The Treatment of Poor Children in Victorian Britain depicted in Oliver Twist

In 19th Century England, living conditions were horrible for the poor. If you didn’t have enough money to stay out of poverty you were heading into a harsh and unforgiving life as a person in the slums. People took poison to escape the horrors that a poor person could easily slip into. Both adults and little children drank gin and beer because of all of the sewage and garbage dumped into the rivers. For the many, many poor people there was often no clean water and people went to the bathroom in ‘bathroom’ privies that everyone in the slums used outside. At least half of the poor children died before their fifth birthday. In contrast, the wealthy could have mansions with servants, grand food, and clean drinking water. On top of all of this,

The world today consists of children roaming the streets, technology taking over the world, and being able to work wherever you'd like but, could you imagine a life without all these things? Believe it or not there was a time in life where these things were very uncommon to see. This would be known as the victorian era. This time period was between 1837 and 1901. Daily life was very different from now. Health, social classes, and fashion are just three examples of how daily life was different in the victorian era.

In the documentary “The Children Who Built Victorian Britain” by BBC, talks about the children of the industrial revolution, it shows the jobs they had, where these children came from, their motivation and the progression of laws against child labor. Before the industrial revolution people used to manufactures their goods in their homes using simple machines, but in the late 1700’s this shifted drastically in Britain. They started to implement new ideas of modernization using industries to manufacture goods at a larger scale. The steam engine, iron and textile industries were one of the many industries that played a key role to improve economy, transportation and living conditions in the late 1700’s. Without the industrial revolution we wouldn’t have the technology that we have nowadays, but the industrial revolution also brought a dark chapter for history, the exploitation of children.

Justice as defined by the Oxford dictionary is just behavior or treatment; the quality of being fair and reasonable; and the administration of the law or authority in maintaining this. However, to Frederick Douglass, justice had a deeper meaning, especially during the time that he was alive.

Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist is saturated with the evil of men (and women) who seek to destroy the purest of things—the innocence of a child. The majority of the characters in this novel are driven by greed, power (over the less fortunate) and pure evil—non-more so than Mister Bumble, the cruel, pompous old beadle of the poorhouse where Oliver is raised, and Fagin, a “loathsome reptile” of a man. While each of these men will succumb to some level of depravity, as will the other characters, young Oliver Twist does not. Against all odds, Oliver is the only one who remains untainted by the evil that surrounds him all times. Despite the heartbreaking revelation of his parents’ demise, dealing with the loss of them both, the ill treatment he receives on a daily basis, existing in a world completely void of light and permeating with corruption, Oliver never adopts the pervasive nature of those around him. The infestation, which eventually consumes all those around him, is something that Oliver Twist was able to avoid due to his purity of self.

When researching daily life in the Elizabethan Era, there were two prominent social classes throughout most of England. The upper or noble class families were akin to today’s upper class. However, the low-class families were much different from today’s low-class families. The gap between the two classes was so huge and a majority of England was impecunious. Most of the low class was orphans, abandoned wives, widows, the infirm, and the elderly. Each class, even the ones in the middle would despise anyone in a class lower than their own (Forgeng 21). Due to a lack of education, an overload of household responsibilities, and a lack of social acceptance, low-class Elizabethan English children were unable to flourish.

In the Victorian era many lower-class women abandoned their children because they didn’t have a stable financial income. Majority of the kids that were relinquished, because of absence of income in a family. The few shelters existing in the Victorian culture were awful to the point that numerous kids decided to live on their own in the city. Orphans living on their own in the city would most likely make them prone to becoming criminals. There was an abundance of things that could happen to the children of the village. Generally, adoption was unlikely. This is because there was no proper way to go about adopting a child in Victorian times.

