’t able to identify his child’s emotions. Everything he believes in is shattered, but he wants to make it up to Louisa. The whole system falls apart when Gradgrind loses confidence in it.

On the other hand, Bounderby keeps a firm belief in the system, so at the beginning and the end, he’s in the same situation (a bachelor), but his character doesn’t go through personal development. He represents the ideology of facts, but he lives in an illusion of a self-made man.

Sissy accepts the situation she found herself in, but never accepts the factual world, she keeps her inner value, and she is the mediator between two worlds (fact and fancy). Stephen is the opposite of the ideology of facts – he is genuine, driven by feelings, and not spoiled by any political or ideological opinions. StephenBounderby represents the ideologies, and SissyGradgrind holds them together.

Conclusion

In the present research, I have tried to analyze Charles Dickens’s novel Hard Times by applying the realistic approach. This research offers a vivid picture of the negative or the ugliness of the industrial revolution and its effect on Victorian society. The writer Charles Dickens masterly represents his age and the industrial evils practiced during his time which includes the utilitarian base society and the suffering of the working class in factories and the fragile education system which don’t allow any imaginative work or any work of art due to this many people like sissy jupe suffered because of the education system. If we look at this novel then we can realize that   Dickens is not against the industrial revolution but against industrial evils and capitalist greed which were there and Charles Dickens criticize the capitalist greed of the factory owners and their inhuman and unequal treatment of the suffering of the factory workers because of the behavior of the factory owners.

During the late eighteenth and mid nineteenth century oversaw the birth and fast-paced growth of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. (Baker, 2019) Factories overtook the role of previously played by agriculture in the economy and the working-class citizen quickly made his way out of the village and into the workhouse. (Barrow, 2013) Though the economy was thriving, there was a sense of mourning noted amongst the general public which witnessed the increasing mechanisation of the world. The clash between the natural world and the industrial world then became an important theme prevalent in the literature of the time. Charles Dickens’ (Anon 2016) tales gained recognition and approval from their painfully unromanticised depiction of the working-class life. Additionally, the portrayals of the working class contrasted strongly with the middle and upper middle classes. Dickens’ (2013) Great Expectations chronicles the coming of age of the protagonist Pip in his climbing up the societal ladder, moving from the working class to the middle class through his coming into good fortune.

However, Pip’s inevitable decline back into the working class is a telling illustration of the industrialised economy as unstable as well as the higher classes as greatly alienating. Plus, Dicken’s novels are then critical of the rising materialism and misguided priorities of the Victorian individual brought on by industrialisation. The moral decay of the society is contrasted with the growth of the Victorian economy. Dickens’ (2012) novel Oliver Twist this decline set against the background of the gruesome and inhospitable working environments of the Workhouses in Victorian England.

Oliver Twist can be characterised as a “Newgate Novel”, (Pykett, 2017) a style of novel popularised at the time due to its gritty and explicit depiction of crime, murder and the prison life. The Newgate Calendar which was issued and reissued several times in the mid-19th century reflected the lives, legal proceedings, and criminal confessions of the jailbirds in London’s Newgate Prison which burned down in 1780. This increased the public’s fascination with crime and its rationality. Edward Bulwer’s and Harrison Ainsworth’s Jack Sheppard are very powerful examples in this particular century. Although Oliver Twist does not depict life in prison, it is important to note that criminality was driven mainly by poverty and the deplorable living settings induced by the Poor Regulation in 1834. (Grass 2012) Also, while this type of writing was criticised for its glamorisation of crime and immorality, authors deemed it important to illustrate the immoral reality of lower-class life in England.

Additionally, the ‘Poor Law Amendment Act’ of the mid-19th century became a turning point for the lower classes of England. Due to the growing demand of human workforce in the business, poor people had to now work in Workhouses in order to survive, as stated by the Act. Individuals who were homeless were previously provided for by the richer classes of society. The enforcement of the Act can be attributed to the increase of Capitalistic sentiments observed in the increasingly materialistic Victorian society. The Act designated communities to various Panels of Guardians which each ran their own Workhouse.

It is important to establish that the Workhouses in theory appear as an appropriate solution for the state to house its poor while instilling a decisive drive in the public to steer clear of ending up in a Workhouse. However, in terms of execution, the general public was compelled to question the remorseless grounds upon which the idea functioned. (Higginbotham 1865) Families residing in a Workhouse were separated and punished if they engaged with one another. (Higginbotham 1834) People were reported to be near starving due to the small portions of food provided for them. These conditions became notable to a point of inspiring a genre of art and literature termed “Workhouse Literature”. Authors and Journalists alike took it upon themselves to investigate the lives of Workhouse residents.

