Miscoloured and Misshapen: British Society Through the Eyes of Charles Dickens

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Miscoloured and Misshapen: British Society through the Eyes of Charles Dickens Brandon Saunders ENG 3UI Ms. Kosovic January 11, 2013 ENG 3UI Brandon Saunders Ms. Kosovic January 11, 2013 Miscoloured and Misshapen: British Society through the Eyes of Charles Dickens Charles Dickens abundantly used his influences and experiences of 19th century Britain to address views of both social and economic issues. Within the book The Hidden Charles Dickens: A Collection of Little-Known Works, his stories are publicized together in writings of the condition of Society and the Victorian Empire as well as the ever changing industrial revolution. Dickens also writes of the lives of the classes, exposing the lifestyles and the differences and injustice behind them. Through the works of Dickens, 19th century Britain is experienced from page the page. Through many of the stories that Dickens wrote, the true condition of the empire is exposed. Through the pages of “A Small Star in the East”, the poverty stricken lifestyle is truly given to the reader through his exceptional use of imagery and metaphors. A true sense of the lives of the families in industrious areas and the living conditions of the masses is written in such a way that truly impacts the reader. Dickens writes “A squalid maze of streets, courts, and alleys of miserable houses let out in single rooms. A wilderness of dirt, rags, and hunger.” (727-28). Through the words of Dickens, it is seen that the unbearable conditions of the town is poverty infested. The plague affects the families of a single room and the disease of hunger seeps into the daily lives of the citizens. This is the literary evidence of his time’s condition. After the Industrial revolution, unemployment and over working was wide spread. “The Victorian town symbolized Britain’s progress and pre-eminence, but it also witnessed some of the

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