An Angry Boy Who Changed the World

Charles Dickens was a nineteenth-century English author of fictional novels. His life spanned the mid-to-late Industrial Revolution. During his life, he saw huge changes in society, not all of them to his liking.

This paper is about how Dickens' childhood affected his perception of the Industrial Revolution. It analyzes five of his books in sequence; tying the history to his books and the books to his life. After a brief biography, it begins its analysis with A Tale of Two Cities, a novel set in the French Revolution, and discusses in turn: Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, and Great Expectations ^1,2,3,4,5. The paper closes with a discussion of the Industrial Revolution and Dickens' biased feelings about industry.

Charles Dickens was born in 1812 to a middle class family. His father tried to provide his family comforts beyond his ability to pay for them. At the age of nine, Charles was pulled from school because of his father's inability to pay their debts. To add to his father's income as a clerk for the Navy, the family opened a small shop and sold belongings. Nevertheless, they slid steadily deeper into debt. By the time Charles was twelve, his father had been sent to Marshalsea Debtor's Prison. Charles was left to earn his father's release. He worked in Warren's Blacking Factory for three years, fixing labels on bottles in a dark room. He was surrounded by cruel people and constantly ordered to work faster. For all his labor, Dickens was paid six shillings per week. This mistreatment and injustice angered Charles, still a boy, who had been used to living a middle-class life.⁶

After the debts had finally been paid and his father released, Charles couldn't trust his father and still felt he had been betrayed. Charles was sent to an academy for three years where he completed his formal education.

Dickens' first adult job was being an attorney's office boy.⁷ During that three years, the ambitious young writer courted Maria Beadnell, the daughter of a prosperous banker. Together they had an informal engagement. The Beadnell's didn't want their daughter to marry an office boy and soon whisked Maria away to college. She returned cold, capricious, and mean. She later gave back the ring of engagement, shattering Dickens' heart. Dickens blamed the break-up with Maria upon his relative poverty.⁸

Dickens later found a job as a reporter for the Courts and Parliament. Five years after Maria, at the age of twenty-four, Dickens married Catharine Hogarth. He wasn't in love with Catharine like he had been with Maria, he just thought that every successful man should have a wife. Catharine was but a girl of seventeen and she couldn't do many household duties, including the social calendar and managing servants. Dickens later said, "If only my wife had helped me more." After Mr. and Mrs. Dickens had married, Catharine's younger sister, Mary, became like a daughter to Charles. One night, after a play, Mary fell ill and died the next day from a heart attack. This left Dickens depressed and hurt. He worked at the Courts and Parliament seven years, until his earnings from his novels could support his family.

Dickens started writing at the age of twenty-five with The Pickwick Papers, and followed with Sketches by Boz. The way that Dickens dealt with his childhood pains and memories from the blacking factory was to write about problems associated with the Industrial Revolution and society. He was so passionately angry at his treatment in the Blacking Factory, that he spent the rest of his life writing and reading to people of things similar to his anger at the authority figures (his father and the town authorities).

His jobs in court and the attorney's office revealed to Dickens the people who made decisions about society. Dickens focused his novels upon the Industrial Revolution and its effects upon society. He argued that poor and unemployed people turn into thieves and robbers in order to survive. The Industrial Revolution brought factories and smoke. The factories were dangerous, the hours were long, and smoke caused filth that covered buildings and streets.

Dickens was so busy writing and talking about wrote about the disadvantages of industry, that he didn't have time to see that there were benefits to factories. He would swim in memories and anger, writing about a boy in rags sitting at a table, not seeing that the clothes and the table were made at a factory. He thought that he had been treated badly, but to the poor the workhouses were a place of shelter and factories the only way to earn any money. Dickens didn't see this because he was always writing or acting out his own unhappy childhood.

During his lifetime, Dickens tried to benefit the poor as much as he could. He cared for the people and suggested solutions to social problems. To raise money for charity, Dickens would read to crowds and sometimes act out scenes of his novels. People enjoyed Dickens' acting because he was so passionate. His blood pressure would soar (once he even fainted and had to be carried off the stage), people would applaud, and critics praised him. The stress killed him. Dickens died of a stroke at the age of 58.⁹

Dickens' novel, A Tale of Two Cities, is about the two key problems with the French Revolution: Neither mobs nor monarchies abide by laws. Dickens declared that mobs were lawless and totally unjust. One of Dickens' scenes was about Monsieur and Madame Defarge, exciting and leading a mob of villains and murderers to battle with the King's soldiers. After the battle a huge mass stormed the Bastille.¹⁰ Mme. Defarge killed and beheaded him without trial. Mobs made their own rules and laws, allowing themselves to do whatever they wanted, right or wrong.

