Topic 47 – The industrial revolution in england; its influence as a model for historical transformation. Social and political changes through the literature of the period. charles dickens

OUTLINE

1. INTRODUCTION.

1.1. Aims of the unit.

1.2. Notes on bibliography.

2. A HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FOR THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: MAIN CAUSES BEFORE 1750.

2.1. Political background.

2.2. Social background.

2.3. Economic background.

2.3.1. Agriculture.

2.3.2. Industry.

2.3.3. Trade.

2.4. Technological background.

2.5. Cultural background

2.6. Literary background.

3. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN GREAT BRITAIN: ITS INFLUENCE AS A MODEL OF HISTORICAL TRANSFORMATION.

3.1. The Industrial Revolution (1750 -1850).

3.1.1. Definition.

3.1.2. Main features .

3.2. Main consequences.

3.2.1. Political consequences .

3.2.2. Social consequences.

3.2.3. Economic consequences.

3.2.3.1. Agriculture.

3.2.3.2. Industry.

3.2.3.3. Trade.

3.2.4. Technological consequences .

3.2.5. Cultural consequences.

3.2.6. Literary consequences.

4. MAIN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGES REFLECTED IN THE LITERA TURE OF THE TIME: CHARLES DICKENS.

4.1. Political background.

4.2. Social background.

4.3. Literary background.

4.3.1. Poetry.

4.3.2. Drama.

4.3.3. Prose: the novel.

4.4. Charles Dickens.

4.4.1. Life.

4.4.2. Style.

4.4.3. Works.

5. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING.

6. CONCLUSION.

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY.

1. INTRODUCTION.

1.1. Aims of the unit.

The present unit, Unit 47, aims to provide a useful introduction to the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain and its influence as a model of historical transformation (namely between 1750 and 1850) since it is considered to be the most important economic change in the History timeline. We shall also deal with the main social and political changes which occured after it and how they were reflected in the literature of the time through the writing of relevant figures such as Charles Dickens. In general, the literature of the time was both shaped by and reflected the prevailing ideologies of the day which, following Speck (1998), means that this is an account of literary activ ity in which social, economic, cultural, technogical and political allegiances are placed very much to the fore.

This is reflected in the organization of the unit , which is divided into two main chapters which correspond to three different periods in an attempt to analyse the link between the literary activity and the main social, economic and political changes which occurred before and after the Industrial Revolution, thus: (1) before 1750, and (2) after 1750, (a) between 1750 and 1836, and (b) between 1836 and 1901, which closely reflect the main changing conditions of the eighteenth century at all levels¹. Therefore, we shall present our study in five main chapters.

Chapter 2 namely provides a historical background for the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain so as to find the roots for its main causes before 1750, which is the official benchmark for the beginning of this movement. Yet, before defining what the Industrial Revolution was and examine its main consequences, it is convenient to analyse the situation of pre-industrial economy in Great Britain so as to better understand the deep changes which gave way to this important event, even in the fifteenth century.

_cultura_{l and (6) literary background of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These changes}

¹The two latter chapters are divided in such a way so as to link the main literary periods to political, social and economic changes after the Industrial Revolution, that is, from 1750 to 1836, the Georgian Age or Romanticism, and

from 1836 to 1901, the Victorian Age and Realism.

that the Tudor Age (1485-1602) and the Stuart Age (1603-1713) established will serve so as to locate the starting point for our analysis of the Industrial Revolution.

In Chapter 3, we shall provide an overview of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain with the aim of examining its influence as a model of historical transformation in other countries, and in the main eighteenth-century literary productions, in particular, Charles Dickens, as we shall see in next chapter. Since the Industrial Revolution is often located in the period between

1750 and 1850, it coincides to a great extent with the Augustean Age (1714-1790); with the Georgian Age or the age of the Romantics (1790-1837), and reaching the end of the century (1901) with the Victorian Age (1837-1900) or Realism movement. In this chapter, we shall deal with the second literary period, that is, from 1750 to 1837 so as to frame Charles Dickens in the next chapter and therefore, make him coincide with further social and political consequences of the Industrial Revolution.

Yet, we do not follow a chronological clear-cut division of time (1700 to 1800), but we attempt to match the political, social and economic events to the periods of active literary work in the eighteenth century. As Thoorens (1969:99) claims, it is not useful to divide the history of English literature in clear-cut chronological periods (1700-1800) because it might lead us to false paralelisms between historical and literary events. Instead, we shall focus on the development of history and literature in different periods on the basis of the most outstanding literary hallmarks.

