Dickens

Amita C. Jani
Roll no. : 11
SEM – II
Paper no : E-C-204
Year – 2011
Topic: Dickens

Submitted to Ms. Ruchira Dhudhrejiya
Department of English,
Bhavnagar University.

The life of Charles Dickens : 

One of the greatest British writers of all time, Charles Dickens was a Victorian novelist who chose the Bildungsroman form for at least two of his most famous works : David Copperfield (1849-1850) and Great Expectations (1860 – 1861). Born in Portsmouth, England, on February 7, 1812, Dickens grew up in London. His father was a navy clerk who went to debtors’ prison when Dickens was 12^th. Forced to go to work in a shoe dye factory, Dickens lived alone in fear and shame. These feeling led to the creation of his many orphan characters and his sympathy for the plight of the working class that made him the first great urban novelist. Although he was able to return to school and eventually clerked in a law firm, Dickens found his first success as a journalist and comic writer of the picalick papers (1836 – 1837). However, his deep social concerns found expression in a rich intensity and variety in his later works. By the time of his death from a paralytic stroke at age 58 on June 9, 1879, Dickens had written many novels, including a Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities.  

Charles Dickens as an observer of the 19^th century English Society : 

Throughout his life Dickens was in interested in public affairs and although his popular reputation may have the progressive or racial quality of his thinking. His many works are against a number of official abuses and by the large was regarded as friend of the poor and a deny enemy to certain type of public servant. His novel belongs to the humanization movement of the Victorian era. He was from the first to last a novelist with a purpose in nearly all his novel, he set out to attack same specific abuse in the existence system of themes and throughout he constituted himself the weak, the outcast and the oprest. In his works there is an attack upon some legal of social evils of the Victorian society which Shakespeare had already hinted in his Hamlet.

He satires boding schools in Nicholas Nickelby, the court of chancery in Black house, the new manufacturing system and evils of industrialism in Hard times, the poor laws and work houses in Oliver Twist and he show money madness in great expectation system of teaching in David Copperfield.

In the 19^th century England, people were generally snobbish about their social condition. They felt that the country was working through fees of great prosperity. But the fact remains that the English society suffers from great economic inequality with only ten percent of total population leading comfortable of skilled, laboring servants, unskilled labors and migrating poor.  At a given time only 1/3 was fully employed, another 1/3 was only partially employed. In spite of such a grooving poverty, social consciousness gains a very slow response to the need of any change for the better. It is one of the great paradoxes of Victorian England. People could feel so unconcern about their poor and enjoy over their so called prosperity. Poor lost, free schools, work houses and public authorities came into existence. They were a inocary of social justice and the bumbles the manes could reduced any social system, however considered it might be to a force. Dickens attempts to show order the need of changing the social order and winding its concerns to include in it. The well for those whose were really poor and deprived. Oliver Twist the novel opens with bitter poor laws of 19^th century. These laws were a destroyed manifestation of the Victorian middle classes emphasis on the hard work. England in 1830 was rapidly undergoing a transformation in all the works of life. The growing middle class had achieved an economic influence equal to if not greater than that of the British aristocracy. 

Dickens as an observer : 

Oliver Twist was Dickens’ second novel however in Dickens the reformatory instinct was very strong and in the very next novel his readers were surprised to see him ruthlessly attacking the social evils, in particular the wretched conditions in the work house. In his later novels he carried on a crusade against other evils like the miserable conditions in the debtors’ prisons in the factories and shops, the corruption prevalent in the election system and certain other evils caused by the rapid industrialization of the country. In order to understand these novels including Oliver Twist it is important to have a fair idea of the historical background in which they written. 

Poor laws : 

The first few chapters of Oliver Twist are a very strong protest against the work house life that virtually dehumanized human beings. Certain systems that had been initiated to being relief to the poor people had gradually been so corrupted that instead of giving them any solace, they had actually made their life miserable. It was under Queen Elizabeth-I that laws were made to provide relief to those poor people who could not support themselves. There was a two-fold arrangement. The old, the sick, the lame and the blind were reviled at home; orphans were boarded out and then apprenticed to a trade. The vagabonds were sent to the houses of correction. The theory behind this arrangement was to provide work to the able bodied poor and to offer relief to the disabled… special buildings were set up to provide work to the poor people under supervision. These building were known as work houses. By an act passed in 1722, the poor could be compelled to live and work on these buildings in order to be eligible to get relief. In other words, either a poor man was to live in the work house or he was to be denied any relief. This was known as the workhouse test. At first there was separate institution for the different needs of children, old people or those who were mentally or physically sick. But gradually the workhouse condition deteriorated; workhouse came to contain a mixture of able and disabled like end by the end of 19^th century, they became symbols of utter degradation. In most workhouse husband were separated from wives, children lacked proper care, diseases were rife and food was inadequate. 