The day the Bastille was stormed, Monsieur Defarge went to a cell and jimmied out some papers written by Alexander Mannette. Mr. Mannette had written to a priest about a trip to a house where two peasants died after being worked endlessly by the rich Evermondes. When the Evermondes heard about the letter, they had Mannette taken to the Bastille and imprisoned in a cell for eighteen years. After Mannette was released from prison, he and his daughter moved to England. Soon after the transfer, three men started daily coming to the Mannette's house. The men's names were Sydney Carton, Charles Darnay, and Mr. Styver. When it was announced that Mr. Darnay and Miss Mannette were to be married, Mr. Carton promised Miss Mannette that he would give his life to save anyone dear to her. This allowed him to be devoted to her in other ways than marriage. Charles Darnay was the nephew of the Marquis de Saint Evermonde.

In the papers, Manette denounced all Evermondes. After they had been read, the jury sentenced all Evermondes to the guillotine. Mme. Defarge tried to kill Miss Pross, Miss Darnay, Mrs. Darnay, and Mannette simply because they mourned for Mr. Darnay. Mr. Carton traded clothes with Darnay and went to the guillotine in his place.¹¹

The tyrants in A Tale of Two Cities were the Marqis de Saint Evermonde and the Governor. The Governor didn't care about his starving people; instead he focussed on keeping his pocketbook full. The Marquis de Saint Evermonde represented nobility. He would drive through town too fast. His horses once ran over and killed a small child in their way. As the villagers mourned the Marquis threw a coin to the father talking about his amazement that they couldn't keep track of themselves.¹² After Evermonde was later killed, his heir living in England ordered his servant to burden the people no more.

A Tale of Two Cities was about loyalty. The true heroes were the ones that kept their promises and fulfilled them no matter what it took. Dickens made the heroes middle-class. Dickens thought that everyone should be treated decently and equally. The rich were mean, greedy, and took advantage of the poor. The poor were living in slums, fighting over a piece of bread, or battling the king's men as angry and hungry mobs.

In Oliver Twist, Dickens writes about life in the slums and the destructive results. Oliver was born in a Parish workhouse, managed by Mr. Bumble. Oliver's unmarried mother died at childbirth so the people at the workhouse grudgingly took care of him. He worked for his lodging until one night he asked for more watery gruel. Their response was to announce that they would pay five pounds to anyone who would take him.

An undertaker hired Oliver to act as a professional mourner. A boy at the undertaker's house insulted Oliver's mother. The enraged Young Twist punched the boy. Mr. Bumble flogged and scolded Oliver. That night he ran away to find a way to survive on the cold streets of London.

As Oliver wandered around the city, a stranger befriended him and convinced Oliver to come to stay with Fagin, an old man who was actually a leader of a group of pickpockets. Two of the pickpockets framed Oliver, claiming that he had stolen a handkerchief. Oliver was arrested and held for trial until the bookstand keeper cleared him.¹³The victim of the robbery, Mr. Brownlow, took Oliver into his home.

One day Oliver was taking books back to the bookstand keeper when he became lost. As he wandered around, Oliver was caught and dragged back to the pickpockets by one of the gang named Nancy (the men ordered her). Nancy told Mr. Brownlow and a lady about Fagin's and Monks', (Oliver's half-brother) intentions for corrupting Oliver.

When he was found and nursed by the lady's family, Oliver was returned to Mr. Brownlow. Together Mr. Brownlow and a friend of his tracked down Monks who had bribed Fagin to make Oliver a thief in order to keep Oliver from his inheritance. The will said that Oliver would get all of his father's money if he didn't do anything disagreeable. When Monks had signed the confession, Mr. Brownlow adopted Oliver.¹⁴

Oliver Twist is about the destructive effects upon poor children of coveting and stealing. Dickens described poor society as, "Dirty where desperate slums will kill and fight for a crust of bread." He wrote similarly with Monks trying to corrupt Oliver for money.

Oliver Twist was also meant to teach the poor that committing a crime leads only to punishment. The pickpockets and Monks were hidden from the law for a long time but were caught and punished. Monks' attempt was a failure; Oliver was horrified with the thought of stealing. The pickpockets that he had bribed were hung or sent to prison.