Moreover, James Greenwood’s article entitled “A Night in a Workhouse” in an evening newspaper called ‘Pall Mall Gazette’ and this newspaper recounts him spending one night inside a Workhouse to witness the debilitating conditions himself. Greenwood describes in painful detail the living space provided to the deprived in the Workhouse. He states his inability to comprehensibly describe what he witnessed upon entering the room, a room of 30ft by 30ft with dingy walls. Greenwood, 1866, narrates the dampness and filthiness of his surroundings. It is essential to note that there seems to be no indication of any carpeting or blanketing to provide warmth for the residents. Green goes on to state how the far too airy shed was coated in stone and the floor was thickly covered in dirt, so much that Greenwood at first assumed it was the natural earth. Greenwood continues to recount how the residents slept, stating, that his bedfellows lay among cramped on the floor, distributed over the flag stones in a double row, on narrow bags stuffed with hay. He recalls noting thirty men and boys sleeping side by side in doubles in the small naked tiled room.

Similarly, George Orwell’s (Orwell 2015) essay “The Spike” penned in 1831 recounts his stay at a Workhouse which is equally disturbing; he describes the excuse for bread afforded to the residents which on some days was worse than usual, because the cook, out of laziness would cut the slices overnight. This would make the bread hard and near impossible to swallow. Perhaps one of the most horrifying aspects of life at a Workhouse then was the undernourishment of the residents after exploitative and hard manual labour. Dickens’ novel illustrates this in his satirical description of the Boards’ “sage” vision of food provision; it was decreed that the residents will be issued three portions of gruel each day and in some cases with an onion twice a week and also, one small piece of bread on Sundays. Also, Gruel could be a lean porridge and can barely be anticipated to support people working physically through the day, particularly more youthful kids such as Dickens’ hero Oliver.

Oliver experiences first hand being underfed; (Anon 1997) The narrator recounting how each boy had one helping of porridge, and strictly never more than that. The only exceptions to the one serving rule were special celebratory occasions, presumably Christmas or Easter, upon which the boys would be given a small piece of bread along with two helpings of gruel. Dickens goes on to illustrate the state of the growing boys subjected to this undernourishment, claiming that if they could have eaten the building bricks of the Workhouse they would have. Also, while waiting for their food, they would suck on their fingernails and eagerly watch for any stray droppings of gruel. Continuing on retelling of the deplorable starvation of the boys, the narrator states how Oliver and the friends he associated with at the time experienced torturous slow hunger for a long period of time, becoming animalistic with hunger and threatening to eat the other boys.

Moreover, the resident boys along with Oliver therefore decide to ask for a second helping of gruel one day which is met is gross inhumanity and fury of the masters; Oliver’s plea for more gruel is met with the fattened master being offended to the point of referring to Oliver as a rebel. Dickens makes it a point to describe the master as “fat” and “healthy”, contrasting with the thinning boys who were severely underfed and exploited in the Workhouse. The scenario takes a horrifying turn when it is contemplated whether to hang the young boy for his demand of a second helping, a man witnessing the exchange exclaims that he thinks Oliver will be hung for his offensive action and audacious demands.

Also, Dickens’ portrayal of the Victorian Workhouse is not stand-alone however, ballads, poetry, artwork and expository articles also sought to bring to the public’s attention the abominable living circumstances of the Workhouse. In addition to the undernourishment it is also integral to note the masters’ attitudes towards the poor individuals’ demand for just treatment. Dickens then rightfully demonises not the “rebel” boys who asked for more gruel in the now infamous line uttered by Oliver saying he wants more gruel, (adding a please before his statement to express his desperation) but the fattened masters benefitting off the exploitation of the poor and hungry.

To conclude, Charles Dicken’s interpretation of the Workhouse life in Oliver Twist is a telling example of literature providing counter-narratives in history for government propaganda of its exploitation of its citizens. Also, the Industrial Revolution, while benefitted the economy greatly, reaped its capitalist growth at the expense of the wellbeing of the working class. The gross mistreatment of the lower class witnessed during the Industrial Revolution is what inspired Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels famous Communist Manifesto; (1997) a compilation of social philosophy reasoning on the simple contrasts and power relations between the working class/lower class “proletariat” and the middle class/higher class “bourgeoise”. Dickens’ novels, although written before Marx’ manifesto is highly reflective of the alienation, reification and objectification of the proletariat. Charles Dickens has produced various different novels which are called Hard Times, Oliver Twist, a Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations and all these tales are important and suggests illustrations of Dickens’ consistency in portraying the unpleasant reality of the lives of England’s working class, especially through the enactment of the Poor Laws at the beginning stage of the nineteenth century.

