Charles Dickens Gender Social & Historical Background
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Born: 7 February 1812 -> John + Elizabeth Dickens
Men worked in factories, shops or offices The Prisons & The Treadmill
2nd child of 8
Women were left at home for domestic duties Rising of crime 5000-20000 (increase 400%)
Father told Dickens that he could get a big house -> worked
hard Separate Spheres has a definition of “natural” Punishment for crimes = prisons (lots built)
Although Initially wealthy, John Dickens felll into debt + sent to characteristics of women + men Should be unpleasant to deter crimes
Marshalsea Prison Men had to live a public life and socialise Treadmill/picking oakum (separating
Charles visited him on Sundays Women = considered weaker to men -> suited to strands,of rope) = hard labour
1822 – The Dickens family then moved to a poor area of the domestic sphere
London Women were expected to live their lives at
12 years old – He worked labelling blacking-bottles to help his The Poor Law & The Workhouses
home doing everyday chores at home
family Poor Law helped poor in 1815
Free time for women = supposed to be
He trained as a law clerk + then a journalist By 1830 – Cost ~7 million
spent doing things related to family
1827 – Solicitor’s clerk 1834 – Poor Law Amendment Act
1831 – Journalistic career
maintenance from sewing socks to laundry
Reduce cost of looking after poor
1835 – 1st piece of fiction published + married If they need help -> go to a workhouse
His novels have social messages + attempt to reform
society
Victorian Society
Was an alcoholic
Society was undergoingig changes because of
1942 – Charles + Catherine go to America
Early in 1843, as a response to a government report on the the industrialisation + urbanisation -> rising
abuse of child laborouers in mines and factories, Dickens levels of poverty + poor living conditions in
vowed he would strike a “sledge-hammer blow… on behalf of the city
the Poor Man’s Child” In the Victorian Era, many people regarded
1944 – Took whole family to Italy the poor as lazy + immoral
At 44 – Bought the big house Workhouses = place where every poor
Charles was then with Elizabeth worked + lived – conditions were deliberately
1865 – Train crashed
unpleasant
1870 – Died from stroke
Definitions
DIDACTIC NOVEL – intended to teach a lesson, These traditional expectations for women in the 19th
In the beginning of the 19th century ->
particularly a moral or a theme century = fewer women had the same opportunities for
women’s traditional clothes disappeared
IGNORANCE – a lack of knowledge or awareness education as men
because women would act
WANT – lacking or needing something Educating women = often seen as subversive or disruptive
inappropriately + spend time drinking
ALLEGORY – texts that have hidden meanings using Women were influenced at home -> used as an argument
alcohol in bars
characters/actions as symbols against giving them the vote
1st formal meeting = organised to
SYMBOL – something that represents another idea Bound to their husbands that under 19th-century
address gender inequality
EPIPHANY – a sudden moment of realisation law, they weren't even considered people at all
,Education Working Life Health/Medicine
Many Victorian boys and girls didn’t have an opportunity to People worked in big factories in England Causes of fever included: injury, bad air,
go to school
The Industrial Revolution created a huge irregular bowels + extremes heat/cold
1837 – Education = was mainly for the privileged
Rich children might have a governess to teach them at demand for female + child labour Cholera = caused by awful food, “cold
home until they were old enough Children did work but before the 19th fruits” + by passionate fear/rage
Girls continued to be educated at home but poor children century -> worked in their own Diseases such as pulmonary tuberculosis
didn't go homes with their parents/on land (often called consumption) spread
Robert Raikes started a system of education in nearby Male death rates increased by
churches
Children worked in textile factories occupational injury + toxic
1831 – 1,250,000 children received education
which was a ¼ of the population at the time for more than 12 hours a day substances
Provided poor children with learning opportunities Work-related conditions were
+ ability to read 1833 – Factory inspectors = hired to make common young women had
sure laws were obeyed “phossy jaw” caused by exposure
Teacher used a cane to punish children New laws banned children under 9 from to phosphorous
Cane was given on the hand, bottom or across the working in textile factories 1854 – A breakthrough came during the
back of the legs
Children mustn't work for more than 48 outbreak of cholera when Dr John Snow
Pupils = punished for anything which displeased the
hours a week demonstrated that infection spread by
teacher
Children who were punished kept quiet -> if Teenagers mustn't work for more than 69 contaminated water from a public pump
parents found out -> would be punished again hours a week in Soho
Other punishments: lines + detentions (written in a Nobody under 18 could work at night When the pump handle =
punishment log) Children = given 2 hours of education a day removed, cholera was removed
Children aged around 5 worked underground Possible for health officials to
Children who were dumb would wear a dunce's hat but a law banned children under 10 from provide clean water, separate
Would stand in a corner for a long time working underground sewage systems + rubbish
Sometimes stood on the dunce's stool removal in urban areas, as well
No understanding that some children had learning
1844 – Law banned all children under 8 from as improve housing to reduce
difficulties + teachers thought that these children =
working overcrowding.
