Charles Dickens Life During The Industrial Revolution

“If they would rather die,… they had better do it and decrease the surplus population”. -Charles Dickens Charles Dickens often portrays the rich as cruel and uncaring towards the lower classes. Some of the common themes in Charles Dickens books are, a higher class child placed in a lower class situation and the rich being disgusted by the poor. Dickens family situation was less than ideal, but his experiences only increased his pity for the poor. Did you know Dickens would walk ten to twenty miles a day in the city? (David) Charles Dickens was always trying to look out for the poor. The world of Charles Dickens is best understood through his own life, industrialized London and scriptures concerning the poor.

Charles Dickens early life
was very sad as his father was put into debtors prison and a young Charles Dickens was put into factory work. After he finally got out of the factory, he went to work at the newspaper and it was there he wrote and published his first novella. Even after Dickens wrote enough books to support himself, his wife and his ten children he kept writing. Dickens would often write about a high class child who by some turn of fate were put into a very lower class environment to allow his higher class readers to put themselves into the shoes of the protagonist and think, what if this was me. Dickens often portrayed paupers as kind, or at least just flawed and rich people as cruel, but not evil at heart or on occasion kind and fatherly. Charles Dickens did not just write books to make the rich understand about the poor and the conditions they were living in, he advocated for education and helped the poor in any way he could, even if all he could do was speak out for the conditions that they lived in and create sympathy through his books. Although he was an outstanding advocate for things such as feeding and educating the poor, he was rather lax in his family life and didn’t spend much time with his family seeking rather to write and do business than spend time with his family, which caused him and his wife to separate, Of course Dickens did not get a divorce as this would be a social faux pas and he would be looked down upon for it. Even if Dickens is a less than stellar father, he made an impact on the way the high classes would look at the poor for years.

During The Industrial Revolution many factories were built to build the powerful steam engines and ships.
To power these factories they mostly used coal, which was mined in coal mines just outside of the city these were often worked by the poor of London these people were often under nourished as well as often being children. The reason child labor was a thing that happened was that families in London would often have five, ten children and not enough money to feed two so they would send one of their kids into the hot, loud, dangerous factories or the dark mines just to make enough money to eat maybe once a day (Victorian), or in other cases like Charles Dickens’s if the monarch of the family were put into debtors prison he could send his child to work in a mine or factory to pay back his debt. In the factories there were a lot of dangers for the workers, including getting caught in the machinery, getting sick from the water or people around you just to name a few. Even when you didn’t work in a factory or mine your odds weren’t very good for surviving because when you live on the streets you can die of, sickness because of water pollution, air pollution, exposure and a lot more. Charles Dickens in his books and actions was often quite biblically correct and has a lot of the right ideas about poverty which the Bible says a lot about how we should deal with poverty and why we should not oppress the
poor. Many of the themes in Charles Dickens books call attention and compassion to the poor witch is biblically correct.
“Because the poor are plundered and the needy groan I will now. ‘Arise’ says the Lord“protect them from those who malign them.” [Psalm 12:5] Charles Dickens would speak up for the poor and his books often show the conditions of the poor to get more compassion for the poor thus mirroring that verse. “The lord is a refuge for the oppressed in times of trouble.” [Psalm 9:9] Dickens would often only portray the lower classes as having much faith going so far as to portray those of the higher classes as unbelieving as to show that the lord truly is a refuge for the poor. “It is a sin to despise one’s neighbor, but blessed is the one who is kind to the needy.” [Proverbs 14:31] Charles Dickens echoes this verse in many of his books. A Christmas Carol is one example of this when Scrooge is told by his nephew that Christmas is “a kind, forgiveing, charityable, pleasant time; The only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.” (Charles Dickens, A Christmas
Carol) We have seen how London during the time Charles Dickens lived was best understood through his own life, the industrial revelation, and scriptures concerning poverty. The reason we should study Dickens so many years after his death, is that he knew a lot about human nature. He used that knowledge within his many books to make the world a slightly better place. He gained sympathy for the plight of the poor, inspired others to social justice and contributed to the reform of child labor laws. As Dickens once said “no one is useless in this wold, who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.” (Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend, 1865). Dickens legacy is one of, many good books, lasting social change and many tropes.