A Christmas Carol starts out describing the poor working and living conditions of Bob Cratchit; they end up better. Mr.Cratchit was a poor man, a worker for a miserly banker named Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge insulted and mistreated people. He would refuse every Christmas dinner invitation. He was often entreated for donations to house the poor. When asked how much he would donate, Scrooge would ask the people if there weren't jails and workhouses for the poor to stay in.¹⁵ They responded that it was sadly true. Again they asked him how much he would donate. He always said, "Nothing."

On Christmas Eve, the ghost of Jacob Marley visited Scrooge at home and announced that three spirits were to show him the results of his ways. The third spirit showed Scrooge things that may yet come to be. One was that, if Mr. Cratchit's son, Tiny Tim, didn't get medical help soon, that he would die.¹⁶ The spirit also showed that Scrooge would unhappily come to an end next Christmas.¹⁷ When these things were shown to him, Scrooge became kind, charitable and gentlemanly. He released the Cratchit family from debt and completely changed the lives of the poor by giving them money.

With A Christmas Carol, Dickens wanted to shame the rich and make them feel sorry for the poor. In his heart Dickens had a lust for revenge upon the factory owners. With his books, Dickens gave the rich a bad reputation and made them sorry for their treatment towards their employees. The spirits in A Christmas Carol teach that when the rich keep the money to themselves, they grow grumpy and die friendless. Dickens himself willingly gave money to charity. When the rich heard the conditions, they began building hospitals and public baths. Factory owners improved the conditions of the employees' living and working conditions. Some of the wealthy hired the poor as servants to give them jobs and better housing.¹⁸

David Copperfield was a mix of Dickens' fantasy, wishes, and life. They were both born to middle-class families and later went to factories, but David only stayed one day. Dickens worked to support his family but David, to support himself. David had lived with a very poor family that emigrated from England to Australia, abandoning David to work in a factory. Similarly, Dickens felt abandoned when his father went to debtor's prison.

The household consisted of David, his mother, and a servant lady. For six years David lived a peaceful life among his family, the church, and his books. One time, David was invited to go with the servant lady to Yarmouth for two weeks.¹⁹ When they returned, his mother was re-married and had done so without his knowledge. When David couldn't learn his lessons, he was sent away to a boarding school. Mr. Murdstone (David's stepfather) sent David away because he wouldn't have to feed, clothe, care, or school young Copperfield. He was trying to save money and time in the house. In a way it was a relief for David who longed to get away from the cruel Mr. Murdstone.

When David arrived at the school, it wasn't nice either. Once David had been enraged by his stepfather and bit him. They put a placard on his back that said, "Take care of him. He bites." He was then the main subject of the cane and attention. People would make him walk in front of them to read the announcement. The teachers were very strict and constantly beat their students during studies. This was useless because the children become nervous and avoid being beaten instead of doing their studies. Two boys named Traddles and Steerforth became defiant. Traddles would draw skeletons on his slate again and again after beatings. Steerforth would insult teachers, not do what they said, and get them in trouble with the head of the school. He wrote that the teachers used the cane constantly and that the schoolrooms were very messy.

After a few years of this schooling, David's mother died and he was dragged out of school. Two months later he was shipped to a wine factory called Murdstone & Grinby's, where he got a job for washing the empty bottles. That means when people worked, they had their hands in water all day. This isn't good for the hands which get wrinkled and chapped. David being sent to Murdstone & Grinby's was like Dickens at Warren's Blacking Factory. Both boys held a sense of betrayal. Young Copperfield felt betrayal from his mother because she married with out his knowledge; Charles, because his father, spent too much money.

Young Dickens' courting experience was also the same as Copperfield's. Maria was Emily Peggoty and Dickens was David. At one time in their life, Dickens and Copperfield both worked for the Courts and Parliament. David married Anges Wickfield who, in the story, represented Mary Hogarth.

Dickens' novel Great Expectations, is about how much a kind person affects a child's life. Phillip Pirrip, called Pip, was the main character of the story. He was raised by his big sister and her husband, the blacksmith. He was schooled at home, and like the rest of the students, he was beaten if the answers were wrong or not long enough. In the house, Mrs. Joe was known to be loving but shrewish. She would grow angry if Pip was out too late or absent for a long while.

As a five year old child, Pip was arrested and threatened by a hungry escaped convict, Abel Magwitch, threatened Pip that he would eat Pip's heart and liver if food wasn't brought.²⁰ The next day at dawn, Pip took food to the convict.²¹

A day or two later, Pip was sent to a rich old lady named Miss Havisham. She had taken in a beautiful girl called Estella. Miss Havisham hated men because her husband-to-be had failed to appear at her wedding. Miss Havisham wanted to get some satisfaction from her hatred and so she took it out on Pip. One time Miss Havisham adorned Estella with jewels to make her prettier.²² This roused affection in Pip for her. She would tease him with Estella while Estella hated and insulted him. The relationship was meant to be one that would later hurt Pip.