Charles John Huffam Dickens

• Charles John Huffam Dickens was a male English novelist during the Victorian era whose poetic, comic and florid literature remains iconic up to date.
• He was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, Hampshire by Elizabeth nee Barrow and John Dickens. His father was a Navy Pay Office clerk that educated Charles at William Gile’s School, Chatham.
• His father was imprisoned Marshalsea Prison in 1824 following his debts while his family moved there as Dickens was left to work in Warren’s Shoe Blacking Factory.
• He experienced child labor at the age of twelve to support his family but later learnt shorthand and worked as a court reporter at Doctor’s Commons while during his leisure time, he would read a lot of literature.
• He started his own writing as a social activist against social ills evident in his lectures, writing and talks.
• The 19^th century author gained an international recognition due to his unique literary style of Gothic romance involving realism and fantasy that handled the social issues in the contemporary society.
• Dickens died in 1870 at Gad’s Hill Place following a stroke and was buried as Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey contrary to his wishes (Hotten et al., 1870).

George Eliot

• George Eliot is the pen-name used by Mary Anne Evans, a female English novelist during the Victorian era. Her male penname was meant to add seriousness to her work, avoid women stereotype and evade public scrutiny following her personal romantic relationship with a married man, George Henry Lewes.
• She was born in 22 November, 1819 in Warwickshire as the third daughter of Robert Evans and Christiana Evans who were local farmers.
• She gained private education but stopped schooling at nineteen, following her mother’s death in 1839 and moved to Coventry with her father from 1841 to 1849 where she continued reading books and learn Italian and German.
• She moved to London and in 1850 and wrote for Westminster Review where she became an editor for two years.
• She however caused a scandal due to her relationship with George Henry Lewes in 1851 that detached her from family and friends. She adopted the pseudo-name when she started writing in 1856 and in 1869 he started to write Middlemarch that made her more famous, although it upsets the modern feminists.
• She remarried John Cross (20 years younger) in 1880 after Lewes death in 1878 and became ill after being married for seven months.
• She died in her sleep on 22 December 1880 and was buried at Highgate Cemetery besides Lewes (Hardy, 2006).

Samuel Butler

• Samuel Butler was born in Nottinghamshire, England in December 4, 1835 as the first-born male of Rev. Thomas Butler and Fanny Worsley. He had a background of clerics and therefore, that was his likely career but he defied his Anglican upbringing.
• He schooled at Shrewsbury and later in St John’s, Cambridge in 1854-1858 where he achieved a First in Classics. He aspired to be an artist irrespective of his father’s wishes and he moved to New Zealand in 1959 where he wrote and published some of his work that made him renowned as an iconoclastic Victorian writer. His work involved analysis of Christian orthodoxy and evolution as well as historic criticism.
• He moved back to London in 1864 to do farming as he wrote for Christchurch Press and learnt Darwin’s views on origin of species which he wrote in The Press, a New Zealand newspaper to compare biological and machine evolution.
• After returning to England in 1864 he pursued his artistic dream by joining the Heatherley’s School of Art and later, the Royal Academy School 1869-1876.
• In 1898, he translated among other works, the Iliad and in 1900, the Odyssey. The way of flesh disregards the hypocrisy eminent during the Victorian era with a utopian satire.
• He passed on, June 18, 1902 at Clifford’s Inn due to pernicious anemia and intestinal catarrh. He was cremated at Woking and buried at St. Paul’s Church, Convent Garden in England (Raby, 1991).

Edward Morgan Foster

• Edward Morgan Foster was a male English novelist born on 1 January 1879 at Dorser Square, London as a sole son to Edward Morgan Llewellyn Forster and Alice Clara.
• His real name as per registration was Henry Morgan Forster but confusion during baptism swapped Henry with Edward and often referred to as Morgan.
• He started writing when he was six and joined the Tonbridge School and later, King’s college, Cambridge where he enjoyed intellectual freedom as a member of Apostles and left with a Bachelor of Arts in 1900.
• His great aunt, Marianne Thornton left him money that gained him financial freedom to tour various parts of the continental Europe, including the Mediterranean which would later inspire his writing.
• He printed some of his work in 1904, in the Independent Review and wrote for The Athenaeum, a London journal. He broadcasted for BBC Radio and a recognized person of British Humanist Association that earned him a Benson Medal in 1937. He was honored in 1946 as a fellow of King’s college and in 1953, a Companion of Honor and a member of Order of Merit in 1969.
• He was a homosexual and had a romantic relationship with Bob Buckingham. They lived together as he experienced various strokes that would eventually cause his death on 7 June 1970 at the Coventry (Moffat, 2010).

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

• Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell was female British novelist in the Victorian era. She involves details of social classes particularly the poor.
• She was born on 29 September 1810 in Chelsea, London as the eighth born of William Stevenson and Elizabeth Holland.
• She was the only surviving child and was left with her aunt Hannah Lamb in Knutsford, Cheshire following his mother’s death and his father’s financial hardships and illness.
• She later moved to live with the Unitarian, William Turner who was a distant relative in New castle who influenced her religious values and charity. She met William Gaskell while in Manchester to pay a visit to Turner’s daughter and married him on 30th august, 1832.
• In Manchester, the local Unitarian chapel where Gaskell ministered consisted of impoverished industrial workers and she initiated charity work and writing some literature on m the socio-economic issues facing the residents that caught immediate attention in the Victorian society. She was also inspired by her son’s death and as a result identified herself with the poor. In 1854, North and south was published and made her famous due to her distinct style of gothic stories.
• She died on 12 November 1865 Holybourne, Hampshire following a heart attack and was buried in graveyard of Brookstreet chapel, Knutsford (Easson, 1979).

