Assignment
Name : Dabhi Vipul
Semester : 2
Roll no : 35
Enrollment no : 2069108420180009
Email : dabhivc04@gmail.com
Paper : 6 Victorian Literature
Topic : How Industrial Revolution played its negative role in the society? Discuss with the reference of Oliver Twist.
Batch : 2017-2019
Submitted to : Department of English MKBU
Introduction :
First let us see the What Industrial Revolution is about. We can say a period where we find a changes in manufacturing the products or in the daily life of the common people.
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, the increasing use of steam power, the development of machine tools and the rise of the factory system.
Textiles were the dominant industry of the Industrial Revolution in terms of employment, value of output and capital invested. The textile industry was also the first to use modern production methods.
The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, and many of the technological innovations were of British origin.[2] By the mid-18th century Britain was the world's leading commercial nation[3], controlling a global trading empire with colonies in North America and Africa, and with some political influence on the Indian subcontinent, through the activities of the East India Company.[4] The development of trade and the rise of business were major causes of the Industrial Revolution.
Social effects
Factory system :
The majority of textile factory workers during the Industrial Revolution were unmarried women and children, including many orphans. They typically worked for 12 to 14 hours per day with only Sundays off. It was common for women take factory jobs seasonally during slack periods of farm work. Lack of adequate transportation, long hours and poor pay made it difficult to recruit and maintain workers.[30] Many workers, such as displaced farmers and agricultural workers, who had nothing but their labour to sell, became factory workers out of necessity. (See: British Agricultural Revolution, Threshing machine)
The change in the social relationship of the factory worker compared to farmers and cottagers was viewed unfavourably by Karl Marx, however, he recognized the increase in productivity made possible by technology.
Standards of living :
During the Industrial Revolution, the life expectancy of children increased dramatically. The percentage of the children born in London who died before the age of five decreased from 74.5% in 1730–1749 to 31.8% in 1810–1829.
The effects on living conditions the industrial revolution have been very controversial, and were hotly debated by economic and social historians from the 1950s to the 1980s. A series of 1950s essays by Henry Phelps Brown and Sheila V. Hopkins later set the academic consensus that the bulk of the population, that was at the bottom of the social ladder, suffered severe reductions in their living standards.During 1813–1913, there was a significant increase in worker wages.
Food and nutrition :
Food supply in Great Britain was adversely affected by the Corn Laws (1815-1846). The Corn Laws, which imposed tariffs on imported grain, were enacted to keep prices high in order to benefit domestic producers. The Corn Laws were repealed in the early years of the Great Irish Famine.
Housing :
The critical factor was financing, which was handled by building societies that dealt directly with large contracting firms.Private renting from housing landlords was the dominant tenure. P. Kemp says this was usually of advantage to tenants. People moved in so rapidly that there was not enough capital to build adequate housing for everyone, so low-income newcomers squeezed into increasingly overcrowded slums. Clean water, sanitation, and public health facilities were inadequate; the death rate was high, especially infant mortality, and tuberculosis among young adults. Cholera from polluted water and typhoid were endemic. Unlike rural areas, there were no famines such as devastated Ireland in the 1840s.
Sanitation :
In The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 Friedrich Engels described how untreated sewage created awful odors and turned the rivers green in industrial cities.
In 1854 John Snow traced a cholera outbreak in Soho to fecal contamination of a public water well by a home cesspit. Snow's findings that cholera could be spread by contaminated water took some years to be accepted, but his work led to fundamental changes in the design of public water and waste systems.
Water supply :
Pre-industrial water supply relied on gravity systems and pumping of water was done by water wheels. Pipes were typically made of wood. Steam powered pumps and iron pipes allowed the widespread piping of water to horse watering troughs and households.
Increase in literacy :
The invention of the paper machine and the application of steam power to the industrial processes of printing supported a massive expansion of newspaper and popular book publishing, which contributed to rising literacy and demands for mass political participation.
Urbanization :
The growth of modern industry since the late 18th century led to massive urbanisation and the rise of new great cities, first in Europe and then in other regions, as new opportunities brought huge numbers of migrants from rural communities into urban areas. In 1800, only 3% of the world's population lived in cities, compared to nearly 50% today (the beginning of the 21st century).Manchester had a population of 10,000 in 1717, but by 1911 it had burgeoned to 2.3 million.
Impact on women and family life :
In a more positive interpretation, Ivy Pinchbeck argues that capitalism created the conditions for women's emancipation.[117] Tilly and Scott have emphasised the continuity in the status of women, finding three stages in English history. In the pre-industrial era, production was mostly for home use and women produce much of the needs of the households. The second stage was the "family wage economy" of early industrialisation; the entire family depended on the collective wages of its members, including husband, wife and older children. The third or modern stage is the "family consumer economy," in which the family is the site of consumption, and women are employed in large numbers in retail and clerical jobs to support rising standards of consumption.
