Portrayals of the Orphan and Child

Labour in Charles Dickens' Novels

The aim of this thesis was to examine the harsh childhood intwonovels of
Charles Dickens.In the previous chapters the researcher provided an analytical
description of the conditions of orphan and child labour as described in
Dickens' Oliver Twist and Great Expectations. Trying to highlight the problem
that occurred because of losing parents or poverty in that era through Dickens'
novels, in addition to, explaining the family background effects on adults'
treatment of children.Searching for the factors beyond this common theme in
the Victorian age, the researcher found out that the bad treatment of orphan
and child labourwas due to some factors which affected children's life. Such
factors include:
-The social and economic conditions of the Victorian agesuch as, the poverty,
the industrial revolution and the over-population.
-Unjust environment represented by cruel laws of the poor and social classes
in that era.
It has been concluded that the main factors that helped to create the child
labour phenomenon in the Victorian age was the industrial revolution which
created a great need for cheap work force to support the capitalist employers.
In addition, a great many people suffered fromvery low standard of living in
the Victorian society especially the people who emigrated from the rural areas
to the urbanized cities such as London. Moreover, there was tremendous
increase of population which made the poor families force their children to
work in factories and mills to earn their living. Dickens as the greatest English
novelist in the Victorian era came to the very suitable moment to depict the
very sever living conditions of the poor class in London and to fight the unjust
treatment of the employers and the unjust laws of the poor. Dickens himself
suffered a hard experience in his childhood when his father was imprisoned
and Dickens himself was separated from his family and forced to work in a
blacking warehouse. This in addition to his deep feelings of the poor's
sufferings together with his true faith injustice for all human beings especially
the poor, made him this great author of such masterpieces like Oliver Twist
and Great Expectations. After analyzing the two novels of Dickens, it can be
said that Dickens was a realistic author in his novels where he depicted his
characters depending on reality of the English society of his time. Another aim
was to shed light on the problems that occurred in that era because of losing
parents or sever poverty especially child labour. The English society in the
Victorian age had double standard view on the children. High classes children
were considered to be beautiful innocent creatures who should be highly
looked after whereas in law classes children were abused and treated harshly
as bad creatures produced by lazy people who deserved to be punished not
helped. Accordingly, the situation for poor and orphaned children was
inhuman. According to the previous analysis, the researcher found out some
similarities and some differences between the two protagonists. Both of main
characters are orphans from the beginning of the novel where Oliver's mother
dies directly after he is born and Pip is seen in his family's grave. So the reader
doesn't have a clear picture about their mothers and fathers. We can find
another similarity between Oliver and Pip in that they are both from the poor
low class. Oliver and Pip are similar in working at an early age as child labour.
The two protagonists lived a harsh life because of cruel treatments of the adults
who usually look down at children as being inferior creatures. Oliver is badly
treated in the workhouse, with the undertaker and by Fagin (the head of the
gang) whereas Pip also is abused by his heartless sister Mrs. Joe, Miss
Havisham and Estella.In fact, not all adults usually abuse the protagonists
where some of them such as Joe and Magwich who give hand to Pip, and Mr.
Brownlow who adopts Oliver. These adults represent the examples of orphan
domestic stability were the real families are replaced by substitutes because
they are broken. Both Pip and Oliver's reaction to the abuse and oppression of
the society is to separate themselves from the natural stream of their society
so they both lead up normal social life and they are marginalized and feel
isolated from other people. Accordingly, Oliver escapes to London out of
starvation and loneliness as well as undertaker wife's mistreatment together
with other labourerswhereas Pip leaves his sister and her husband's house to
London in order to get rid of his unexpected social status and his poverty. Pip
and Oliver get into special relationships with convicts and receive some kind
of care from these criminals where Magwich becomes Pip's benefactor and
Fagin protects Oliver from misery and starvation providing him with a place
to live in. On the other hand, there are some differences between the two
protagonists. One of these differences is that Pip has got a blood tie
represented by his sister, but Oliver from the first moment lives among other
orphans in the workhouse. The environment in which Pip is raised is home
like where he receives some kind treatment from Mr. Joe - his brother in law.
Oliver is raised "from the first moment", in an orphanage and then in a
workhouse. There is another difference between Oliver and Pip regarding to
leaving their original place in that Oliver searches for safety while Pip searches
for a higher social status. The two novels are narrated differently. On the one
hand Oliver Twist is narrated by the omniscient narrator on the other hand
Great Expectations is narrated by the first person through Pip's point of view.
It can be said that Pip's narration gives the reader actions development through
Pip's point of view and his own feelings. Whereas concerning Oliver we find
that the writer tries to criticize the society through third person narration.
Through reading the two novels of Charles Dickens, we can extract some
important lessons. However, Dickens left valuable literature full of moral
lessons concerning human life. He treated very essential issueswhich are heart
touching, trying through his works to reform his society. Accordingly, his
readers can easily extract useful lessons from his gorgeous novels. In this
thesis, the researcher introduces some of them through the two novels. In
Oliver Twist, we find that Oliver struggles to keep his goodness in spite of the
opposing circumstances where he has lived among evil characters. So we
know that a human being should face his difficulties and do not let himself
bend before them. We learn from Oliver behavior that it is necessary to be
hopeful and do not let despair beat us. So we should not blame others for our
misfortune rather we should think positively and try to be optimistic.It is
logical not to let our past mistakes to be a heavy burden that prevents us from
looking for a better and cleaner life and accordingly we should not judge others
by their past. Dickens tried through Oliver Twist to convey the idea that evil
is not necessarily inherited by poor generations because of poverty. The
significant moral of Great Expectationsis that affection, loyalty and
conscience are more important than social status and wealth. Pip himself
realizes this lesson through trying his ideas of ambition and self-improvement.
His trials to improve himself give him the hope to achieve his great
Expectations. So, the reader learn that wealth does not usually make people
happier as well as the outer appearance may give false ideas about the true
conditions. For example, is "Satis House", Pip is shocked by the miserable
people inside this big house. Those rich people live unhappy life and cannot
love others whereas the convict Magwich becomes a compassionate man who
supports Pip. Of course wealth can change people, but in most cases, to the
worse. We should preserve our moral values when we get rich and also we
should treat others according to high moral standards even though we turn to
have a higher status. Pip in some situation is affected by the self-improvement
and starts to feel ashamed of his friends, which is a good lesson for the reader
to be aware of his character transformation. It is not necessary for high class
people to be more intelligent and generous. Such morals can be found in all
classes. On the contrary, wealthy people tend to exploit other and be ungrateful
to them.This fact is shown by the conduct of Miss Havisham, Estella and even
Pip for sometime. To sum up, we can say that the figure of the orphan and
child labour is dispersed throughout the pages of Dickens' novels. His orphan
characters were similarly remembered as Charles Dickens. It can be said that
Dickens is author of his time where he gives a clear picture about the harsh
conditions of the 19th century England. Dickens portraits lonely orphans and
abused children in which the orphan is the main character who is innocent,
helpless and often adopted by a wealthy benefactor. Dickens as a critic. Social
novelist tries through his novels to criticize and reform the English society. He
tries to shed light on the exploited children in the Victorian era. Children work
different kinds of jobsin many places which used them as a child labour in
factories, coal mines, cotton spinning machine, textile mills, forges… etc. The
others are chimney sweeper, boot blacking, shoe makers, newspaper seller,
street cleaner and even criminals. Dickens touchingly expresses suffering of
poor children focusing on the poverty-stricken parts of London. He depicts sad
faces of children and how they are neglected and badly treated by cold and
hard hearted abuse.