Thomas Hardy

• Thomas Hardy, a male English poet and novelist was born on 2 June 1840 at Bockhampton, England by Thomas Hardy Sr. and Jemima Hand.
• He spent his childhood adventuring the countryside that made him to love nature.
• He joined a local school at the age of eight and later studied classical literature, German, Latin, Greek, French and Italy.
• When he was sixteen, he qualified as an architect from the mentorship of his father and went to London in 1862 where he worked on Church architecture. Here, he used his leisure time in the theatre, art galleries as well as opera and was inspired to write poetry. He published his first novel in 1871 that was unsuccessful but his other literature became popular.
• He met Emma Lavina Gifford in 1870 and married in 1874. Following Emma’s death in 1912, Hardy remarried Florence Emily Dugdale in 1914.
• His work has been influenced by naturalism movement in his writing that depicts Romantic, Realistic as well as Enlightenment elements like the supernatural. He also involved religion, sexual values and aspects of rural life in his work.
• He passed on, 11 January 1928 at Dorchester due to pleurisy where his cremation took place and was later buried at Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey (Hardy, 2007).

George Meredith

• George Meredith is a male English poet and novelist at the time of Victorian era, born 12 February, 1828 at Portsmouth, Hampshire.
• He belonged to a working-class family and educated randomly at Moravian School, Germany and never acquired higher education.
• He became an apprentice lawyer when he was seventeen but later abandoned it to engage in articles writing. He read for Chapman and Hall publishers and worked as a freelance journalist for London magazines and newspapers.
• He married Mary Ellen Nicolls in 1849 when he was twenty one, separated in 1858 and remarried in 1864 to Marie Vulliamy and lived together in Surrey until Marie died from cancer in 1886.
• George Meredith has been cited as being witty both in his romantic writing, content and language that has timely psychological view and gender parity. Additionally, he is viewed as a conversationalist and a good, comic story teller.
• His work gained him financial independence e.g. The egoistic that became a hit for his condemning self-centeredness.
• He died in Box Hill, Surrey on 18 May 1909 following his age as well as health complications that had crippled him for long (Forman, 1970).

William Makepeace Thackeray

• William Makepeace Thackeray was a male English novelist born in 18 July 1811 in Calcutta, India by Richmond Thackeray and Ann Becher.
• His mother left India after the death of her husband and moved back to London where Thackeray joined Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cambridge but dropped in 1830 following his addiction to gambling where he lost his inheritance and left with no degree.
• He studied law in 1831 to 1833 at Middle Temple, London and engaged in unsuccessful investment over the National Standard.
• He studied art in Paris and engaged in journalism and worked for The Constitutional as a French correspondence. The publication of the newspaper halted and Thackeray returned to London in 1837 and wrote for various journals and newspapers such as The Times and Punch magazine.
• He married Isabella Shawe, an Irish woman from a humble background and bore three girls who lived with Thackeray’s mother after she had a mental breakdown in 1840.
• He started writing novels and Vanity Fair was published in 1847. In 1859 he worked as an editor for Cornhill Magazine. In his writing, he was fond of immoral characters that reflected the issues apparent in the Victorian society.
• He died on 24 December 1863 due to stroke and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery (Benjamin, 1992).

Anthony Trollope

• Anthony Trollope was a male English novelist during the Victorian era, born 24 April 1815 at Bloomsbury, London by Thomas Anthony Trollope and her mother Frances Milton
• . He had a miserable childhood due to his family‘s impoverishment that affected him when among his aristocratic classmates who bullied him due to his low social status. This made him to contemplate suicide when he was twelve.
• He schooled at Harrow School and later in Winchester College which were elite public schools.
• His family initially moved to America in 1827 and business failure returned them to Harrow and later forced to move to Belgium in 1834 due to debt. His father died in 1835 and his two siblings in 1836 leaving his mother to support the family through writing.
• While he was nineteen, Trollope worked as a postal office clerk and in 1841, he worked as postal surveyor in Ireland, which earned him several tours and was able to fund his literature.
• He married Rose Heseltine and had two sons.
• He is said to be the greatest novelist of the 19^th century. His work reflected the socio-political and gender issues in the society. His realistic approach to the Victorian culture is evident in his work as he remained sensitive to gender issues and other social ills.
• He died on 6 December 1883 and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery of London (Trollope, 1947).