So, in order to analyse these periods, we shall start by approaching the concept of (1) ‘Industrial Revolution’ in terms of (a) definition and (b) main features; then we shall analyse its influence as a a model of historical transformation in terms of (2) consequences, thus (a) political, (b) social, (c) economic, regarding (i) agriculture, (ii) industry and (iii) trade; as well as (d) technological, (e) cultural and (f) literary ones in the eighteenth and nineteenth-century Great Britain. It is at this point that we shall prepare the ground for the literary analysis of Charles Dickens and his main social and political works.

In Chapter 4 , we shall provide an overview of the main social and political changes which are reflected in the literature of the time through the figure of the Victorian novelist Charles Dickens. In this chapter, we shall deal with our third literary period, that is, from 1837 to 1901 so as to frame Charles Dickens’ literary works in an appropriate social and political context to make him coincide with the late consequences of the Industrial Revolution. So, we shall start by reviewing the (1) political and (2) social background which will prepare the ground for the (3)

literary background regarding (a) poetry, (b) drama, and (c) prose, where we finally find the figure of (4) Charles Dickens, in terms of (a) life, (b) style and (c) his main works.

Chapter 5 will be devoted to the main educational implications in language teaching regarding the introduction of this issue in the classroom setting. Chapter 6 will offer a conclusion to broadly overview our present study, and Chapter 7 will include all the bibliographical references used to develop this account of the Industrial Revolution.

1.2. Notes on bibliography.

An influential introduction to the historical and literary background of the Industrial Revolution and its main literature works is based on Thoorens, Panorama de las literaturas Daimon: Inglaterra y América del Norte. Gran Bretaña y Estados Unidos de América (1969); Escudero,. La Revolució n Industrial (1988); Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature (1996); Overton, Agricultural Revolution in England: The Transformation of the Agrarian Economy 1500-1850 (1996); Speck, Literature and Society in Eighteenth-Century England: Ideology Politics and Culture (1998); and Alexander, A History of English Literature (2000); and MacLeod, Inventing the Industrial Revolution (2001).

Other sources on literary background are the Encyclopedia Encarta (1997) and The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia (2003). The background for educational implications is based on the theory of communicative competence and communicative approaches to language teaching are provided by the most complete record of current publications within the educational framework is provided by the guidelines in B.O.E. (2004) for both E.S.O. and Bachillerato; and the Council of Europe, Modern Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. A Common European Framework of reference (1998).

2. A HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FOR THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: MAIN CAUSES BEFORE 1750.

examine its main consequences (Chapter 3), it is convenient to analyse the situation of pre- industrial economy in Great Britain so as to better understand the deep changes which gave way to this important event, even in the fifteenth century.

Yet, the main causes that led to the Industrial Revolution three centuries later are to be found in the areas of population, agriculture, industry and trade. Therefore, so as to find the roots of the Industrial Revolution, we shall review: (1) the political, (2) social, (3) economic background in terms of (a) agriculture, (b) industry and (c) commerce, and also the (4) technological, (5) cultural and (6) literary background of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These changes that the Tudor Age (1485-1602) and the Stuart Age (1603-1713) established will serve so as to locate the starting point for our analysis of the Industrial Revolution.

2.1. Political background.

Historically speaking, by the fifteenth century, during the reign of Henry V (1413-1422), the loss of Normandy brought about many changes for the inhabitants of the island, thus from poverty and economic blockage to the reinforcement of the national feeling by a general adoption of English (for literary purposes) at both the oral and written levels in most fields. The early Tudor period, particularly the reign of Henry VIII, was marked by a break with the Roman Catholic Church and a weakening of feudal ties, which brought about a vast increase in the power of the monarchy.

Stronger political relationships with the Continent were also developed, increasing England’s exposure to Renaissance culture as ‘the revival of learning’. Hence, humanism became the most important force in English literary and intellectual life, both in its narrow sense (the study and imitation of the Latin classics) and in its broad sense (the affirmation of the secular, in addition to the otherworldly, concerns of people), and in fact, the contrast between Renaissance learning based on classical models and medieval ignorance is often exaggerated. Yet, in 1517, the Protestant Reformation began with Martin Luther’s attacks on the Church’s Penitential system, order and doctrine.

The Reformation, like the Renaissance, was an outcome of a gradual transfer of authority away from weaker central and communal structures to stronger local individual ones, and an accompanying transfer from external to internal ways of thinking, feeling and representeing. These changes brought about the division of Europe into Catholic or Protestant. With this

background in mind, Henry VIII wrote the first book by an English king since King Alfred, though in Latin not English (Defence of the Seven Sacraments).

