The Conditions of England as Reflected by Dickens Social Novel

Abstract

Conditions of England and the serious attempts of Social reform in England during the nineteenth were the common concern of many writers in the hope of bringing about change in the society. Indeed, the consequences of the Industrial Revolution and the awareness, particularly on the part of the reading public, paved the way for both nineteenth century and twentieth century welfare reforms. This paper attempts to focus on the fictional representations of the Conditions of England, and underline Charles Dickens’contribution to the changes and reforms that took place during that era.Nineteenth century England was the high noon of the social realist novels.The leading Victorian writers like Dickens, George Eliot, Benjamin Disraeli and Elizabeth Gaskell attempted to represent and diagnose the social problems of England in their works. Hence, the term social reform has come into use to refer to the social movements. Thosemovements took the form of group actions; which were large, sometimes informal, groupings of individuals or organizationsthat focused on specific political or social issues.The novels that dealt with these issues came to represent a body of narrative fiction that adopted different means to bring about the demanded changes. One important means was the novel, which was also known asthe industrial or social problem novel.This type of novel is“a work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel”. More specific examples of social problems that are addressed in such works include poverty, conditions in factories and mines, the plight of child labour, violence against women, rising criminality, epidemics and poor sanitation in cities