References

Benjamin, L. S. (1992). William Makepeace Thackeray: A Biography. London: Reprint Services Company.

Easson, A. (1979). Elizabeth Gaskell. London: Routledge.

Forman, M. B. (1970). George Meredith. New Delhi: Mittal Publications.

Hardy, B. N. (2006). George Eliot: A Critic’s Biography. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

Hardy, F. E. (2007). Thomas Hardy. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited.

Hotten, J. C., Sala, G. A., & Stanley, A. P. (1870). Charles Dickens: The Story of His Life. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers.

Moffat, W. (2010). E.M. Forster: A New Life. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Raby, P. (1991). Samuel Butler: A Biography. Iowa: University of Iowa Press.

Trollope, A. (1947). An Autobiography. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Charles Dickens was a prominent 19th-century writer who gained popularity not only for his brilliant language and plot twists but also for his contribution to addressing numerous social issues of Victorian England. Rapid industrialization and urbanization, which occurred due to the population explosion, led to the creation of a dirty and noisy city, which was a hard place to live in for the poor. Dickens colorfully describes the injustice, imbalances, and decay that could be seen almost anywhere. Moreover, he often raises such issues as child labor and managed to draw public attention to it.

The writer had a comprehensive knowledge of the poor’s lifestyle, as he spent his childhood years communicating with all kinds of people. He had to leave school early to begin working long hours in a warehouse. The experience he had there and the atmosphere he was exposed to inspired him to improve working conditions and to promote social and economic reforms which were needed at that time. This topic became a vital part of many of his works, and the descriptions they provided led to the implementation of several measures by authorities and philanthropists to enhance the living standards of the poor.

Child labor plays an important role in some of Dickens’s books, and the bright characters he created, such as Oliver Twist, Pip, Tiny Tim, Smike, are still loved by readers of any age. Children in his books are often left alone and do not have any chance to stand up for their rights. Pip and Oliver, for instance, are both portrayed as creative and sensitive orphans who are treated unfairly and suffer.

Dickens should be praised for shortening the distance between various social groups and promoting compassion by showing the emotions caused not only by awful treatment but also by injustice towards poor children, especially orphans. Moreover, Charles Dickens pointed out that miserable childhood often leads to multiple problems in adult life. All the above-mentioned had a strong effect on people in charge and a general audience, which helped Britain lead the fight against such issues.

Charles Dickens achieved tremendous popularity in his own time and has remained a celebrated author ever since thanks to the milestones he achieved as an author in bringing respect and honor to the field. Born to a genteel family lineage in 1812, Dickens had an early encounter with poverty and a simultaneous fall in social status. In 1824, shortly after his 12^th birthday, he was taken away from school and sent away from his family in order to work in a factory in North London. Thanks to a large inheritance soon afterward, though, he was able to return to his middle-class status. This experience, however, provided him with numerous ideas regarding the social and economic disparities between the various classes, the subjects he wrote about in his many books. In addition to bringing forward concepts that were only just beginning to be discussed in fiction, such as these social disparities and the state of education within the nation, Dickens was a master of the voice, easily switching between narrative, monitored thought, monitored speech and directly quoted speech for a number of different effects as can be seen in the popular classic Oliver Twist.

Narrative voice refers to those instances in which the author is speaking directly to the reader and describing what is seen or heard. This is the voice with which Dickens opens his novel: “Among other public buildings in a certain town, which for many reasons it will be prudent to refrain from mentioning, and to which I will assign no fictitious name, there is one anciently common to most towns, great or small: to wit, a workhouse; and in this workhouse was born … the item of mortality whose name is prefixed to the head of this chapter” (Ch. 1). In this passage, it can be seen that there are as yet no characters to be speaking, no separation of voice from the author, and, thus, the reader is left to assume that these introductory statements are indeed from Dickens himself. While many other aspects of narration are involved in this somewhat rambling sentence, the principal reason for an author to use the narrative voice is precisely to introduce information that does not have the benefit of a character as a witness. In simple narration, it can also be used as a means to describe the scene that the author is attempting to place before his audience, descriptions that the characters themselves might witness, but would not necessarily utter or think about in a more conscious manner. An example of this kind of simple narration can be found within any description throughout the novel, whether it be of a city or country landscape or even of an individual person, such as Mrs. Corney, “Her body was bent by age; her limbs trembled with palsy; her face, distorted into a mumbling leer, resembled more the grotesque shaping of some wild pencil, than the work of Nature’s hand” (Ch. 24). However, narration such as this can also be put to use for more direct purposes.