Also, Henry asked Rome for the divorce of Catherine of Aragon (unable to produce a male heir) to marry Ann Boleyn. Then, after being excommunicated (since he went ahead with marriage), Henry made himself Supreme Head of the Church (at that time the Church of England) and held to Catholic doctrines, but in the six years under his young son Edward VI (1547-53), reform was imposed. For the next six years, her daughter Mary returned Catholicism, recalling the Benedictines to Westminster Abbey. Finally, Elizabeth I (1558-

1603), Ann Boleyn’s daughter, gradually imposed a compromise between Protestant teaching

and Catholic practice, but Catholics lost ground when Rome declared the Queen illegitimate

(1570).

The seventeenth century has its starting point in the death of Elizabeth I (1603) and the accession of James I to the crown. This period, known as the Stuart Age (1603-1713) and also called the Jacobean Era, the age of Cromwell and the Restoration, is characterized by crisis, civil wars, the Commonwealth and the Restoration, and establishes the immediate background to the Industrial Revolution. The political background is to be framed upon the Stuart succession line, thus under the rule of James I (1603-1625); his son, Charles I (1625-1642), who ruled until civil war broke out in 1642; then Cromwell (1642-1660), until monarchy was restored by Charles II (1660-1685); this was followed by his brother, James II (1685-1689) who, in 1668, fled before his invading son- in- law, the Dutchman William of Orange became William III. Then William and Mary II (1689-1707) were succeeded by Mary’s sister, Queen Anne (1702-1713).

The early eighteenth-century political background is to be framed upon the Georgian succession line, thus under the rule of Queen Anne (1701-1714); her German cousin, which became George I (1714- 1727); George II (1727-1760), George III (1760- 1820), king of Great Britain and Ireland; and his son, George IV (1820-1830), who was succeeded by his brother, William IV.

As stated above, in the last decade of the seventeenth century (1689), William III took the crown in joint sovereignty with his wife Mary. Since William favoured foreign policy, om 1701 he entered England into the League of Augsburg which later became known as The Grand Alliance and consequently, he was involved in the War of the Spanish Succession. After eight years of war, William was able to hold the alliance together. In contrast to his ability to handle foreign affairs, William had trouble holding down the fort at home, where a majority of reforms

were brought about by Parliament, such as the passing of the Bill of Rights and the freedom of the press.

When he died in 1701, England and Scotland were unified under Mary’s sister Anne (1702-

1714). She was the second daughter of King James, but Protestant. Events in her reign included the War of Spanish Succession, Marlborough’s victories at Blenheim, Ramilies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet, the replacement of the Tories with a Whig government in 1703. Yet, the most important event took place in 1707, the Act of Union where she presided over the union of the parliaments of Scotland and England into the parliament of Great Britain (1 May 1707). Controversially the Scots had been forced into the union through a variety of English measures and legislation but received, in return, a bribe of £398,085².

Following the Encyclopedia Encarta (1997), “the social, economic and political situation in Great Britain was just about to change with the death of Queen Anne in 1714. Since she had no children, she was succeeded by her German cousin George, and the monarchy moved from the House of Stuart to the House of Hannover. When George came to England in 1714, he was made unpopular by his two greedy mistresses with whom he brought. In retaliation, the Jacobites attempted to replace him with James II’s son James Edward Stuart, or The Great Pretender, but were unsuccessful. Politically, George favored Whigs arguing that Tories were loyal to the Stuart cause. His head for foreign affairs led to the formation of the Triple Alliance. With the aid of his ministers, he was able to strengthen the House of Hannover in Great Britain.”

Eventually, following Encarta (1997), “George I was succeeded by his son George II. George II’s interest concerned Hannover rather than Great Britain and during the war of the Austrian Succession, he subordinated the interests of England to those of Germany. Although Britain felt cheated by his attitude, he remained popular with his participation in the Battle of Dettingen in Bavaria in 1743. With the advice of his wife and ministers, Britain was able to progress materially. The final years of his reign were considerably marked by the suppression of the last major Jacobite rebellion, and his prosecution of the Seven Years’ War. He was succeeded by his son George III on October 25, 1760”. On his death (1820), his son George IV officially took the throne in 1820. The most outstanding event in his reign was the passage of the Catholic

_Emancipatio_{n Act, which he opposed. He died in 1830, and was succeeded by his brother,}

²In response to the unpopular union, a French fleet brought the son and Catholic heir of King James to the Firth of Forth in an attempt to raise a rebellion in 1708. Poor weather meant that the French forces

were unable to land and the ships were driven away from shore. No Jacobite rising in any real sense took place, despite the propitious timing.

