Victorian Social Stratification

A detailed Summary of Victorian Social Stratification

In England during the Victorian era, social divisions of class were a major part of people's daily lives. Victorian views on class and of that time's social division in general, are described in great detail by Charles Dickens in many of his novels published during the Victorian period. Dickens' Oliver Twist and David Copperfield are two examples of works that tell of the classification between the poor and the wealthy. Through his vivid descriptions, symbolic characters, and dialog spoken, Dickens shows the stratification of people from his time. This essay will describe this stratification, and how Dickens believed that the poor might have been less fortunate, but how most were given a happy ending if their heart was good, and for those who committed evil, would eventually get what they deserved.

Many poor, unlucky children during the Victorian period were born in or sent to workhouses, and noted for its opposition to the New Poor Law of 1837, Dickens' novel, Oliver Twist, gives detailed accounts of the horrible fates that many young, unfortunate paupers had to face in these places. To refer to this kind of care the workhouse officials gave to the pauper infants, Dickens uses the term "farmed" to convey how these chil

dren were raised. He explains the term further by indicating that the children not only must survive on minimal nourishment, but also be lucky enough to elude additional dangers. Horrid accounts of children being "smothered" or "sickened" from neglect or cold, some even burned in fires, are described by Dickens to further emphasize the abuse the poor had to endure simply because it would allow more available food for the officers (Dickens 4).

Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield. New York. 1997: 28, 30, 81.

Throughout these two Dickens novels, there are heavy contrasts of characters that range from the innocent, poor paupers such as Oliver Twist and the Pegotty's, to the wealthier, more evil characters like Murdstone and Steerforth. These creations all suggest Dickens' underlying meaning of stratification: the good class and the evil class. Those who do good receive good and in most cases have more pleasant fates, however the evil doers, many times receive the opposite. Though not every creation and storyline of Dickens' fit this role, it is clear that the Victorian era was a time of stratification, and in Dickens belief, those evil at heart better be prepared for what is in store for them.

The terms "inadvertently" and "accidentally" are strewn throughout this passage to show the reader sarcasm of the accounts, and to hint that often times these incidents were purposely crafted. Dickens then portrays the child's passing as a summoning "...into another world, and there gathered to the fathers it had never known in this" (Dickens 4). Despite the dismal face that death brings to many, in this statement Dickens expresses how the children would have their happiness after death in a heaven-like place, nothing like the world they were born into at the workhouse. Perhaps Dickens chooses this quote to emphasize death as a passage to a better heavenly place for the paupers, and a more dismal, evil fate for the officers. Another implication of the quote could be in terms of Dickens' distaste to the whole system, and how he abhors the ill tr

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Approximate Word count = 1394
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English