In many cases, the narrative voice is used to interject comments and opinions of the author that would not otherwise be known through the characters’ experiences. It can also be used as a means of allowing the author to interject his own moral philosophies upon the events of the story as they are occurring. An example of this can be found in Chapter 33 of Oliver Twist at a point during which Oliver is thinking about the dying Rose Mayley and how he might have behaved differently to her had he known his time with her was going to be so short. “We need be careful how we deal with those about us, when every death carries to some small circle of survivors, thoughts of so much omitted, and so little done – of so many things forgotten, and so many more which might have been repaired! There is no remorse so deep as that which is unavailing; if we would be spared its tortures, let us remember this, in time.” While these are thoughts that might have been occurring to Oliver at this dark period, they are more a sermon or lesson directly addressed from Dickens to his readers. His shift in language, from the discussion of Oliver and what he was doing and thinking to a consideration of what we must do, signifies the switch from the simple narration of the story to direct narration in which the author speaks to his audience.

Monitored thought is yet another narrative device in which the author is able to express the general nature of his characters’ thoughts to the audience. This enables the audience to gain a more defined concept of who this character is. It provides depth to the character in that emotions and deep convictions are revealed that provide motives and inclinations that frequently come into play later in the story in the form of actions. An example of monitored thought occurs as Oliver considers Mr. Fagin’s warnings before he sent to Bill Sikes. “Oliver leaned his head upon his hand when the old man disappeared, and pondered, with a trembling heart, on the words he had just heard. The more he thought of the Jew’s admonition, the more he was at a loss to divine its real purpose and meaning. He could think of no bad object to be attained by sending him to Sikes, which would not be equally well answered by his remaining with Fagin; and after meditating for a long time, concluded that he had been selected to perform some ordinary menial offices for the housebreaker” (Ch. 20). By revealing Oliver’s thoughts in this way, Dickens is able to both demonstrate Oliver’s continued innocence, in that he is unable to think of anything he could do that was worse than what he’d been doing, yet also illustrates how Oliver isn’t completely innocent that what he’s been doing was not consistent with his own moral beliefs. Only through this window into Oliver’s thoughts is the audience able to understand fully how Oliver remains an innocent victim of the criminal world in which he moves as well as gain a grasp of how deep his moral convictions run.

Monitored speech works in much the same way as monitored thought, yet offers a means by which the author is able to skip over the specific language used by the various characters in order to present a more coherent and succinct piece of information. This can be seen when Oliver attempts to comfort Mrs. Mailey upon Rose’s becoming ill, “She gave way to such great grief, that Oliver, suppressing his own emotion, ventured to remonstrate with her; and to beg, earnestly, that, for the sake of the dear young lady herself, she would be calmer” (Ch. 33), through which the specific language might prove boring, too sentimental or otherwise lose its effectiveness. It is also used when introducing words or phrases that might not be commonly recognized, such as when Dickens monitors Oliver’s speech while he talks with the Dodger. When the Dodger uses a term unfamiliar to Oliver, talking about a Beak’s order, Dickens doesn’t allow Oliver to respond directly, “Oliver mildly replied, that he had always heard a bird’s mouth described by the term in question” (Ch. 8). By not answering the Dodger directly, Oliver is able to retain his higher moral status is not being reduced to the use of slang while still introducing the term into the language of the novel.

A novel of this sort would not be complete, however, without the use of directly quoted speech, which helps to establish their social class, education level, and general character. In this presentation, the characters seem to be speaking directly for themselves and, as such, introduce a wide variety of possibilities in and of themselves. For example, the Dodger, as has been mentioned, speaks in heavily accented slang, “you want grub, and you shall have it. I’m at low-water-mark myself – only one bob and a magpie; but, as far as it goes, I’ll fork out and stump. Up with you on your pins” (Ch. 8). In contrast, Mr. Brownlow reflects a great deal of education and moral standing when he chastises Monk for his use of the term bastard, “The term you use … is a reproach to those who long since passed beyond the feeble censure of the world. It reflects disgrace on no one living, except you who use it. Let that pass. He was born in this town” (Ch. 51). It is through this direct speech that the characters seem to come to life for those individuals reading the novel, hearing them and agreeing or disagreeing with their ideas, experiencing the new world of the streets or the educated fine homes of the upper-middle class.

Through narration, monitored thought monitored speech, and directly quoted speech, Dickens is able to present a complex, well-rounded world in which his characters are able to walk, talk, think and move while still imparting important messages to the audience. By shifting through these various voices, Dickens is able to retain the audience’s interest. Shifting perspectives not only through the various characters but including his own voice as well, summarizing where possible to eliminate uncomfortably or dragging dialogue and allowing his characters to distance from low actions as much as possible, Dickens presents a multicolored tapestry of language that effectively and artfully conveys his vision.

Works Cited

Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. New York: Tor Books, 1998.

Introduction

Dickens is regarded as the master of style because he has the ability to describe scenes in colorful detail thus making the scenes being described to come alive. The two pieces of work that will be the main area of concern in this analysis are ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ and ‘Oliver Twist’.