William IV. Yet, let us examine the most outstanding turning points throughout the century regarding political, economical and social events.

To sum up, the Georgian period is politically regarded as a period of confrontation, first, with the Jacobite rebellions and, as the eighteenth century progressed, the theatres of war expanded and Britain became involved in conflicts with India, her American colonies and continental Europe. Because of its financial, naval and military strength, the British government tended to prevail. Political, social, economic, technological and literary key events and key figures would prepare the ground for us to understand the general conditions of the eighteenth century, and in particular, of the literary situation which would reflect years later the Industrial Revolution main implications.

2.2. Social background.

Historically speaking, by the fifteenth century, during the reign of Henry V (1413-1422), the loss of Normandy brought about many changes for the inhabitants of the island, thus from poverty and economic blockage to the reinforcement of the national feeling by a general adoption of English (for literary purposes) at both the oral and written levels in most fields, except legal records (still written in Latin), the Statutes of Parliament (written in French until

1489) and in ceremonial formulae (still French).

The social and economic situation continued up to the sixteenth and even to the early years of the seventeenth century, together with high death rate due to poverty, loss of crops and therefore, famine, lack of hygiene and medical knowledge, epidemic, and in the seventeenth century, the Black Death. This devastating plague swept through the country in 1665. Already early in the century, the population would already have been weakened by an exceptionally hard winter during which the River Thames had frozen. In spring that year, parishes began to report deaths attributable to the bubonic plague. By November 1665, when the epidemic ceased in the cold weather, the lives of over 100,000 people had been lost.

In addition, the Black Death was followed by the Great Fire of London and, as a result, all levels of society were affected, thus population, economy, government and, for our purposes, literature, too. In September 1666, a fire broke out at night in a baker’s shop and quickly

became uncontrollable due to a high wind. The fire lasted four days and destroyed two thirds of the city within the walls, so the heritage of centuries was reduced to ashes.

As we can observe, all these events contributed to the most influential change of the seventeenth century, that of population. Whereas for the first half of the century the population continued to grow and, as a result, there was pressure on food resources, land and jobs, and increased price infla tion, the late seventeenth century saw the easing, if not the disappearance of these problems. Family-planning habits started to change and new methods of farming increased dramatically. From the 1670s, England became an exporter as opposed to a net importer of grain. The seventeenth century is also probably the first in English history in which more people emigrated than immigrated, hence the period of American colonization. Hence, London society also underwent changes, for instance, “tea, coffee and chocolate were drunk in places of public recreation, and horse-racing became a fixture in a social calendar. It became ‘civilized’ for men to be agreeable, not to converse on religion and politics, and to speak gallantly of the fair sex”(Alexander, 2000:154).

Also, the Georgian period was a one of change since the very infrastructure of Britain was changing and Britain became the world’s first modern society. Population also changed in terms of increasing rate of population and increased wealth. Actually, in 1801 the first British Census, which was introduced to help the government understand the country and better utilise the population in times of war, estimated a population of nearly nine million in England and Wales whereas in Scotland, the figure was a little over 1,600,000. Yet, Ireland was not included until

1821, when her population was over 6,800,000 (www.bbc.com).

2.3. Economic background.

Regarding economic changes in the late seventeenth century, one of the most relevant events was the foundation of the Bank of England in 1694. As mentioned above, the continental wars of James II (1685-1689) and William of Orange, known as William III (1689-1707), were really expensive. As a result, England was forced to raise a considerable national debt. In 1694, the Scotsman William Paterson founded the Bank of England to assist the crown by managing the public debt, and eventually it became the national reserve for the British Isles. Yet, in 1697, any further joint-stock banks were forbidden just to secure its position of prominence in England.

In economic terms, 1720 is a turning point since the South Sea Company is set up with the aim of challenging the financial strength of the Bank of England and the East India Company by providing loans for the government to support the national debt. This company had the monopoly on trade with all Spanish territories, South America and the West Coast of North America. Yet, the Bank of England was obliged to exchange relatively high denomination banknotes on demand for gold, and consequently, the suspension of this obligation (1797-1821) led to the issuing of the first £1 banknotes.

Also, in 1735, the Turnpike Trusts (already set up in 1706), led to serious outbreaks of rioting in

1735 and again in 1750, in which toll-gates and houses were destroyed, largely because the population objected to paying tolls for travel on roads which had previously been free. However, the Turnpike Trusts were a success, and the money raised was used in part to finance the building of new and better roads.