Child labour :
There was still limited opportunity for education and children were expected to work. Employers could pay a child less than an adult even though their productivity was comparable; there was no need for strength to operate an industrial machine, and since the industrial system was completely new, there were no experienced adult labourers. This made child labour the labour of choice for manufacturing in the early phases of the Industrial Revolution between the 18th and 19th centuries.
Politicians and the government tried to limit child labour by law but factory owners resisted; some felt that they were aiding the poor by giving their children money to buy food to avoid starvation, and others simply welcomed the cheap labour. In 1833 and 1844, the first general laws against child labour, the Factory Acts, were passed in Britain: Children younger than nine were not allowed to work, children were not permitted to work at night, and the work day of youth under the age of 18 was limited to twelve hours.
Destruction of hand textile production in India, China, etc.
The traditional centers of hand textile production such as India, parts of the Middle East and later China could not withstand the competition from machine-made textiles, which over a period of decades destroyed the hand made textile industries and left millions of people without work, many of whom starved.[30]
Effect on cotton production and expansion of slavery
Cheap cotton textiles increased the demand for raw cotton; previously, it had primarily been consumed in regions where it was grown, with little raw cotton available for export. Consequently, prices of raw cotton rose. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, cotton was grown in small plots in the Old World — the uncrowned Americas were far better able to recruit available land with the potential for new cotton production. Some cotton had been grown in the West Indies, particularly in Hispaniola, but Haitian cotton production was halted by the Haitian Revolution in 1791. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 allowed Georgia green seeded cotton to be profitable, leading to the widespread growth of cotton plantations in the United States and Brazil.
Impact on environment :
The gas companies were repeatedly sued in nuisance lawsuits. They usually lost and modified the worst practices. The City of London repeatedly indicted gas companies in the 1820s for polluting the Thames and poisoning its fish. Finally, Parliament wrote company charters to regulate toxicity. The industry reached the US around 1850 causing pollution and lawsuits.
Negative role in Oliver Twist :
Now let’s take about that how Industrial Revolution plays its role in Oliver Twist. Oliver Twist & The Industrial Revolution Child labour played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. In 1860, perhaps only half a children in London who actually had any schooling. Many children worked 16-hour days under atrocious conditions, as did their parents. As more people commuted to town to work, the demand for clothes and food grew. There were more things needed as the cities grew. More and more machines were beings built in factories and with that, the companies needed cheap labour.
In Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens describes some issues that occurred during the Industrial Revolution: children of the poor were forced by economic conditions to work, some kids were used as commodities, and there was a great difference between the first, middle, and third classes. Some parents sent their kids to work because they did not have enough money to support the family. Kids were being paid 3s (shillings) a week. If there were no work available at the factory kids would just go back to the farm, or others would end up going on the streets and becoming prostitutes. Most prostitutes were between the ages of 15 and 22 years old during the Industrial Revolution. In Oliver Twist, the character Nancy is a prostitute. She had no education and the only means of getting money was if she was on the street. Dickens was showing the times of the Industrial Revolution, and through this, the story seems very real. During the Industrial Revolution, kids were used as possessions. In the beginning of the novel, Oliver is used to pick oakum. He lives in an orphanage where the kids are used as slaves. They were sold door to door to the right buyer. In chapter III, Oliver's future darkens when Mr. Gamfield, a chimney sweep, applies to take the boy. Mr. Gamfield cares so little about Oliver, that he does not care if the chimney catches on fire, as long as Oliver does his job.
Observation of industrial area near my village :
If I compare this things with my village then I would like to say that it played both positive and negative role in the society.
Positive role :
People of village gets easily work. With affordable salary.
The people who are involved in the transportation businesses for them the situation is quite good.
A few person 's whole businesses are based on the people who are working here. And they receives good money. Like they gives rooms, food and all other services to them.
A few farmers sales their vegetables near industrial area and gets enough prices for it.
Negative role :
Most of the children leaves their education.
Now a days Air Pollution becoming more cruel for us.
Soil has started losing it's fertility.
Water of Well is now becoming mixed with chemicals.
Most of the parents thinks that if they will not make educate their children yet their children will get enough salary and as a result of it they takes out their children from school.
Still we found the conflicts of caste. Some how upper caste rules.
People suffers from skin disease and from lung cancer.
People are becoming victim of affairs.
People are now found involved in some illegal activities like selling of liquor, Or in distillery. They himself now becoming addicted of all this things. And their families pays the price through different different ways.
Almost 90% of working women intakes the tobacco.
So I can say that some how industrial revolution played a role like... It has taken so many years to make good economic development but as it happened vices comes so quickly.