One day at the inn, "The Three Jolly Bargemen", Pip and his brother-in-law, Mr. Gargery, were informed that Pip had been adopted by a rich man whose identity wasn't given. He was sent to London to be educated and brought up like a gentleman according to his expectations of life. As a gentleman he was to keep the name of Pip.

At a ball Estella made Mr. Pip jealous by attracting and encouraging the attention of a generally despised man called Drummelle. She ended up marrying Drummelle. Pip's and Estella's relationship, though meant to hurt Pip, mainly hurt Estella. After an unhappy marriage, and becoming a widow Estella "found too late the value of his love" and they lived as friends apart. Their link as children is similar to the relationship between Dickens and Maria. At the time of courtship and friendship the coldness hurt Dickens and Pip. After being married for a while both Maria and Estella realized the chance that they had thrown away. Estella was "bent and broken" while Maria was deprived of the famous author that Mr. Dickens was going to be.

When he turned twenty-three, Pip received a visitor who slowly revealed his identity to be the same Abel Magwitch who had threatened Pip. Mr.Magwitch was Pip's formerly unknown adoptive father! Mr. Magwitch had since earned money and had become a gentleman. Abel had to leave a very secret life. The escaped convict, Abel had been sentenced to prison for life; if discovered outside the prison walls he would be hung.

Pip had attempted to smuggle Abel to Europe and safety, but in the process had been stopped by a custom's boat. In the boat, was Magwitch's enemy convict, Compeyson. Magwitch and Compeyson fought underwater; Compeyson drowned and Magwitch survived, but struck his head on the keel of a boat. The other people in the custom's boat, put Magwitch back into prison. He was going to be hung but Magwitch instead died of his injuries. Pip fell into debt and illness at the age of thirty. He went home to his brother-in-law's house where he was taken care of and released from debt.

Like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, and Great Expectations, Dickens communicated the problems that form in a young child that is harmed, threatened, or treated badly. In Great Expectations, the convict, Magwitch, that threatened to eat Pip's heart and liver in order to get the food. Oliver Twist 's gang of pickpockets and Monks all harmed Oliver by underfeeding and trying to corrupt him. David Copperfield's Mr. Murdstone treated David badly by beating and locking-up him for days.

All of these Dickens novels teach that a kind person makes a difference in people's lives. Mr. Gargery, Pip's brother-in-law, nursed Pip and paid his debts. Mr. Mell and Mr. Wickfield helped David Copperfield study while Miss Trotwood adopted the boy and paid for his studies at Mr. Wickfield's house. Mr. Brownlow nursed Oliver when the orphan needed help and later adopted him. Marley warned Scrooge of the results from being mean and greedy. After the third spirit had left, Scrooge made a difference to the Cratchits by paying off debts and needs. All of these benefactors acted as surrogate parents to save children who had been harmed by the Industrial Revolution, many of them underfed and sick.

The Industrial Revolution started around 1700 and was driven by craftsmen who wished to become wealthy by solving problems and improving productivity. They built the machines; the rich bought them and built factories. Once the rich had the factories and machines, they needed people to run them. The only willing people around were farmers and the rich hired them. As workers, the farmers were paid pretty well. They were able to buy things from the factories at which they worked. These things created the middle class. The workers came to expect a well-to-do life. Price competition among products ended that. The owners fired the adults, hired kids, and lowered the wages till they were a few shillings a week.

Dickens taught people about the problems of concentrated wealth. The nobility, factory owners, and bankers kept money to themselves while letting the working people suffer and children fall into poverty, thievery, and illiteracy. Sometimes the workers were in the pits hauling up the crates of coal by a belt around their legs in complete darkness and cold. They also had to sit in the dark and opening and closing the trapdoors to let the crates of coal come through. The worst danger was the sudden blow-ups of gas that caused explosions inside the mines killing many workers at a time. Others worked in the dim, smoky factories with deafening clanking all around. If someone made a wrong move, they could be sucked in to the machines and ground to pieces. The only way to stop the machines was to knock off a drive belt. Some parts in the big machines often broke letting a belt whip around or a bolt sail off injuring people when it hit them. The workers got a few hours of sleep and maybe five bites of breakfast. People can't function that way; it becomes easy to make a mistake because they are tired and hungry. After one month they become pale and resemble death.²³

Dickens was right about the problems with the factories. They were horrible places to work and workhouses were bad places to live. Fatigue, injuries, and hunger caused mistakes. Production quality and efficiency suffered. Society became polluted, and that caused widespread diseases among the working population. The things that he saw made him think that industry was bad especially when employed with children who cannot then get an education and grow up to be better workers.