As stated before, the Georgian period was a one of change since the very infrastructure of Britain was changing and Britain became the world’s first modern society , not only in agricultural developments which were followed by industrial innovation, but also in urbanisation and the need for better communications. In fact, the main changes are to be noticed in agriculture, industry and commerce (trade).

2.3.1. Agriculture.

If we trace back to the 16^t^hand 17^t^hcentury, we may observe that Great Britain had an agrarian system where the workers were the members of the same family, and the working tools were simple tools and animals. Yet, from the 16th century onwards, an essentially organic agriculture was gradually replaced by a farming system that depended on energy- intensive inputs. According to Overton (1996), the impact of this agrarian revolution was to be felt in the agriculture’s demand for more land and therefore, the pressure on Britain’s depleted woodlands. Moreover, the rising price of wood as an industrial fuel made coal was an increasingly attractive option, with which Britain was plentifully supplied. When its use was extended into industry, however, England necessitated the containment of harmful fumes that contaminated the raw materials.

2.3.2. Industry.

Hence, the salt, sugar and soap industries found their technical solutions quickly, and in the 17^thcentury glass makers, maltsters and non-ferrous metal refiners modified their equipment to burn coal, but iron makers suffered repeated disappointment. It was also the expanding mining sector that prompted the invention of the steam engine and the development of new forms of transport. As Cornwall’s tin miners and Tyneside’s coal miners dug deeper, the biggest problem they faced was flooding. But it was the ‘atmospheric engine’, invented around 1710 by Thomas Newcomen, a Devon blacksmith, that pumped most effectively. Sixty years later, James Watt significantly improved the Newcomen engine’ s fuel efficiency by adding the separate condenser, and adapted it to rotative motion to drive textile machinery. Heat energy from coal had thus been made available as mechanical energy to supplement horse, water and wind power (Overton, 1996).

Industrialisation was such a wide-ranging phenomenon, involving every aspect of the economy and society, that there will always be scope for debate about its timing and speed, causes and consequences. Suddenly, there was an increasing demand of industrial goods (textile, iron, machines, trains, ships, chemicals, houses, furniture, food, drinks, paper, etc) which needed, in turn, people to work in industries, money to build factories and produce goods, and raw materials to work with. The roots of change ran deep into the past, but from the final quarter of the 18^t^hcentury industrialisation gathered pace. At first slow and patchy, by the time Victoria came to the throne in 1837, it had left few lives and few institutions unaltered.

2.3.3. Trade.

Following Overton (1996), “the need to transport coal cheaply stimulated the development of the canal system. The Duke of Bridgewater showed the way in 1759, when he commissioned James Brindley to construct a canal into Manchester from the entrance to his coal mines. Already the rival railway network was in embryo form on the coalfields. Wagonways were used above and below ground where open wagons powered by human, horse, or gravity, moved the coal along wooden rails. It was but a short step to steam-powered locomotives moving coal along iron rails and no coincidence that George Stephenson began his career in the mines of Tyneside”.

2.4. Technological background.

The eighteenth-century scientific and technological background is namely represented by the scientific developments that took place under royal patronage of the Georgian succession line. During the course of the eighteenth century, a variety of inventions allowed for greater mechanisation to be applied to the industry and this led in turn to the industrial structure changing to a factory-based system. These inventions were the basis for the increased productivity of the textile industry throughout Britain and this century was to witness the beginnings of an industrial revolution in Britain which was to change the world from 1750 on.

In 1712 we find the most significant invention of the Industrial Revolution: the steam engine. This was originally invented for draining mines, but was rapidly put to use in factories and later on the railways. The first successful engine was built in

1712 by Thomas Newcomen and developed over the next ninety years by James

Watt and Richard Trevithick.

In 1733, John Kay invented the Flying Shuttle so as to vowe broader pieces of cloth at a quicker rate.

From the 1750s on, the designs of coaches and wagons were also improved by the new steel spring, and speeds increased, reducing the average time for a journey from London to Edinburgh from twelve to four days.

2.5. Cultural background.

The seventeenth-century cultural and scientific background is namely represented by the artistic and scie ntific developments that took place under royal patronage throughout the century. Thus, despite his problems with Parliament, Charles I was a great patron of the Arts and Sciences, and in 1628 he took an intense interest in the research of physiology when a correct explanation of how blood circulated was supplied by William Harvey (1578-1657). As a result, Harvey became a tutor for Charles’s sons and probably made substantial contribution to Charles II’s life-long interest in scientific affairs.