Analysis

Charles Dickens’ writing reflects his extraordinary gift of observance. Not many novelists can accomplish what this author has managed to achieve in his books. He has the capacity to lay out images of things and people in a manner that the ordinary human being would not envisage.

Dickens’ writings integrate what he observes with what he remembers and imagines. Seldom does one miss even the most trivial of details in his work. It is these trivialities that bring out his most critical strength in literature (Gissing 63). In ‘Oliver Twist’, the following passage exemplifies this feature:

“his gaze encountered the terrified face of Oliver Twist, who, despite all the admonitory looks and pinches of Bumble, was regarding the repulsive countenance of his future master with a mingled expression of horror and fear too palpable to be mistaken even by a half-blind magistrate” (Dickens Oliver 18).

The capacity to describe vividly probably stemmed from Dickens’ attention to detail even in his real life. In letters that he wrote to his colleagues, Charles often noticed the most peculiar things about people. One particular letter was written to Wilkie on the 17^th of January 1858. He describes an incident in which he had gone to visit a mental asylum and found a man who was dumb and deaf.

It was only during the late stages of his illness that others began to notice his insanity. Dickens asked about his occupation and found that he had worked as a telegraph operator.

He speculated about the nature of messages that he sent to different parts of the world in his mental state. Charles did not think about the obvious things; he looked as the mentally-ill patient’s perspective from a totally unexpected angle. It was this talent that he transmitted to his novels.

Something else that comes to mind when reading this author’s classic tales is his propensity to find romance in unpleasant or routine scenarios. Dickens can find something valuable out of even the most wretched of places. He takes a seemingly insignificant and disagreeable occurrence and then relates it with the story in a manner that enriches it.

For instance in ‘A Tale of Two Cities’, he describes a battle scene in Bastille as a “vast dusky mass of scarecrows to and fro, with frequent gleams of light above the billowy heads, where steel blades and bayonets shone in the sun” (Dickens A Tale 244). Through this description, he brings out the tense and belligerent atmosphere so effectively, and thus enriches the story.

In ‘Oliver Twist’ several descriptions of drudgery and filth fill the chapters. In one scenario, he describes the tenements as “fast closed and molding away… houses had become insecure from age and decay and were prevented from falling into the street by huge beams of wood reared against the walls” (Dickens Oliver 5).

It is clear from this description that the state of poverty in that tenement was excessive. The author emphasizes this state of affairs by adding the description of the beams. Such creativity makes one feel like one is in those establishments, and thus enhances the narrative.

It is easy to find unforgettable scenes in Dickens’ work. The reason behind their impressiveness is his ability to paint them rather than merely narrate them. For instance in “A Tale of Two Cities”, the author refers to France for the first time in chapter five. At this moment, he talks about a broken wine cask. He then backs up the picture of wine casks with some descriptions of the surrounding noise.

In another instance, the author paints a picture of the grindstone scene. He talks about the men who sharpen their swords and knives elaborately. Such scenes make the work appear as though it is an actual painting rather than mere prose. The author thus manages to affect the audience’s responses through these spatial representations (Stange 384).

Like any other great writer, Dickens drew inspiration from a number of historical occurrences or figures. However, he was not interested in recapturing these crucial moments of history in every detail possible. Charles simply wanted to draw lessons from them.

For instance, he often told his biographer how he had read the book “French Revolution” by Thomas Carlyle hundreds of times; most structural elements of “A Tale of Two Cities” come from this book. Instead of reconstructing the past, Dickens chooses to tell the story of his characters through these historical patterns.

When describing ancient practices, such as the whipping post, Charles reminds the reader that he is talking about an extinct practice. As such, one does not feel lost in a bygone era. Everything that takes place in the lives of his characters resonates with the social order of the time (Hutter 448).

Therefore, the suffering and death that took place gains a lot of relevance in the mind of reader. This serves to keep all scenes highly relevant and thus captivating. It is these sorts of tactics that make Dickens’ work exceptional.

On must realize that it is not just the great description of these scenes that makes Charles Dickens novels so remarkable. He also has an instinctive skill of integrating disorderly events into one remarkable and united tale. The story of ‘Oliver Twist’ exemplifies this strategy; throughout the narration, there is a mystery that must be solved by the protagonist.

He needs to find his true identity, and when he achieves this, then he will find his true position in society. All of the adventures in the book are tied to this goal, even though the ambition does not seem to be so obvious in the beginning.

It is these overarching themes that make the words and descriptions in the book so meaningful. Charles Dickens does not just write ‘Oliver Twist’ for the sake of writing; each description is filled with meaning. The scenes have a huge impact on the outcome of the story. For instance

“Mr. Brownlow went on from day to day, filling the mind of his adopted child with stores of knowledge, and becoming attached to him, more and more,. And his nature developed itself and showed the thriving seeds of all he wished him to become” (Dickens Oliver 53).