Collectively, we all agree that children are known to ask numerous questions about their surroundings. Usually mundane, these questions are limited to their fresh narrow viewpoint. However, when all of us start getting older, we start to question more on a deeper scale. In the topic of good and evil, children only see the simple version of this duality, black or white. On the other hand, adults view this issue in a different magnitude; we see it in a gray area. People regularly argue on whether or not the ends justify the means, and although it is simply to disregard this mentality as faulty, many subconsciously succumb through this train of thought. Charles Dickens, the famous author who brought upon A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations,

Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens that thoroughly captures the adventures of growing up. The book details the life of a boy through his many stages of life, until he is finally a grown man, wizened by his previous encounters. Dickens’ emotions in this book are very sincere, because he had a similar experience when his family went to debtor’s prison. Pip starts as a young boy, unaware of social class, who then becomes a snob, overcome by the power of money, and finally grows into a mature, hardworking man, knowing that there is much more to life than money.

Trash litters the corners of the crowded street. Stacked high in the sky are congested rooms meant for public living. The occasional passerby quickens their step as a whiff of urine passes their nostrils. These are typical living conditions of projects most major cities. Supplying essential needs for the public can and have been controlled by the limitations of government’s ability. Extreme poverty is a global challenge that starts with a common disregard for the welfare of those in poverty. In examining the cost of living in Victorian London and the amount the working class get paid, it is clear the those with power are aware of the unlivable living conditions many are forced to endure and take advantage of the misfortune of others. The rise of the population and the availability of work lead the upper class to take advantage of of the lower class. The working class does not make enough to support themselves and those in charge are well aware of that fact. The state of poverty and the extreme difference of classes is what lead to the severe level of unrest London. The way that 19th century London was structured and divided socially and economically, kept a non-ending cycle of a way of life that always benefited the upper classes.

Human rights says that after sixty years of them enforcing it, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is still more a dream than reality to us and these violations unfortantely still happen in the world. One of the most crucial human rights violations of this century is child labor/slavery. One major group that is known for child slavery was made a couple years ago, The Lord’s Resistance Army which is a rebellion group led by Joseph Kony who came from Northern Uganda as a movement to fight for the interests of the "Alcholi" people. A brief background of Kony and his army; he began to lose support over the years and led attacks on innocent civilians, kidnapping children and forcing them to fight in his forces. He was then later forced out the country by the army and now, his rebellion group are spread out from the

England. Dickens addresses these issues in his timeless masterpiece Oliver Twist. In the story of Oliver Twist, Dickens uses past experiences from his childhood and targets the Poor Law of 1834 which renewed the importance of the workhouse as a means of relief

great prosperity in Great Britain's literature. The Victorian Age produced a variety of changes. Political and social reform produced a variety of reading among all classes. The lower-class became more self-conscious, the middle class more powerful and the rich became more vulnerable. The novels of Charles Dickens, the poems of Alfred,

Throughout the Industrial Revolution, the lower class’s population continued to increase as more and more people became poor and fell into poverty. Although the upper class was prosperous and wealthy, they failed to assist the struggling population; this only made the problem worse. As the issue of poverty became more critical, it became a topic that authors commonly wrote about. George Orwell, Charles Dickens, and Jonathan Swift were authors who presented the problem of a poor community and a neglectful upper class to the people through the use of allegory and satire. This helped to easily convince and influence their readers. Through the use of satire and allegory, George Orwell, Charles Dickens, and Jonathan Swift effectively address the pressing issue of the upper class’s ignorance and mistreatment towards the lower, struggling class.

"Please, sir," replied Oliver, "I want some more." No one will ever forget the simple plea made by the poor hungry little orphan named Oliver Twist. Nobody will be able to omit from his mind the painful blows that Oliver suffered. Nor will anyone cease to recall what it felt like to be young and helpless in a much bigger and stronger world. In an effort to bring the ostracized poverty situation of so many children to the public's attention, Charles Dickens wrote an unforgettable book to touch the hearts of millions. Whether he knew it then or not, he was also bringing a new connotation and worldwide innuendo to the term "child labor".