As seen, Charles II was also a a patron of the arts and science, and both flourished following his succession to the throne. Actually, the Royal Society was founded under his royal patronage by a group of Oxford men, among whom Robert Boyle (1627-1691) demonstrated that the volume of gases varied in precisely inverse proportion to the pressure upon them. Other scientists of this

century included Isaac Newton (1642-1727), who made many discoveries (including the law of gravity) and laid the foundations of physics as a modern discipline, and Edmund Halley, the Astronomer Royal, (1656-1742). Hence the foundation of the Royal Observatory of Greenwich in 1675. Finally, with respect to architecture, it is relevant to mention the foundation of Eddystone Rock Lighthouse (1699), which was the first high-seas lighthouse to be built round the British coast.

2.6. Literary background.

Yet, how do seventeenth-century literary events relate to the Industrial Revolution? Simply because they reflect the literature of the time through the different genres, that is, drama, poetry and prose which were produced under the period of Restoration. In fact, the seventeenth century, known as the Stuart Age, is also called the Jacobean Era, the age of Cromwell and the Restoration . Hence we can talk about different literary conditions under the rule of Cromwell and the Restoration since the former showed a Puritan attitude against Renaissance culture and manners whereas the latter inaugurated a new temper and a cultural style which lasted into the eighteenth century.

Actually, with the return of Charles II as King in 1660, new models of poetry and drama came in from France, where the court had been in exile. Later on in James’ I reign, high ideals had combined with daring wit and language, but the religious and political extremism of the mid- century broke that combination. The Restoration literature was one of novelty, change and refoundation rather than of great writing.

Following Alexander (2000:156), “if the Restoration period produced no writer of the first rank, it gave secular literature new importance. The civil, secular, social culture of the Restoration period is often called Augustan, since its writers saw parallels between the restored monarchy and the peace restored by the Emperor Augustus after vivil war and the assassination of Caesar had ended the Roman republic.”

It is relevant to bear in mind that those who had remained in England during the Commonwealth had faced years of strict moral repression, and those who fled to France had acquired some of the decadence bred across the channel. In combination, these two forces created a nation of wealthy, witty, amoral hedonists, whose theatre reflected their lifestyles. Thus was born the Restoration Tragedy and the Comedy of Manners.

Yet, in the Restoration period, it is relevant to say that that Restoration verse, prose and stage comedy were marked by worldly scepticism clearly shown in the works of Bunyan, Milton and Dryden. In fact, the only works worth mentioning from these forty years (1660-1700) to have been read in every generation since are Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678-1679), some poems by John Dryden , and the better Restoration comedies. Let us examine the different genres within this period.

First of all, regarding drama , it is worth mentioning that this is one of the most affected genres by the English Civil War in 1642 and the figure of Cromwell, since one of the first acts after the Civil War was to order the closing all the theatres in London for the sake of purity. Yet, when Charles II returned, he gave literature chances and the theatres opened again, determined to reject Puritan earnestness. As a result, the king’s friends came back from France with a more secular, sceptical and civilized tone, and above all, neo-classical ideas. Hence Charles patronized the Royal Sociey, the Royal Observatory, the theatre and the opera, and soon the Restoration Tragedy and the Comedy of Manners were born.

o Regarding comedy, that is, Comedy of Manners , it is worth mentioning that the audience got a true picture of themselves for the first time since this world of class and manners is peopled by stock characters (i.e. the rake, the fop, the country gentleman, bitter ex-mistresses, randy young men, witty young women). This world is represented with a veneer of decorum where the language is sharp and witty, and the story lines multiple and convoluted, combining to hilariously cynical effects. In fact, restoration comedy remains a

popular form of entertainment. We must focus on the fact that the audience of the restoration was upper class since theatre became really expensive, and only the nobles could pay the price. The plays were oriented toward this specific audience, so the absence of lower classes is not surprising. The theatre prospered and became a place to be seen.

o On the other hand, Restoration tragedies were broad, sweeping tales of great heroism since the aristocracy liked to picture themselves in these far off lands, being so noble and eloquent. The acting style was high and grandiose in the foreground, with spectacular scenery behind. In addition, the language was heavily poetic, entirely composed of rhyming couplets, and know as ‘the heroic couplet’. Yet, the ‘heroic’ tragedy of the Restoration has not last well up to now whereas comedy is often staged today.

