Charles Dickens’ fiction and contemporary reality

SIMILARITIES… 2 Dickens’ fiction Contemporary reality …AND NOT SO MANY DIFFERENCES Common topics

FOREWORD By the following bringing up to date of the main problems denounced by Dickens in his fiction one will definitely notice how two social realities, the industrial one of the second half of the nineteenth century and the contemporary one, share many features. As the audience can see the two pictures in the first slide, which portray the English city of London and the Russian industrial pole of Norilsks, are quite similar, even if they had been taken with the distance of 150 years. 3

DICKENS FICTION – CURRENT TOPICS SOCIAL THEMES Industrial background: pollution and hygiene Capitalists profits and working classes conditions Faults of legal system and corruption Mechanization of humans: alienation and education Monotony of ordinary working life Exploitation of children 4

EXTRACTS IN EXAM BY CHARLES DICKENS From Hard Times: Book I, Chapter 2 – Murdering the innocents Book I, Chapter 4 – Mr. Bounderby Book I, Chapter 5 – Coketown From Oliver Twist: Chapter 2 – Oliver wants some more From Bleak House: Chapter 1 – In Chancery 5

Industrial background: pollution and hygiene Hard Times, Coketown The name Coke-town connotes the city as an exclusively industrial one. Factories create polluting “serpents of smoke” and produces ashes which cover roofs and threat hygienical conditions. Words like “coke”, “smoke”, “ashes” recall a narrow range of dark colours, which convey a black and white picture of a city subdued to a grey anonymous sky. Today Many cities still exist as industrial poles, seldom deployed far from residential areas. The building of nuclear centrals consists a further environmental danger, both for humans and ecosystem. Pollution, in the form of smog, is a current issue, especially in overcrowded urban centers full of traffic. Despite of scientific progress many people still live in unhealthy conditions. 6

Capitalists profits and working classes conditions Hard Times, Mr Bounderby Mr Bounderby defines himself as a “self-made man” which started from the bottom and, according to Puritan principles, made progress on the social ladder. His person is exemplar to reflect on the conflict between industrialists and the working class. Dickens denounces workers’ ambitions were subdued to the law of laissez-faire which privileged the free action of capitalists. Today The working class still submits to the little percentage of wealthy businessmen. Industrials and capitalists still has fun at workers’expense. Fiscal pressure is a further obstacle for poorest classes and their ambitions. All those factors make Puritan social progress more and more difficult in contemporary reality. 7

Faults of legal system and corruption Bleak House & Oliver Twist The novel’s core is the long- running litigation “Jarndyce v Jarndyce” whose court costs amounted £60,000 - £70,000. Dickens denounces the failure of Lord High Chancellor in his High Court of Chancery and the flaws of judicial system. The novel of Oliver Twist is useful to expose corruption of charitable institutions. Today Legal procedures still take too long and unresolved, with expensive parcels and without taking legal advantage. Legislation still includes many gap which allow lawyers to make their interests without leading to an objective verdict. Many humble people still report the lack of justice. Corruption is a current topic, especially in political and economic context. 8

Mechanization of humans: Alienation and education Hard Times, Murdering the innocents The teacher Mr. Gradgrind is “a man of facts” who wanted students to be “filled with facts”, according to Utilitarian principles. His method is in line with the Industrial Revolution: pupils had to repeat definitions mechanically. Educational process did not foreshadow any form of entertainment, reflecting the Victorian vision of the world. The teacher’s commands convey a claustrophobic, oppressive, suffocating atmoshpere. Today Education seems to follow its etymological meaning: the word is derived from the Latin verb educere, composed by e (=from, out of) and ducere (=I lead, I conduct). Indeed for the first stages of compulsory education teachers give space to imagination, ambitions and feelings, promoting curiosity and making lessons more enjoyable and less boring. The learning process has the aim of a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels or act. 9

Monotony of ordinary working life Oliver Twist & Hard Times Oliver and his companions were fed with a basin of gruel per diem, as they daily performed the operation of polishing bowls. The monotonous working of the pistons of the steam- engine in the description of Coketown stands for the “same” repetitive actions of workers. Humans are forced to perform the same monotonous tasks, becoming like machines: mechanized, depersonalized and alienated. Today After the introduction of Fordism machines gradually replaced humans in many sectors of standardized mass production. However many workers, especially office-holders, are still subdued to daily routine. The ordinary performance of the same operations during the hectic Western life often brings to widespread diseases of contemporary society like mental stress, mood swings, panic attacks and physical disorders. 10

Exploitation of children Oliver Twist Child slaves powered the Industrial Revolution. They were exploited in most industrialized cities, mines and farms. Orphans were banished in parishes: Oliver is “sold” for five pounds to anyone who needed a versatile apprentice. Children suffered the tortures of starvation. Today Children are still victims of capitalists’interests. Multinational corporations moves their factories in developing countries to save on labour costs. Children and women are a cheap source to keep a high yield and to hold down manufacturing costs. In the Third World many children still suffer hunger pangs. 11

OVERALL CONCLUSIONS As seen in the previous comparative analysis many themes deduced by Dickens’fiction are still current topics: from the exploitation of children for capitalists’interests, to alienation of men for industrial productivity. Now one last question: is it worthwhile to sacrifice majority’s health in return for the minority’s wellbeing? 12