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Summary Of The Chimney Sweeper And The Victorian Childhood

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The 18th century saw the development of children’s literature as a category of its own. The horrors of the Industrial Revolution made writing about children come to life. William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper” from the Book of Experience presents children as unimportant and mistreated which influenced Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre to introduce childhood experience from a child’s perspective. The Romantic and The Victorian Ages share common themes in their literature. Children were subject to many diseases and hardships, they had little or no education, and they would often go to work to help support their family. As we compare the similarities of both works of literature we will see how the literary writings are a part of culture and they signify the cultures and the eras they were created in. Let’s begin with William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper” the poem begins
A little black thing among the snow,
Crying weep! weep! in notes of woe!
The speaker begins to portray an image in the readers mind, we question what is this little black thing until the second line confirming that it is a child covered in soot alone in the snow crying. This image seems to stick out since there a sharp distinction between the black soot covered boy and beautiful sparkling snow he is sitting in. That feeling of loneliness and abandonment is like how Jane Eyre felt as a child. Her mother dies when she is young, and is forced to live with her abusive Aunt. She is treated badly by her family. Continuing with Blake’s poem the child is asked where his parents are, the boy shows the hypocrisy by stating they are at church praying while he is left in the snow.
Undeniably, the child is complaining about their irresponsibility because to work and to gain money is the duty of the parents, not children. (Karakuzu, 2016). The next few lines give us the boy’s story he says
“Because I was happy upon the heath,
And smiled among the winter’s snow
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe.?
The child talks about how he was happy at one point and had fun outdoors in the ‘winter snow” until his parents dressed him the clothes if death and taught him to sing sad songs. I believe he is referring to his clothing as

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