Secondly, poetry in this century came from the Court, the Church, and the gentry of the theatre. Hence the first half of the century (to 1642) flourished under the names of: Ben Jonson (1572- 1637), a professional poet as well as playwright, whose clarity, edge and economy behind his writing produced one of his most famous poems Works (1616); also, we find metaphysical poets (Henry King, George Herbert, Thomas Carew, Henry Crashaw, John Cleveland, Abrahan Cowley, Andrew Marvell, Henry Vaughan, Thomas Traherne), devotional poets such as George Herbert (1593-1633) whose poems are homely in imagery and simple in language, and Henry Vaughan (1621- 95), Herbert’s disciple, among others; and cavaliers poets who wrote with a gallant secular verse (Sir John Suckling, Sir Richard Lovelace, Andrw Marvell); and finally, John Milton (1608-

1674), whose late work was aimed to a spiritual élite. Among his most famous works are Lycidas (1637), an ambitious pastoral elegy for a Cambridge contemporary, and Paradise Lost (1667), which was adapted from a drama called Adam Unparadis’d (1642). Milton turned from poetry to reforming prose at the Civil War and toughened his argumentative powers.

o Finally, prose is namely represented in the Restoration period by John Dryden, the Royal Society of London’s members, and John Locke. In the first half of the century one of the main prose works was the Duke of Buckingham’s The Rehearsal (1672), which was a huge successful prose burlesque of the theatrical conventions of the time. One of his targets was John Dryden, who was considered as a social inferior by Buckingham and other writers.

With this background in mind, we are ready now to examine eighteenth-century Great Britain and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, from 1750 onwards up to 1901. We shall examine this development separately, in two different periods so as to make them coincide with two different literary movements: Romanticism and Realism, that is, from 1750 to 1837, and from 1837 to 1901.

3. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN GREAT BRITAIN: ITS INFLUENCE AS A MODEL OF HISTORICAL TRANSFORMATION.

In Chapter 3, we shall provide an overview of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain with the aim of examining its influence as a model of historic al transformation in other countries,

and in the main eighteenth-century literary productions, in particular, Charles Dickens, as we shall see in next chapter. Since the Industrial Revolution is often located in the period between

So, in order to analyse these periods, we shall start by approaching the concept of (1) ‘Industrial Revolution’ in terms of (a) definition and (b) main features; then we shall analyse its influence as a a model of historical transformation in terms of (2) consequences, thus (a) political, (b) social, (c) economic , regarding (i) agriculture, (ii) industry and (iii) trade; as well as (d) technological, (e) cultural and (f) literary ones in the eighteenth and nineteenth-century Great Britain. It is at this point that we shall prepare the ground for the literary analysis of Charles Dickens and his main social and political works.

3.1. The Industrial Revolution (1750-1850).

The sudden acceleration of technical and economic develo pment that begun in Britain in the second half of the eighteenth century had changed the lives of a large proportion of the population by the nineteenth century. Machinery and manufacturing made possible by technical advances such as the steam engine came to dominate the traditional agrarian economy. Then, why is it called ‘Industrial Revolution’? If it is a ‘revolution’, why did it last nearly a century? Let us define the term and analyse its main features.

3.1.1. Definition.

The concept ‘Industrial Revolution’ has its origins in France (1820) as an attempt to compare the social changes taking place in Britain with those in French society by 1760. Later on, it was coined by Arnold J. Toynbee in his Lectures on the Industrial Revolution in England in the Eighteenth Century (1884), and since then, much has been written on the adequacy of the term regarding the complex process to which it refers. Yet, the term has enjoyed so much popularity that it has been even used to identify other similar events in recent years.

Following Escudero (1988), despite the name of the event, that is, ‘Industrial Revolution’, the term refers to a deep and fast economic change in Great Britain during the period between 1750 and 1850, approximately. Actually, the Industrial Revolution has been defined as the ‘process of change from an agrarian, handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacture’ which meant the most important economic and social transformation of Britain from about 1740 to 1850.

Hence, the deep and fast innovations in technology occurred at a rapid pace when people moved from living and working on farms to working in factories and living in cities, which had both positive and negative effects on people. More, better, and inexpensive goods, transportation, and communication were possible. On the other hand, industry also brought pollution, child labour issues, and crowded cities.

The first developments moved the country from a largely rural population that made its livelihood almost entirely from agriculture to a town-centered society that was increasingly engaged in factory manufacture. Later in the 19th century, similar revolutionary transformations occurred in other European nations, such as France (1790-1800 to 1860-1870) , Germany (1830-

40 to 1870-80), Belgium (1820-30 to 1870-80) and the United States (1830- 40 to 1870- 80). The

main effects were not felt in countries like Russia and Japan (1875-80 to 1914). until the 20th century. In other countries these transformational developments are only now occurring or still lie in the future.

