Thursday, June 29, 2006
Dickens and Orwell: two centuries or two classes?
[assignment week 4, due Mon.] Simple final blog assignment. Find your favorite telling quote from Hard Times and your favorite from Down and Out in Paris and London, quote them, and compare them stating what you think they say about class. You don't need to write or comment on but you might think about the extent to which Dickens and Orwell were writing about two different periods or about two different strata of society.
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From Down and Out it'd be:
'BEDS?' said the other man, surprised. 'There aren't no beds! What yer
expect? This is one of them spikes where you sleeps on the floor. Christ!
Ain't you got used to that yet?'
and from Hard Times
“The star had shown him where to find the God of the poor; and through humility, and sorrow, and forgiveness, he had gone to his Redeemer’s rest.”
I think they compare by just showing that being poor is a hard way to live, and in Down and Out, one has to get used to it, but in Hard Times, Blackpool (after he dies) gets to live a better life. I think it is telling just how down-trodden one can ultimately be, but still deal with the situation. Both are discussing that life goes on, with money or without.
From "Hard Times" (Ch.9 in book 3):
'At last he made the discovery that to discharge this highly connected female-to have it in his power to say, "She was a woman of family, and wanted to stick to me, but I wouldn't have it, and got rid of her"-would be to get the utmost possible amount of crowning glory out of the connection, and at the same time to punish Mrs. Sparsit according to her deserts.'
From "Down and Out in Paris and London" (chapter 31, 2nd paragraph):
'While I was with Bozo he taught me something about the technique of London begging. There is more in it than one might suppose. Beggars vary greatly, and there is a sharp social line between those whoo merely cadge and those who attempt to give some value for money.'
In comparing the two quotes, I think they both emphasize the idea of the middle and lower classes being one of the driving forces influencing a hierarchy's existence in society. In "Hard Times" Bunderby is using this woman of past prestige to increase his status thus reinforcing the existence of class/hierarchy (for Amanda's sake). This is done with technique, its the way he will tell her and explain to everyone else that will change his status. In D and O in P and L, Bozo explains the hierarchy that exists in the world of the beggars. This obviously reinforces the fact that the lower classes are keeping hierarchy in existence. Like in "Hard Times", D and O in P and L stresses the 'technique' that is used rather than the job/deed itself that will advance the person in status.
From Hard Times (Chapter II, Book II)
"First of all, you see our smoke. That's meat and drink to us. It's the healthiest thing in the world in all respects, and particularly for the lungs." --Mr. Bounderby
From DOPL (Chapter XXXI)
"Yet if one looks closely one sees that there is no essential difference between a beggar's livelihood and that of numberless respectable people. Beggars do not work, it is said; but, then, what is work?" --Orwell
I think these two quotes are telling because they both relay how work is percieved and the innate hierarchy involved. Mr. Bounderby is explaining the "ins and outs" of Coketown to a gentleman, Mr. Harthouse. In doing so, there is sense he is defending the factory system. He gives it an air of nobilty. He is not ashamed, but proud of what Coketown does. The same with Orwell. He is criticizing how beggars are percieved. He argues that beggars do indeed work. And, furthermore, Orwell states that they are the same as any other working person. Thus, Orwell makes a similar argument to Bounderby by arguing that even though the work is not glamorous it is still work. Both of these quotes relate to hierarchy because it is someone of a supposed lower status defending their position, even taking pride in it; and, in a way, fighting the established norms.
From Hard Times (Ch. 6 in Book 1):
"'Thquire!' said Mr. Sleary, who was troubled with asthma, and whose breath came far too thick and heavy for the letter s, 'your thervant! Thith ith a bad piethe of bithnith, thith ith. You've heard of my Clown and hith dog being thuppothed to have morrithed?'"
and from Down and Out (Ch. 32):
"No born Londoner (it is different with people of Scotch or Irish origin) now says 'bloody,' unless he is a man of education. The word has, in fact, moved up in the social scale and ceased to be a swear word for the purposes of the working classes."
These two quotes show how language is a part of the class system. While the Hard Times quote doesn't say that, the speech impediment that Sleary has would probably have been corrected or at least improved if he had been born into a higher class. The quote from Down and Out shows how the language of the lower classes differs from that of the higher classes. Saying certain words and speaking in a certain manner are clear markers of your level in the class system in England.
Hard Times:
"You see my friend," Mr. Bounderby put in, "we are the kind of people who know the value of time, and you are the kind of people who don't know the value of time."
DOPL:
"No, not necessarily. If you set yourself up to it, you can live your life, rich or poor. You can still keep on with your books and your ideas. You just got to say to yourself, 'I'm a free man here'"-he tapped his forehead-"and you're all right." (Bozo)
The first quote shows how Bounderby is a man who knows the value of time and it is this value of time which controls those like Steven. In the second quote, Bozo is talking about how even the "tramps" can be free. They aren't working for anyone else and as long as they have their mind functioning, they are free.
Together, it appears that the working class has less freedom than those who are below class. But is there any freedom for either. In both cases everything they do they are doing to survive. Other than that, they don't really have lives. How much real freedom is in that?
'If you set yourself to it, you can live the same life, rich or poor. You can still keep on with your books and your ideas. You just got to say to yourself, "I'm a free man in here"'- he tapped his forehead - 'and you're all right.'
--Down and Out in Paris and London
AND
"It was not everyone who could afford to travel widely in classical lands, and, for such, the study of British antiquities provided a cheap and interesting substitute near at hand."
--p. 22 of A Hundred Years of Archaeology by Glyn Daniel.
These two quotes represent to me the philosphy that I have always had that learning can make your worries go by. In DOPL, Orwell has Bozo say this and I agree heartily. The more you know the more you have to entertain yourself with when times are bad. Glyn Daniel illustrates this also in his book when he comments on teh fact that although archaeological studies took money abroad, they were relatively cheap for the British in Britain. Information and knowledge is somethign that no one person can be deprived of. Regardless of class, the knowledge that you retain will always be there, hopefully.
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