ENGLISH 22 Composition and Language : Economic Abuses

Charles Dickens is one of the renowned England novelists who made history during the Victorian era. He used fiction stories to depict and condemn the social, moral and economic abuses. He Dickens was empathetic and compassionate towards the oppressed and led to some social reforms. His familiarity and concerns with the ills that permeated the English society were cultivated by his childhood traumatic experiences. His father had been imprisoned thus Dickens was subjected to early working (at the age of twelve) in a shoe industry. Dickens' Hard Times narrates the transformation that took place during the English industrialization and the adverse effects it has on the citizens.  Children were not spared either. The aim of the paper is thus to discuss some of the abuses that children faced during the Victorian times.

The emergence of capitalism in England led to the enormous demand for cheap labor. For this reason, children became prime targets in the companies where they worked as laborers (Horrell, Humphries & Voth, 2001). Poverty was one of the precipitating factors that saw a massive enrollment of children into companies and industries (Dutta, 2014). They were expected to feed themselves as well as cater for their families. The Orphaned, abused, neglected or exploited children were the most vulnerable during the Victorian times. Dickens' Hard Times demonstration of child abuse is primarily portrayed by the character, Sissy Jup.

Children, as demonstrated by Dickens, were deprived of parental care and nurture whereas it (parental care) is a fundamental aspect of the growth and development of a child. Sissy is a victim of parental negligence. She is abandoned by her mother, father, and family and lives in a care home with her undependable caring brother-in-law (Dickens, 1996). However, she is later adopted by Gradgrind and invited to study in his school while living with his family. Although living with Gradgrind's family, Sissy is perceived as an outsider and stupid because she expresses love emotions and a liking for fun, something that Gradgrind was against (Dickens, 1996). She later becomes the caretaker of Gradgrind's family upon the death of his wife. It, therefore, shows that children were exposed to child labor and denied rights to access education as well as pursuing their dreams.  

The upbringing of Louisa and Tom indicates how children in the Victorian times were passive subjects who could not make personal decisions. Gradgrind's life was dominated by the philosophy of fact, rationalism, and self-interest (Dickens, 1996). He also mentored Tom and Louisa in the same way. One would argue that this form of dominion is a cocoon that inhibited the children from self-realization and openness to the world. Children were expected to blindly follow what was dictated by the elderly, powerful and influential personnel of the Victorian era (Humphries, 2013). An attempt to break the cocoon is what resulted to deviance. For instance, Tom becomes a persistent seeker of pleasure while Louisa is buried in inner confusion. As a result, she marries the wealthy Bounderby who is more than twice older than her.

  In conclusion, the representation of children abuse in Dickens' Hard Times and his other novels represent children and their suffering in the real world. He successfully pictures the tragic background and experiences that children in the Victorian era were subjected to. It includes experiences such as deprivation of education, poverty, neglect, and orphanage.

References

Dickens, C. (1996). Hard times. Broadview Press.

Dutta, A. (2014). Children in Dickens’s Novels. International Journal on Studies in English

Language and Literature (IJSELL), 2(2) 1-4.

Horrell, S., Humphries, J., & Voth, H. J. (2001). Destined for deprivation: Human capital

formation and intergenerational poverty in nineteenth-century England. Explorations in Economic History, 38(3), 339-365.

Humphries, J. (2013). Childhood and child labour in the British industrial revolution. The

Economic History Review, 66(2), 395-418.