In the late 18^th century laws passed to allow “out-door relief” to the able-bodied so that that workhouse could only the old or disabled. The original plan was to offer minimum wage for he labors, but later a system known as “Speenhamland System” was devised. Accordingly to it relief based on the current prices of bread was given in addition to wages. Once again the intention was to make the life of the poor people worth living, but in practice it lead to general weakening of the independence and self respect of labors and an increase of pauperism in the long run. In the early 19^th century therefore the need was felt to effect reforms in the poor laws. It was felt that a more suitable alternative solution was needed which had become both wasteful and corrupt. Besides, the system of administering relief also needed to be over-hauled. 

The administration of relief :

At this stage, it would be useful to make a note of the system of administering relief to the poor. Basically it was the responsibility of parish which was the main unit of local government in ruling it. Apart from other officials, the parish had the “Justice of Peace” whose duty was to impose the compulsory rates “the poor rate” and to appoint local overseers to administer actual relief. Another petty official was the beadle. Originally it is main function was to proclaim meeting. But he was also expected to keep order in church and to punish petty offenders. Gradually the beadle came to yield considerable power on a small scale. In Oliver Twist there is one such beadle, Mr. Bumble.

Most of the parish officials were unfit for their jobs because of their own lack of education, experience or responsibility. Their positions were both unpaid and compulsory. Therefore it was rarely that really good people ever got elected to them. 

Poor law reforms : 

In 1832 a commission was appointed to study the entire issue of the poor law reform. On the basis of the proposals put forward by this commission, the new poor law of 1834 came into being. Accordingly to it a central authority was created, the poor law commissions, who were given full powers to control local administration. One of the most important changes made by the new poor laws was the replacement of parish officers by elected local bodies known as Board of Guardians. These boards were required to supervise petty officials such as the matron of the workhouse. We find one such Board in Oliver Twist in chapter-II. 

The inefficiency of the reforms : 

There is no doubt that the 1834 measure were excellent in intention, nevertheless even they faild to prove effective. The poor people continued to suffer. However human might be the laws, in which can ultimately bring any benefits. A corrupt administration will make a mockery of the best possible laws. Therefore Dickens has directed his criticism as much against the individuals. If he is critical of the system that degraded human beings, he is equally critical of the people who were responsible for evolving or running such a system. 

In Oliver Twist we find that the workhouse in charge, Mrs. Mann, appropriate the greater part of the stipend given for the food of the children and the children are mostly starved. Here it is Mrs. Mann who is at fault. 

It should be noted that Dickens’ main concern was the individual as an integral part of the system. A system without human beings would be lifeless and even meaningless. Human being without a system would be tending to be confused. So Dickens felt the need of basically good human beings working under a system that was designed to serve the society of these two also, her gave greater importance to human beings. It is Mr. Brownlow as an individual who ultimately rescues Oliver from his system. Laws were bad, in fact Mr. Bumble’s judgment, “Law is a ass – a idiot”, is quite justified. The underworld where people like Fagin ruled was also a dark world but noble people like Mr. Brownlow and the Mayflies could rise these systems and do some good to the society. 

Therefore Dickens makes a very selective criticism in Oliver Twist. He attacks the harsh regime of the workhouse with special regard to diet and utter neglect of the needs of the pauper children but more than that inefficiency and in humanity of such officials as Mr. Bumble and Mrs. Corney. These officials not only physically starved the children but often made them emotional wrecks. 

There has been a good deal of discussion among scholars as to whether Dickens ways attacking the old poor laws of the new. Nut this discussions is almost irrelevant. We should remember that the novel is more an attack on the way the laws are administrated rather than on the intention of the lows on paper most of the lows are just spoken. This only in practice that they prove to be injurious as K.J. Fielding points out, the novel was never intended as an attack on mere institutions, but on the spirit behind them, which remains largely unchanged. 

It is hard to say if any reforms were really carried out as a result of Dicken’s attack on these laws. In fact the protests made by writers are never so quickly effective. But one thing is certain: this novel as well as others to follow definitely prepared a climate in which a genuine need was felt to have a second look at the entire administrative set up and to change it. 

The police system : 

There seems to be an indirect satire on the incompetence and ineffectiveness of the police system, for there are Fagin and Sikes operating right under the shadow of the police and they seem to enjoy perfect immunity. 

Conclusion : 

While writing Oliver Twist, Dickens had the awareness of the entire 19^th century in his mind and some of he scenes mentioned above carry and unmistakable stamp of that time. But the sole purpose of writing the novel Oliver Twist is to create social awareness of the evils present in the contemporary society.