Work cited :
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution
Name : Dabhi Vipul
Semester : 2
Roll no : 35
Enrollment no : 2069108420180009
Email : dabhivc04@gmail.com
Paper : 6 Victorian Literature
Topic : How Industrial Revolution played its negative role in the society? Discuss with the reference of Oliver Twist.
Batch : 2017-2019
Submitted to : Department of English MKBU
Introduction :
First let us see the What Industrial Revolution is about. We can say a period where we find a changes in manufacturing the products or in the daily life of the common people.
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, the increasing use of steam power, the development of machine tools and the rise of the factory system.
Textiles were the dominant industry of the Industrial Revolution in terms of employment, value of output and capital invested. The textile industry was also the first to use modern production methods.
The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, and many of the technological innovations were of British origin.[2] By the mid-18th century Britain was the world's leading commercial nation[3], controlling a global trading empire with colonies in North America and Africa, and with some political influence on the Indian subcontinent, through the activities of the East India Company.[4] The development of trade and the rise of business were major causes of the Industrial Revolution.
Social effects
Factory system :
The majority of textile factory workers during the Industrial Revolution were unmarried women and children, including many orphans. They typically worked for 12 to 14 hours per day with only Sundays off. It was common for women take factory jobs seasonally during slack periods of farm work. Lack of adequate transportation, long hours and poor pay made it difficult to recruit and maintain workers.[30] Many workers, such as displaced farmers and agricultural workers, who had nothing but their labour to sell, became factory workers out of necessity. (See: British Agricultural Revolution, Threshing machine)
The change in the social relationship of the factory worker compared to farmers and cottagers was viewed unfavourably by Karl Marx, however, he recognized the increase in productivity made possible by technology.
Standards of living :
During the Industrial Revolution, the life expectancy of children increased dramatically. The percentage of the children born in London who died before the age of five decreased from 74.5% in 1730–1749 to 31.8% in 1810–1829.
The effects on living conditions the industrial revolution have been very controversial, and were hotly debated by economic and social historians from the 1950s to the 1980s. A series of 1950s essays by Henry Phelps Brown and Sheila V. Hopkins later set the academic consensus that the bulk of the population, that was at the bottom of the social ladder, suffered severe reductions in their living standards.During 1813–1913, there was a significant increase in worker wages.
Food and nutrition :
Food supply in Great Britain was adversely affected by the Corn Laws (1815-1846). The Corn Laws, which imposed tariffs on imported grain, were enacted to keep prices high in order to benefit domestic producers. The Corn Laws were repealed in the early years of the Great Irish Famine.
Housing :
The critical factor was financing, which was handled by building societies that dealt directly with large contracting firms.Private renting from housing landlords was the dominant tenure. P. Kemp says this was usually of advantage to tenants. People moved in so rapidly that there was not enough capital to build adequate housing for everyone, so low-income newcomers squeezed into increasingly overcrowded slums. Clean water, sanitation, and public health facilities were inadequate; the death rate was high, especially infant mortality, and tuberculosis among young adults. Cholera from polluted water and typhoid were endemic. Unlike rural areas, there were no famines such as devastated Ireland in the 1840s.
Sanitation :
In The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 Friedrich Engels described how untreated sewage created awful odors and turned the rivers green in industrial cities.
In 1854 John Snow traced a cholera outbreak in Soho to fecal contamination of a public water well by a home cesspit. Snow's findings that cholera could be spread by contaminated water took some years to be accepted, but his work led to fundamental changes in the design of public water and waste systems.
Water supply :
Pre-industrial water supply relied on gravity systems and pumping of water was done by water wheels. Pipes were typically made of wood. Steam powered pumps and iron pipes allowed the widespread piping of water to horse watering troughs and households.
Increase in literacy :
The invention of the paper machine and the application of steam power to the industrial processes of printing supported a massive expansion of newspaper and popular book publishing, which contributed to rising literacy and demands for mass political participation.
Urbanization :
The growth of modern industry since the late 18th century led to massive urbanisation and the rise of new great cities, first in Europe and then in other regions, as new opportunities brought huge numbers of migrants from rural communities into urban areas. In 1800, only 3% of the world's population lived in cities, compared to nearly 50% today (the beginning of the 21st century).Manchester had a population of 10,000 in 1717, but by 1911 it had burgeoned to 2.3 million.
Impact on women and family life :
In a more positive interpretation, Ivy Pinchbeck argues that capitalism created the conditions for women's emancipation.[117] Tilly and Scott have emphasised the continuity in the status of women, finding three stages in English history. In the pre-industrial era, production was mostly for home use and women produce much of the needs of the households. The second stage was the "family wage economy" of early industrialisation; the entire family depended on the collective wages of its members, including husband, wife and older children. The third or modern stage is the "family consumer economy," in which the family is the site of consumption, and women are employed in large numbers in retail and clerical jobs to support rising standards of consumption.
