We all know Christmas Carol had the not-so-subtle message of caring for the poor, but did anything else in Dicken's collection share that theme? You bet. He made it a point to talk about the poor.
.-Originally-by-Herbert-Watkins.-Credit-'Charles-Dickens-Museum-Oliver-Clyde'-a-0-0.webp) |
| Courtesy of Evening Standard |
Today I'm diving into how Charles Dickens connects to the poor on the streets. We'll start by introducing the man himself and transition into his literary works and novels.
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens was born in 1812. The industrial world of Britain was struggling to make laws for a changing population. In 1831 and 1832 he was a reporter for the Mirror of Parliament. Soon after he began writing books. His way of making the public aware of the situation was to bring it straight into the public's eyes on the pages of a book. He was a philanthropist spending more than a decade helping destitute women in mid-19th century London. He was doing something similar to Rahab ministry: giving women and girls in prostitution a safe house and teaching them ways to work that don't involve sex. He was all about education so that crime could be prevented (in his mind education was one of the answers to prevention).
What you may not know about him is that his family's fall from grace left him in a bad place around the age of 12. He was taken out of school and made to work in a London shoe dyeing factory. He had felt the liberty of having money and then being denied it. He understood what it was like to be poor. He knew the steep difference between doing well and working in squalor. His father was in prison for debt in 1824. Eventually, he worked his way back to success and was a highly successful author. He is known most for Oliver Twist, Pickwick Papers, Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, and several other works. He only completed half of The Mystery of Edwin Drood before his death in 1870. The performance you now see of the play version has the audience vote on the culprit because they couldn't figure out who the intended culprit was.
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| The Mystery of Edwin Drood Courtesy of Metro Times |
The Poor On The Streets
This is where we go through the book plots and point out what he says about the poor on the streets. We'll start with Christmas Carol and move forward from there.
Christmas Carol is shockingly obvious. Look at the Crachits for a second. They depend on the wages from Scrooge to even have a tiny house, just like Dickens did as a child. All the same, they can't afford to treat Tiny Tim for whatever ails him. Are they struggling? Yes, but they can still praise God for what they have. Scrooge has all the money in the world and is miserable. The contrast is striking. Not only do the Crachits speak volumes, but the ghosts do, too. They all mock Scrooge with his own words (if they speak at all). George C. Scott's film version of the Christmas Carol is the only one I've found that says that Scrooge may be less fit to live than Tiny Tim and the ones on the street. Christmas Present is brutal on Scrooge because the ghost sees all that Scrooge doesn't do for his fellow men and women. He knows Scrooge is part of the problem and the reason why so many are on the streets and in horrible workhouses, prisons, and streets without food. Christmas Present was supposed to shake him mentally and should shake us a bit, too. He is a reminder that we all need to help each other and reach out to help our fellow men and women, and that we are responsible for giving aid to those around us all year long.
Victorian-era poverty had little help to give if any at all.
And we aren't even done with Christmas Carol, yet. Fred and Fezziwig are both joyful characters who treat workers well, with good pay and time off to celebrate festivities. These are shining examples of people who care and do their part in creating good work situations and providing for the people around them in more ways than one. Their spirit of love is contagious. They contrast with Scrooge as Christmas Present and Past lead Scrooge around through time. As for the workhouses and prisons, we know Dickens knew what those looked like. He knew what those institutions were like and had even visited Blackwell Island (see here for information on Blackwell Island). There were indeed areas that the rich never walked, which is reflected by how little Scrooge knew of the poorer dwellings. The industrial revolution had made some parts of town more dangerous than others. That is even true of today. I'll end this commentary on Christmas Carol with the challenge to remember the people who live where you don't. Not everyone lives in a prosperous neighborhood.
Oliver Twist is another one that hits the poverty theme hard. It takes place in a workhouse with little Oliver Twist as our main character. He was born into poverty and finds that he was an illegitimate son later on. I can't sum up this plot easily, so click here for a more detailed book plot. This one hits on how being illegitimate makes you hated already (as his half-brother doesn't want him to inherit anything). Not only that but he was given up to an orphanage to hide him - the result of his mother's affair. This is as much of a commentary on being an orphan as it is being illegitimate (which is what bastard means and continues to be an insult today). Not only that, but the poor laws offered four options to innocent orphans who weren't adopted, which included early death, the workhouse, a life of crime, or prison. The children in this book are taught to steal. This book also includes a murder of a young woman who was involved in crime but tried to save Oliver from the streets. The streets of poverty created career criminals who often rotted in prison. It is noted, though, that Oliver gets all the lucky breaks and that isn't normal.
Some of the themes in all his other stuff include debt and imprisonment, guilty feelings for being poor, and the idea that poverty breeds crime. His books don't have easy plots to explain, either, so I think I'll let you read his works from this point on for yourself.
Conclusions
Charles Dickens has a lot of social commentary in his stuff. He fights for the poor because he was one. He knew what it all felt like. He was also right about the fact that poverty breeds crime, which makes everything worse. He knew how hard life was when the poor were given next to no aid, depending on wages that barely fed them and pay their rent. This is precisely why Victorian servanthood was better than the streets; at least you are automatically fed and housed, even if you can't have much personal life at all. Dickens spoke up.
I know not all of you are Christian. All the same, I'll say it. Jesus also fought for the poor and went to them first. Let's do the same.
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