The reason they paid the workers so little was price competition among products. The low pay to the workers took away their future. When they were fired from the factories or when they were disabled by injury, the workers didn't have any money to live on so they were stuck in the streets homeless and hungry. Dickens saw this happen and didn't want the children in industry or trade.

Dickens pointed out all these problems. He helped the poor and shamed the rich. He pushed for child labor laws that forced the owners to hire adults. He advocated laws requiring shorter working hours. These laws increased the demand for adult workers and wages rose. This didn't satisfy Dickens. He wanted everyone to be treated equally. He was always angry at the factory owners' treatment towards the poor. All of this anger stressed his mind, until the total load of his feelings was too much for his body.²⁴

Dickens was so distracted with his anger over his childhood, that he couldn't see the benefits of the Industrial Revolution. Industry gave work to poor people so that they could provide children food and shelter. Technology made essential goods available to those who couldn't otherwise afford them. The migration of workers to the factories spurred business for remaining farmers. Industry created demand for interesting new skills. Technology created new opportunities for professionals to solve complex problems. The Industrial Revolution produced the wealth that, in time, improved living and working conditions for everyone.^25,26

Through his novels, Dickens’ subjective perception of the Industrial Revolution created a culture of hostility against industrial development and a habit of depending upon government to solve the problems by restricting business. That cultural bias has the capability to harm the poor and middle class workers whom Dickens was trying to help.

Oh my gosh ... you do such fine work!

I'm jealous of your summer of Dickens. It's been a long time since I've read those books and I think you may have inspired me to pick up a copy of "A Tale of Two Cities" at the secondhand stores to read again.

I think you make some good observations about the industrialization of human society and the effects of the technological revolution as well. No doubt it's possible to err in the direction of either enslaving yourself to technology (the "technology compels" crowd) or hating it with such passion that you rob human beings of the benefits of industry and technology (the New Left's anarchical destruction without concern for the individuals they harm in the process).

Additionally, if I remember correctly, it seems to me that folks in the country generally had a better handle on reality -- and morality -- than lots of folks who populated Dickens' cityscapes. But that's probably another thread ...

I shall be back tomorrow to quote for you a writer and thinker I love very much ... Erik von Keunnelt-Leddihn. It's something I've been meaning to post for a while now and I think you'll enjoy considering it.

Also, I might note for the record that another favorite writer and philosopher of mine -- Thomas Molnar -- HATES machines and himself uses only a microwave to heat the water for his tea if NO ONE is around to help him! It alarms him that I post so much of his work on the internet, as a matter of fact! =)

But he has a point. Not only is he too a Catholic who recognizes the temptation of industrialists and certain humans to lose sight of the dignity of every individual -- paying them as little possible, downsizing them at will and destroying their sensibilities with company-enforced Compliance Programs -- but he also loves Beauty and relishes Time.

There is no question but what industry and technology have made for a more sterile and ugly world in many respects. Perhaps one day humans will better balance their desire to improve the comfort or ease of living with an appreciation of what it means to be human and need Beauty.

Perhaps one day humans will realize that many of their Labor-Saving devices only devour precious Time better spent doing things by hand ... lost in one's own thoughts or conversing with the kindred spirit who helps you with the chores.

I know I hope that one day everyone agrees that cell phones and pagers are boorish interruptions and that blabbing non-stop gibberish on their cell phones is a good way to miss out on the human being or bit of beauty -- much less the bicyclist they're about to flatten -- right before their eyes.

Ah, 'tis the lovely Lady NattieShea once again, come to lighten up our day. Thank you, Ma'am!

Without question you spent many hours and much of your summer "fun time" working on this most ambitious project. Not only did you finish it, as they say 'round my neck o' the woods, "Ya done good!."

Now for the real question. The proof of the pudding, so to speak, about any worthwhile exercise like the one you just finished is always "What did you learn about yourself from all this?" If Dickens could only see the world around him through the lens of his own experience, does that teach you anything about the rest of us?

P.S. These are the best kind of questions - there's no grade for your answer.

P.P.S. And thanks again, NattieShea. And thank your Dad for calling me to your latest project.

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