Child labour :
There was still limited opportunity for education and children were expected to work. Employers could pay a child less than an adult even though their productivity was comparable; there was no need for strength to operate an industrial machine, and since the industrial system was completely new, there were no experienced adult labourers. This made child labour the labour of choice for manufacturing in the early phases of the Industrial Revolution between the 18th and 19th centuries.
Politicians and the government tried to limit child labour by law but factory owners resisted; some felt that they were aiding the poor by giving their children money to buy food to avoid starvation, and others simply welcomed the cheap labour. In 1833 and 1844, the first general laws against child labour, the Factory Acts, were passed in Britain: Children younger than nine were not allowed to work, children were not permitted to work at night, and the work day of youth under the age of 18 was limited to twelve hours.
Destruction of hand textile production in India, China, etc.
The traditional centers of hand textile production such as India, parts of the Middle East and later China could not withstand the competition from machine-made textiles, which over a period of decades destroyed the hand made textile industries and left millions of people without work, many of whom starved.[30]
Effect on cotton production and expansion of slavery
Cheap cotton textiles increased the demand for raw cotton; previously, it had primarily been consumed in regions where it was grown, with little raw cotton available for export. Consequently, prices of raw cotton rose. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, cotton was grown in small plots in the Old World — the uncrowned Americas were far better able to recruit available land with the potential for new cotton production. Some cotton had been grown in the West Indies, particularly in Hispaniola, but Haitian cotton production was halted by the Haitian Revolution in 1791. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 allowed Georgia green seeded cotton to be profitable, leading to the widespread growth of cotton plantations in the United States and Brazil.
Impact on environment :
The gas companies were repeatedly sued in nuisance lawsuits. They usually lost and modified the worst practices. The City of London repeatedly indicted gas companies in the 1820s for polluting the Thames and poisoning its fish. Finally, Parliament wrote company charters to regulate toxicity. The industry reached the US around 1850 causing pollution and lawsuits.
Negative role in Oliver Twist :
Now let’s take about that how Industrial Revolution plays its role in Oliver Twist. Oliver Twist & The Industrial Revolution Child labour played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. In 1860, perhaps only half a children in London who actually had any schooling. Many children worked 16-hour days under atrocious conditions, as did their parents. As more people commuted to town to work, the demand for clothes and food grew. There were more things needed as the cities grew. More and more machines were beings built in factories and with that, the companies needed cheap labour.
In Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens describes some issues that occurred during the Industrial Revolution: children of the poor were forced by economic conditions to work, some kids were used as commodities, and there was a great difference between the first, middle, and third classes. Some parents sent their kids to work because they did not have enough money to support the family. Kids were being paid 3s (shillings) a week. If there were no work available at the factory kids would just go back to the farm, or others would end up going on the streets and becoming prostitutes. Most prostitutes were between the ages of 15 and 22 years old during the Industrial Revolution. In Oliver Twist, the character Nancy is a prostitute. She had no education and the only means of getting money was if she was on the street. Dickens was showing the times of the Industrial Revolution, and through this, the story seems very real. During the Industrial Revolution, kids were used as possessions. In the beginning of the novel, Oliver is used to pick oakum. He lives in an orphanage where the kids are used as slaves. They were sold door to door to the right buyer. In chapter III, Oliver's future darkens when Mr. Gamfield, a chimney sweep, applies to take the boy. Mr. Gamfield cares so little about Oliver, that he does not care if the chimney catches on fire, as long as Oliver does his job.
Observation of industrial area near my village :
If I compare this things with my village then I would like to say that it played both positive and negative role in the society.
Positive role :
People of village gets easily work. With affordable salary.
The people who are involved in the transportation businesses for them the situation is quite good.
A few person 's whole businesses are based on the people who are working here. And they receives good money. Like they gives rooms, food and all other services to them.
A few farmers sales their vegetables near industrial area and gets enough prices for it.
Negative role :
Most of the children leaves their education.
Now a days Air Pollution becoming more cruel for us.
Soil has started losing it's fertility.
Water of Well is now becoming mixed with chemicals.
Most of the parents thinks that if they will not make educate their children yet their children will get enough salary and as a result of it they takes out their children from school.
Still we found the conflicts of caste. Some how upper caste rules.
People suffers from skin disease and from lung cancer.
People are becoming victim of affairs.
People are now found involved in some illegal activities like selling of liquor, Or in distillery. They himself now becoming addicted of all this things. And their families pays the price through different different ways.
Almost 90% of working women intakes the tobacco.
So I can say that some how industrial revolution played a role like... It has taken so many years to make good economic development but as it happened vices comes so quickly.
Work cited :
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution
