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Dickens and the industrial revolution
Industrial revolution and it's impact on literature
20th century English literature history
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Charles Dickens' Hard Times and David Lodge's Nice Work
----“Fact, fact, fact, everywhere in the material aspect of the town;
fact, fact, fact everywhere in the immaterial.” – Charles Dickens
In the early 1851, London staged the Great Exhibition to show the
world, the achievements and inventions of the Industrial Revolution.
Many people believed that this showed how much better, safer and
healthier Britain was than its neighbours in Europe. People living in
mansions amid lawns and fountains, with horse drawn carriages
certainly felt that life couldn’t be better. However behind the
publicity and the royal occasions there was another England, not so
glorious. Benjamin Disraeli wrote that Britain was really “two
nations”, Dickens wanted to show his readers what was behind the
glittering façade of Victorian industry. He wanted to show his readers
the factual monotony behind the sulky blotch towns of industrial
Britain.
As the essay title suggests, both Lodge and Dickens have portrayed
their format of an industrial landscape. Both authors’ coddle in a
crestfallen environment of the industrial world: one at the height of
a revolution, the other at the height of a decline. Dickens is keen to
depict his Victorian contemporary world of Coketown in an essentially
satirical context. It is emblemed with certain thematic issues
including religion, the nature of employment and education, which
follow course throughout the book. This surreal caricature of the
Victorian landscape contrasts with Lodge’s realistically styled piece.
Lodge’s passage, which holds a fictional veil over the names of
“Rummidge and the Dark Country”, is clearly intended to represent
Birmingham and the Black Country.
In Hard Times it ca...
... middle of paper ...
...o hold no target. In his account he mainly adopts
an educational style prose to mirror the thoughts of his subject Vic
Wilcox whilst also using a slightly more creative passage towards the
end of the description to reveal political opinion and sentiment.
Overall it is credible to say that the sources examined are quite
detached in similarity. This maybe due to the large disparity of time
between time periods. In view of success I think though Lodge’s modern
style of writing should be recognized as playing games with the
reader, I judge that the tone is overtly mundane and dreary. It is
impossible to give a comprehensive argument on Lodge’s point of view
due to his modern isolated style from the writing. Dickens is
appealingly aggressive, motivating and quite favourably figurative. He
leaves his readers without a shadow of a doubt of whom he is
attacking.
The contemporary reviewers of Bleak House fall into two categories when discussing its structure. There are those who like it and there are those who do not. More specifically, those who dislike the novel’s construction complain of the absence of plot and lack of connection between characters and their actions. Opposing this view are the reviewers who find the characters in Bleak House remarkably intertwined in the story, especially since it was written as a series for a literary magazine.
a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon
Another man - we are not told who the man is or why he is present, are
In this essay, I will argue that one of the underlying motives in Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is the reinforcement of Christian values in 18th century Victorian England. Dickens was very concerned with the accepted social norms of industrialized England, many of which he felt were very inhumane. Christian values were challenged, largely due to the recent publication of Darwin's Origins of a Species, and philosophy along with literature was greatly affected. In 1859, the industrial age was booming, making many entrepreneurs rich. However, the majority of the lower economic class remained impoverished, working in unsafe and horrific environments as underpaid factory workers. Additionally, child labor was an accepted practice in Victorian England's factories. Dickens, who worked, as a child in a shoe polish factory, detested this social convention with such strength that only one with experience in such exploitation could.
Charles Dickens, an English writer and social critic, lived in England from 1812 to 1870 (Cody). Dickens usually critiques topics important to him or those that have affected him throughout his life. He grew up poor and was forced to work at an early age when his father was thrown into debtors prison (Cody). As he became a popular and widely known author he was an outspoken activist for the betterment of poor people’s lives (Davis). He wrote A Tale of Two Cities during the 1850s and published the book in 185...
The story begins in a village near the marshes where a young boy named Pip lives. Because his parents are dead, he lives with his sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery and her husband Joe who’s a blacksmith and Pip’s trusted friend. Pip doesn’t have much of a future, he’s destined to become Joe’s apprentice and eventually a blacksmith. Then, Pip meets a convict out on the marshes. It seems like nothing important, despite it being frightening, but this meeting will change his life forever.
Here, Dickens focuses on the word “suffering”, to reinforce the idea that being wealthy, which is related to being better than other, a materialistic view of society is not what gives happiness, but the surroundings and
9. Ashbury, M (2001) Representation of Industrialization in Dickens’ Hard Times [Online]. Available: http://www.colourpurple.com [Accessed 25th April 2005].
Dickens, Charles. A Norton Critical Edition: Charles Dickens Oliver Twist.? Ed. Fred Kaplan. New York: Norton & Company, 1993.
By having Oates, a fictionalised Charles Dickens figure, exist in the same imaginative space as Jack Maggs, the modern reworking of one of Dickens’ most memorable characters, Carey is able to explore not only the questions left unanswered by the source text, but also the difficult relationship that exists between character and creator.
The novel, Great Expectations, presents the story of a young boy growing up and becoming a
“Charles Dickens: Great Expectations.” (2 Feb, 2006): 2. Online. World Wide Web. 2 Feb, 2006. Available http://www.uned.es/dpto-filologias-extranjeras/cursos/LenguaIglesaIII/TextosYComentarios/dickens.htm.
after by his sister Mrs. Joe as both of his parents had died and he
Charles Dickens believes that the key to a quality education is the inclusion of creativity and imagination in the structure of learning. At the time of writing the novel Hard Times, Dickens was extremely dissatisfied with the education system in place in Victorian England. He believed that education was a big part of a person’s life and contributed to their outcome as human being in society. The education at the time severely emphasized utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is when actions are considered good and right if they benefit a majority. The concept of utilitarianism, eliminates the need for individuality and creates anonymity. Throughout his novel Hard Times, Charles Dickens shows the inadequacy of an approach to education, as well as life, that only pays attention to facts and ignores the importance of the imagination and the human heart.
While the novel does act as a social commentary on the disparaging treatment of the poor in England, Dickens fails to do more than comment on the situation. The fact that the social classes are fighting for survival against one another provides for the establishment of a further embedded social caste system of us against them. The very poor in David Copperfield, are at times overlooked by even the middle class characters in the novel. While some of the middle class characters do look out for a few of the lower class characters, these actions are taken as a result of their need to feel needed by others. My paper will examine the desire for the author to write a social commentary on class inequality, survival, and the search for happiness at all costs in David Copperfield.