Page 176 - DENG402_HISTORY_OF_ENGLISH_LITERATURE

Unit 22: The Nineteenth Century (Reflection of Changes in the English Society Due to Industrial Revolution in the .........

carriage, which denotes an authority figure, passes. The plow horse recognizes that he, like the Notes
farm laborer, is happy with his lot, which is depicted as a clean and fulfilling one. There is no
conflict with the plow horse and the carriage horse, there is no concern about revolution, as each
is happy with his position. This is pitted against the image of the dehumanized urban worker that
the reader of The Pickwick Papers would have possessed in 1830. In the context of the fear of working
class revolution that many held in the 1800s, Dickens suggests that it is not only desirable that the
good aspects of the worker-employer relationship of the traditional landowning class be
accommodated, but necessary for the survival of the society. In the country before the advent of
industrialization, there are no storms brewing, there is tranquility. The only storms suggested are
the tears of Job Trotter, who, in his association with the disorder of the merchant class, represents
a threat to stability.
It is, of course, apparent that Pickwick was a business man before his retirement and not an
aristocrat, just as it is apparent that Margaret and the Hales are not members of the real aristocracy.
What both authors suggest by placing their protagonists in a level just below that of the culture
that they admire and perpetuate, is that the process of incorporation of the better points of the old
and new societies into one coherent whole is possible for everyone who desires stability. Dickens
places his work in a past time, for which people were already feeling nostalgia, and in so doing he
frees himself from the confusion of his own era, while permitting himself to use this escape as a
means for a more successful suggestion of what will and what must occur for social stability.
Gaskell has the benefit of writing twenty years later, so that she can describe a change which has
already occurred.

Task Write a note on the changes in English Society during Industrial Revolution.

22.7 Summary

There were many artistic movements during the period of Britain’s industrialization, each
of which was a reaction to the feelings of the time, as well as to the movement which had
preceded it.
Margaret’s parents cease to command respect from their servant because they rely on the
superficial social significator of status, the mere retention of a servant, so much that they
are afraid to do what is necessary to perpetuate the dynamic that makes this relationship
possible, a control over the lower classes.
Job Trotter, although acting in accordance with his own master’s wishes, is essentially
plotting disobedience towards Pickwick.
The class struggle as represented by Jingle and Pickwick, which reflects the fight between
the aristocracy and merchant class for status during Britain’s transition to an urban economy,
allows for a comparison between their servants.
Dickens uses the image of good weather to denote life in the country, associated with the
aristocracy, and respect of the working class for the ruling class.

22.8 Keywords

The Pickwick Papers : The Pickwick Papers is set in a time prior to the Industrial Era,
specifically, before the infiltration of the railroad into the life of British
society.
Masters : Many groups in society were confused by this change, notably those ones
which did not benefit ostensibly from the rewards of the new economy,
those who were not what Gaskell called the “masters” of the merchant class.
LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 169