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.

The Negative Effects of Ambition

We have been reading Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations for the past few weeks (you can find an animated movie version of this book here).  This novel is about a boy named Pip who suddenly has the opportunity to become a gentleman because of a mysterious benefactor.  Pip is a very ambitious young man and is controlled by his desire to achieve great things in his life.  He is so consumed by his desire for wealth and status that he hurts many people who truly care for him in order to achieve this goal.  The person that he hurt the most was his brother-in-law/father figure/best friend Joe.  Pip says that “Whatever I acquired, I tried to impart to Joe…I wanted to make Joe less ignorant and common, that he might be worthier of my society and less open to Estella's reproach” (Dickens 105).  Pip looks down on Joe because he is poor and uneducated.  However, Pip does not realize that Joe’s incredible kindness is so much more valuable.  Joe says that “life is made of ever so many partings welded together… Diwisions among such must come, and must be met as they come” (215).  Joe is so kind that he assumes his separation from Pip is a natural occurrence in life and does not blame it on Pip. 

This idea of overwhelming greed and ambition is similar to that of Kurtz in Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.” In this story, Kurtz is searching for ivory in Africa.  He becomes very greedy and is destroyed by this ambition.  He gives up his family, his health, and, eventually, his sanity for ivory.  His immense desire for increasing amounts of ivory causes him to slowly descend into a madness that eventually leads to death.  It is observed that Kurtz has “…a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear…” (Conrad 260). The idealistic man that Kurtz had initially been was slowly destroyed by the greed within him. (You can find an interesting summary/analysis of this novella here)

Unlike Kurtz, however, Pip eventually comes to realize that a person’s inner worth is much more important than their wealth or position in society and is much happier because of this. 

Works Cited:

Conrad, Joseph. “Heart of Darkness.” The Story and its Writer: an Introduction to Short Fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2011. 208-269. Print.

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

Poetry in the Romantic Period

We have been reading literature from the Romantic Period for the past few weeks.  The Romantic Period of English literature is characterized by its aesthetic and imaginative descriptions.  It also focuses on the unique experience of an individual.  Before the Romantic Period, philosophers believed that human nature was the same everywhere because everyone experienced and lived in the same world.  During this time, “poets began developing a new language for… individual variations in perception and the capacity the receptive consciousness has to filter and to re-create reality” (Greenblatt 13).  Poets began to write from individual experiences instead of just nature or common ideas. 

This new idea in Romanticism can be seen in William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience.  The poems in Songs of Innocence and Experience are divided into two sections, innocence (from the point of view of childhood) and experience (from the point of view of adulthood).  These two sides are each distinctly different from each other in Blake’s work.  Many of the poems in this collection show very similar events from two unique points of view.  This change in perspective demonstrates the shift in how poetry was written during the Romantic Period. It also allows us as readers to see how much it changes the poems themselves.

 In “The Chimney Sweeper” from Songs of Innocence, the chimney sweeper is optimistic even though he is in a very bad situation.  He cheers up another chimney sweeper who is upset and is eagerly awaiting the joy that he will experience in Heaven.  At the end of the poem he says “Tho’ the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm; / So if all do their duty they need not fear harm” (Blake 122).  The chimney sweeper is happy and content even though his life is so miserable. 

In “The Chimney Sweeper” from Songs of Experience, however, the chimney sweeper is not happy at all.  He understands how awful his situation is and shares none of the hope and optimism that his counterpart feels.  He blames his parents for his situation and doesn’t even hold out hope that things will be better for him in Heaven.  He says that his parents “are gone to praise God & his Priest & King, / Who make up a heaven of our misery” (Blake 128). 

The comparison of these two similar, yet strikingly different poems demonstrates the change that took place in poetry and literature in general during the Romantic Period. 

Sourcse: Blake, William. "Songs of Innocence and Experience." The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: Norton, 2012. 118-135. Print.

Greenblatt, Stephen. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period. New York: Norton, 2012. Print.  

The Role of Women in the Late 18th and Early 19th Century

Mary Wollstonecraft’s “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” (1795) discusses the role of the average middle class white woman in the 19^th century.  She argues that this group of women are shallow, vain, and petty.  They seem to exist only to look nice and to entertain men.  She writes that women should be educated so that they will be able to make better wives and mothers.  Jane Austen seems to be advocating for something similar in her novel Pride and Prejudice (1813).  This book was written a few decades after “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.”  It features a protagonist named Elizabeth Bennet who is a middle class white woman. 

Elizabeth enjoys improving her body as well as her mind.  Wollstonecraft writes that women would not be so childish “if girls were allowed to take sufficient exercise, and not confined in close rooms till their muscles are relaxed, and their powers of digestion destroyed” (Wollstonecraft 234).  Girls would be much better and stronger women if they were allowed to improve their bodies the way boys could.  In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth walks to a friend’s house in order to see her sick sister.  Elizabeth enjoys the exercise, but the other women she encounters look down on her for this (Movie depictions of this scene can be found here and here). 

In fact, Elizabeth encounters many different individuals who are very similar to those that Mary Wollstonecraft described.  A woman named Caroline Bingley tells Elizabeth that “a woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages…she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions” (Austen 25).  Miss Bingley’s idea of a good woman is entirely made up of talents or traits that would appeal to men, but contains nothing that would help to improve a woman’s mind (This scene from the movie can be found here).  Elizabeth, however, enjoys reading, walking, and intelligent conversation.  She is much closer to Wollstonecraft’s idea of what women should strive to be and ends up having a happy and successful life because of it. 

Sources:

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2011. Print.

Wollstonecraft. Mary. “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.” The Norton Anthology English Literature: The Romantic Period. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: Norton, 2012. 211-239. Print.

William Blake and Coming of Age Stories

William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence” (1789) and “Songs of Experience” (1794) describe the differences between childhood and adulthood.  The poems from “Songs of Innocence” are very joyful and kind, whereas the poems from “Songs of Experience” are generally dark and dismal.  Many of the poems in “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience” match up with each other to display two different perspectives on the same subject.  In “The Chimney Sweeper” from “Songs of Experience,” the young chimney sweeper is “crying ‘weep, ‘weep, in notes of woe” and says that God and his parents “make up a heaven of our misery” (Blake 128).  In “The Chimney Sweeper” from “Songs of Innocence,” however, the boy sooths another crying child and dreams of meeting angels.  He later says that “if all do their duty, they need not fear harm” (Blake 122).  The boys from these poems are both experiencing the same terrible situation, but the child from “Songs of Experience” has a much clearer idea of how awful his situation truly is and has lost all hope because of it. 

This contrast between “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience” displays a stark change between childhood and adulthood that can also be observed in many different coming of age stories in literature today.  One modern example of a coming of age story is Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (2000).  Persepolis is a graphic novel about the life of a young girl named Marji living with her family in Iran in the 1980s.  This was near the beginning of a time of extreme religious and political turmoil in this area and it forced Marji to learn some harsh truths about the world at a young age.  She experiences poverty, bombings, the execution of her uncle, and homelessness that all completely change her view of the world.  As the story progresses, we see Marji slowly learn more about herself and the world around her as she changes from the innocent, somewhat naïve girl that we meet at the beginning of the story into a strong young woman and social activist.  Through these changes in perspective between childhood and adulthood we can learn a lot about the people and situations surrounding us.  

This video from the Persepolis movie shows a part of Marji's childhood.

Source: Blake, William. “Songs of Innocence and Experience.” The Norton Anthology English Literature: The Romantic Period. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: Norton, 2012. 118-135. Print.