rebellious
Even left-handed children = punished and made to Women + children only worked 10 hours a Number of inhabitants fell from
use their right hand day in textile factories 7.6 in 1861 to 4.7 in 1901 in
1878 – Law banned women from working Scotland
Late 19th century – punishments in the UK changed as
more than 56 hours a week
people believed criminals punishments had changed from
humiliation + pain, but no real changes occurred until 1900 19th century – boys climbed up chimneys to
clean them (ended in 1875)
,Context
Jacob Marley is Scrooge’s dead business partner -> 1st Ghost to appear to Scrooge Scrooge is haunted by Marley’s Ghost
Opening line: “Marley is dead” shocks the reader (promises a supernatural threat + creates anticipation) Marley is forced to wander the Earth bearing
Story of time-travelling = confusing -> Marley makes the upcoming structure clear + structure is provided by heavy chains, as a punishment for his selfish
the 3 ghosts behaviour in life
Creates tension when Scrooge 1st sees an apparition of Marley’s face on Scrohe’s door knocker Marley tells Scrooge that he will be haunted by
Scrooge dismisses it at the time -> foreshadows Marley’s arrival later 3 ghosts
Appearance warns Scrooge that he could be punished for greed with money, lack of social responsibility
fails to change his self-centred ways
Dickens references Catholic belief in purgatory -> where souls endure great suffering before they are
purified + go to heaven
Marley refresh's his actions of caring for profit, not people when he was alive Themes
“Sole” emphasises solitany nature of their work + how Scrooge & Marley were only concerned with their Capitalism vs Socialism
own profits, not their relationships with others
Dickens uses Marley as his mouthpiece to emphasise the importance of social responsilbilty + need to look
Charity
after friends, family & employees -> avoid punishment Moral responsilbity
Social injustice
How does Dickens present Jacob
Marley? (Qualities presented)
Regretful
“Mankind should have been my
Was ignorant
businesss”
“Not to know that no space of
Impatient
Cares for his friend regret can make amends for
“At this the spirit raised a frightful cry”
“You have yet a chance and hope of one life’s opportunity misused”
Restless
escaping my fate” Tortured
“I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot
“A chance and hope of my procuring “No rest, no peace, incessant
linger anywhere”
Ebenezer” torture of remorse”
Remorseful
Accepts responsibilty Desperate
“Why did I walk through crowds of
“I wear the chain I forged in life” “Hear me! My time is nearly
fellow-beings with my eyes turned
gone”
down”
, QUOTE KEY INFORMATION
Mankind should have been my business Regretful
At this the spirit raised a frightful cry Impatient
I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere Restless
Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down Remorseful
You have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate Cares for his friend
A chance and hope of my procuring Ebenezer
I wear the chain I forged in life Accepts responsibility
Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity Was ignorant
misused
No rest, no peace, incessant torture of remorse Tortured
Hear me! My time is nearly gone Desperate
Money and greed is weighing him down
Harsh imagery, connotations of imprisonment
The chain he drew was clasped around his middle… it was made of cash boxes… and
Foreshadowing for Scrooge’s chains in future
heavy purses wrought in steel
Could allude to debtor’s prison in Victorian times as result of debts to people
like Scrooge
No rest, no peace. Incessant torture of remorse. Syntactic parallelism emphasises lack of said luxuries
Metaphor/personification evokes emotive response from Scrooge
“Mankind”- regarded as a whole, not as classes
Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, Context of caring for all of society, list format
forbearance and benevolence were all my business
Links to common Christian values
“Light” references nativity star
“Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me?” Religious context is that being a good Christian entails being guided to looking
after the poor
Rhetorical question highlights his own hopelessness; it’s too late for him
