The Negative Side of Industrialism

During the Victorian era, people were beginning to question if industrialism was truly a form of progress.  Many authors and scholars began to write about and discuss the effects that industrialism was having on the children of England.  Many children were forced to work long hours in exceptionally poor conditions that harmed them both physically and mentally.  Many well-known authors such as Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Barrett Browning were writing about the struggles of these children during this time. 

In 1833, The Factories Regulation Act was the first to enforce child labor laws in England.  This act limited the number of hours a child could work each week and set a minimum age for workers.  This new development prompted the organization of the Children's Employment Commission to examine the places where large groups of children were working.  One of these reports called the mine work these children were completing a “system of unchristian cruelty” (“First” 1588). 

These reports were so gruesome that they inspired Elizabeth Barrett Browning to write her poem “The Cry of the Children” in response.  This poem is about young children who work in mines and factories.  These children are leading miserable lives.  They say that “it is good when it happens…that we die before our time” (Browning 1125).  The children are so dejected that they believe they have nothing to live for.  They would rather die than continue on in their miserable lives. 

The narrator, however, argues that “the graves are for the old” and that the children need to be allowed to be children (1125).  The narrator then says that “God’s possible is taught by His world’s loving, /and the children doubt of each” (1127).  People are able to see God’s goodness in the beauty and kindness of the world, but the children are unable to see this through their pain and suffering.  

A silent film based on "The Cry of the Children.

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Sources: Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. "The Cry of the Children." The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: Norton, 2012. 1124-1128. Print. 

"First Report of the Commissioners, Mines." The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: Norton, 2012. 1588-1589. Print.

"My Last Duchess" and "Blank Space"

This week in class we read Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess.”  This poem is a dramatic monologue in which a Duke tells the story of his last wife and how he had her killed because she did not value him and his title more than everyone and everything else in her life.  You may not think that this poem would have any connection to pop music at all.  However, when I first read this poem I was immediately reminded of the music video for Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space.”

"Blank Space" music video

 In this video, a very wealthy woman invites a man to a large home that is very similar to the Duke’s home in Browning’s poem.  The woman even has her own art gallery to which she adds a painting of this man.  This is reminiscent of the gallery that the Duchess’s painting hangs in.  For a while, everything seems to be going wonderfully for the couple in the video.  They have a picnic, ride horses, and appear to enjoy each other’s company.  This continues for a while until the woman notices the man smiling at something else on his phone instead of her.  The woman then becomes extremely jealous and irrationally angry.  She destroys all of the man’s possessions in a fit of rage because he has been paying more attention to something else than he is paying to her.  She then defaces the paintings she has in her gallery of the man and appears to poison him until “all smiles stopped together” (Browning 1283).  At the end of the video, we see a very familiar shot of the woman inviting a new man to her home in order to do the whole thing all over again.  Similarly, the Duke in “My Last Duchess” is speaking with a representative of the woman that he hopes will be his new wife.  

Source: Browning, Robert. "My Last Duchess." The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: Norton, 2012. 1282-1283. Print.

Pip and Alexander Hamilton

       Though they initially seem to have little in common, Pip from Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations and Alexander Hamilton from the Broadway musical Hamilton actually have very similar stories.  Both men rapidly rise in society, destroy relationships with family and friends in order to change society’s perception of them, and eventually fail to maintain the perception that they worked so hard to create. 

      Both of these characters were orphaned at a young age.  Pip’s parents died soon after he was born, and he went to live with his sister and her husband.   As he grows up, Pip begins to see his own life as inferior to that of Estella and Miss Havisham.  He begins to notice his “coarse hands” and “common boots” (Dickens 8.92).  However, through the generosity of a man Pip barely knows, he is able to suddenly move up in society and become a new man when he is given his expectations.

       Hamilton’s father left when he was a young boy and his mother died soon after.  As an orphan in the Caribbean, Hamilton began reading every book he could find.  This enabled him to see “his future drip, dripping down the drain” (Miranda “Alexander”).  It was only through the kindness of near strangers that he was able to come to America and improve his own expectations.  Hamilton overcomes his humble beginnings arrives in the colonies because “in New York you can be a new man” (Miranda “Alexander”). 

       Pip gives up his relationship with Joe in order to maintain his appearance as a gentleman.  He is ashamed of his relatives and upbringing, and stops seeing Joe because he does not want the people in his new society to be aware of his humble upbringing

      Hamilton writes and publishes a document titled “The Reynolds Pamphlet” that details his lengthy affair with a local woman.  He believes that “this is the only way [he] can protect [his] legacy” (Miranda “Hurricane”).  The publication of this document destroys Hamilton’s marriage and his close relationship with his wife’s family.  Throughout this ordeal Hamilton thinks only of himself and how his life will be written down in history.  He gives no thought to how this will affect his wife’s life.  She says that “in clearing your name you have ruined our lives… you are paranoid in every paragraph how they perceive you. You, you, you…” (Miranda “Burn”).  Hamilton is so obsessed with his own image that he brings so much pain into his wife’s life in order to clear his own name. 

      Pip eventually loses his expectations and, therefore, loses the façade that he worked so hard to maintain.  All of the difficulties he went through to maintain appearances did not help him at all in the end. 

      Hamilton has less time to make an impact on society than he thought he would.  Eventually, “America forgot him” (Miranda “Alexander”).  He was reduced to a single paragraph in a history textbook, and his efforts to create a legacy for himself amounted to nothing. 

This is "Alexander Hamilton," the first song in the musical.

Sources:

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003. Print.

Miranda, Lin-Manuel. “Alexander Hamilton.” Hamilton, 2015. CD.

Miranda, Lin-Manuel. “Burn.” Hamilton, 2015. CD.

Miranda, Lin-Manuel. “Hurricane.” Hamilton, 2015. CD.