Main Working Thesis: 19th Century Literature

Main Working Thesis: 19th Century Literature’s Depiction of the People of the Industrial Revolution 1740-1860
The Industrial Revolution was a time of agricultural growth and economical progression for the British people. There were many good changes that came about during this time that were captured forever by the literary geniuses of the time. But nothing progresses without some back-slides. Although the Industrial Revolution brought reformation to the workplace, the financial and physical health of the average working-class European was still in decline. The written portrayal of the middle-class by such authors of the 19th century, like Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens, and George Eliot, have a way of portraying the saddening reality of this rank of people. These authors educated perceptions tell the stories behind this movement and the people who, willing or not, were a part of its progression. This essay explains literature’s depiction of the middle-class of the era, resulting …show more content…
The working class community, as told by Gaskell in Mary Barton was employed by the wealthy owners of the mills. It was a feudalist society and therefore, an unjust one. Families lived in closely-confined houses living off of the meager wages earned in the factories and mill work. The average week would consist of seventy hours of work within six days. Children started working at a young age, just like their parents. They worked just as long too. In the first chapter of Mary Barton, Gaskell describes the mill girls: “The only thing to strike a passer-by was an acuteness and intelligence of countenance, which has often been noticed in a manufacturing population.” In the next paragraph of the chapter, the author goes on: “There were also numbers of boys, or rather men, rambling among these fields, ready to bandy jokes with any one and particularly ready to enter into conversation with the