This passage captures the very essence of the book. Oliver always wanted to be independent; having grown up in the streets, he had to adopt a certain degree of self determination. On the other hand, Oliver still wanted someone else to make choices for him since the latter option would cause him to be accepted by the middle class or other respectable members of society.

Therefore, when Brownlow fills him with knowledge, he is allowing the boy to reconcile these two needs. It takes a stroke of genius to capture such conflicting goals in small passages such as the one quoted above. Charles Dickens was able to combine verbal prowess with meaning-making perfectly in this excerpt (Miller 83).

Charles Dickens’ style also elicits emotions from its audiences owing to its directness. ‘Oliver Twist’ is quite a poignant tale, but only the author’s descriptions create these effects. For instance when Dickens talks about Oliver’s imprisonment, one fully identifies the plight of this young boy. He is in an underground prison, which could fall at any time owing to its weak foundations and decaying structures (Dickens Oliver 3).

Furthermore, the room is absolutely dark so that Oliver cannot see his surroundings. If one cannot see the walls, then it is almost as if one is covered by nothingness. A picture of gloom and hopelessness may take over one’s life. It is no wonder Oliver went to the corner so that he could at least touch something real.

Dickens then contrasts the coldness of the walls with the gloom in the room, and asserted that the protagonist preferred the cold. The loneliness and isolation that this boy feels is unmistakable; Charles cleverly uses two highly undesirable elements to bring out the magnitude of Oliver’s troubles.

If the boy was in such as state as to prefer a cold, hard surface over the nothingness, then it must have been completely unbearable for him. The witty choice of words draws out audiences’ emotions.

It is only when an author is able to wear the characters’ shoes that he can think about his reactions to them. If Dickens had not imagined himself to be Oliver in that dark room, he would not have thought about the temporary comfort that the walls accorded the protagonist. Such vividness and capacity to draw out people’s emotions is what causes many readers to admire Dickens’ work.

Any novelist should aim at pleasing his audience. ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ and ‘Oliver Twist’ are some of the most pleasant novels in English literature (Baysal 14). Therefore, in this realm, Dickens has succeeded as an artist. However, it should be noted that not everyone admired this style of writing during Dickens’ lifetime.

Some critics such as James Stephen thought that appealing to audiences’ emotions rather than their sense of reason was crude and corny. These critics classified ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ as historical fiction, so they presumed that it should be philosophical in nature. Other critics of his time such as Aldous Haxley claimed that it was vulgar to fake emotions as Dickens had done because sincerity was a talent in literature.

While these criticisms may be valid to a certain extent, they do not address the root-cause of Dickens’ stylistic preferences. Dickens wanted to write ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ in a manner that would educate the masses about an important historical event.

He was not writing for the historians or the scholars, so it should come as no surprise that these audiences found his work unsatisfactory. The dates and events were accurately stated in his book and that is what mattered. Fictional writers must prioritize the needs of their readers as it is not possible to satisfy everyone.

Many readers were drawn to Dickens’ work because he used characters that they were already familiar with. For those who did not about such characters, Dickens always made a point of introducing them ever so carefully.

It was this element that constantly won them over. In doing so, Dickens would use habits that are common to all in order to achieve this aim. By drawing on common humanity, Charles was able to make his scenes come alive (Forster 125).

“Now that he was enveloped in the old calico robes… he was badged and ticketed, and fell into his place at once – a parish child-the orphan of a half-starved drudge.. to be despised by all and pitied by none” (Dickens Oliver 8).

Dickens was aware that all human beings have experienced indifference or disdain. Using phrases that captured these sentiments ensured that even the middle class could understand Oliver’s status.

Conclusion

Dickens was a master of style because he had a talent of observance, which manifested itself in the form of intricate details. Furthermore, he would find romance in the most unexpected places. As if these were not enough, Dickens often painted images of his scenes rather than just describing them.

Perhaps the most important aspect of his work was his emotional appeal. He achieved this by putting himself in the shoes of his characters. He also introduced unfamiliar audiences to the world of his books using common humanity. It was these stylistic strategies that made him a literary genius.

Works Cited

Baysal, Alev. Caryle’s Influence upon A Tale of Two Cities. 8 Jun. 2007. Web.

Dickens, Charles. The Adventures of Oliver Twist. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867. Googlebooks. Web.

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. NY: Bentham, 1859. Googlebooks. Web.

Forster, John. The Life of Charles Dickens. Cambridge: John Wilson and Son, 1872. Googlebooks. Web.

Gissing, George. Charles Dickens: A critical study. 2001. Web.

Hutter, Albert. Nation and Generation in A Tale of Two Cities. PMLA 93.3(1978): 448-462. Web.

Miller, Joseph. Charles Dickens: the world of his novels. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1958. Googlebooks. Web.

Stange, Robert. Dickens and Fiery past: A Tale of Tow Cities Reconsidered. English Journal 2009: 381-390. Web.