3.1.2. Main features.

The main features involved in the Industrial Revolution were namely economic and were to be felt at social, , technological, and industrial levels. The essence of the industrial Revolution is said to be the substitution of competition for the medieval regulations which had previously

controlled the production and distribution of wealth. On this account it is not only one of the most important facts of English history, but also of the rest of the world. So let us brieflystate the main economic features of the Industrial Revolution following Escudero (1988), so as to focus on its main consequences in next section.

First, new technologies were applied to the production of goods and servic es. We must take into account the move from hand- made work to manufactures, which is a prominent fact regarding the substitution of the factory for the domestic system. As a result, we find changes in

^o^th^{e use of basic materials (iron, steel);}

o the use of new energy sources to produce power (coal, steam engines, electricity, petroleum, combustion engines);

o the mechanical discoveries of the time, namely focused on five great inventions which altered the character of the cotton manufacture: the spinning- jenny, patented by Hargreaves in 1770; the waterframe, invented by Arkwright the year before; Crompton’s mule introduced in 1779, the self-acting mule, first invented by Kelly in 1792, and the power-loom, patented by Cartwright in

1785;

o important developments in transport and communication means (steam locomotive, steamship, cars, aeroplane, telegraph, radio).

Secondly, new production units were progressively developed and marked the difference between old agrarian farm production and hand-made work. The consolidation of farms reduced the number of farmers, while the enclosures drove the labourers off the land, to the city. Therefore, farmers’ work was progressively substituted by manufacture work as well as those old systems such as the putting- out or independent farmer production. Thus, this move made possible

o the provision of food for a larger non-agricultural population;

o and the decline of land as a source of wealth in the face of rising industrial production.

Thirdly, this new production system was extended, in turn, to particular areas in Britain and hence, to national and international markets. Therefore, work productivity increased at a high rate, giving way to a new organization of work known as the ‘factory system’, which implied:

o work specialization regarding specific manufacturing tasks. Hence, farmers were progressively substituted for industrialized machinery and systematized workers;

o the division of labour, from which two social classes emerge: capitalists

(employers) and workers (employees);

o the application of science to industry by means of which technology increased the productive rate regarding the mass production of manufactured goods.

Finally, this economic development made the industrial productive rate be higher than the agrarian production. Yet, the production of agrarian goods did continue as well as the production of industrial goods (corn, clothing, ships), although the latter was superior in value to the former. This economic increase became constant since it increased in the following years, despite short blockages and several political crisis.

3.2. Main consequences.

These economic changes brought about important consequences at all levels since they resulted in a wider distribution of wealth. Therefore, the main consequences of the Industrial Revolution are to be found in the (1) political, (2) social, and namely (3) economic background in terms of (a) agriculture, (b) industry and (c) commerce, and also in the (4) technological, (5) cultural and (6) literary background.

3.2.1. Political consequences.

The effect of the industrial revolution was felt on both social and political conditions in various regions, namely in connections between industrialization, labor unions, and movements for political and social reform in England, Western Europe, and the United States. Also, it is namely noticed in the pace and extent of industrialization in Great Britain and the United States in the latter half of the 19th century, and the main changes brought about by the Great Reform bill of 1832. We shall approach in this section how the late Georgian period, under George III’s reign (1738-1820), addressed problems of the industrial revolution.

The reign of British monarchs Charles II to George IV spanned over a century and a half (1660-1830). Each passing of the crown introduced new ideals concerning such issues as the Church, Parliament, and foreign policy. Each monarch also had their own personality that determined how the British Common would interact with their

monarch. These factors combined dictated the making of British history in the Eighteenth Century. Following George III’s accession in 1760, there was a subtle change in policy and, in 1762, peace negotiations were opened in secret. On the continent, although the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) was extremely costly in terms of lives and finance, Britain was seen as a world power. Yet, across the ocean the only real problem by 1770 was America and the revolution that started to take place since the British government attempted to cover its losses by several acts.

As a result, colonial tensions increased and in 1776 an independent state came into existence since American colonies declared their independence as the United States of America. War began in 1775 and was prolonged in 1783, at the King’s insistence, to prevent copycat protests elsewhere. Nearly one century later, many labourers were wanted there after the abolition of slavery somewhat after 1833.

The French revolution in 1789, opened an era of liberal revolution, which slow ly established the right of every citizen to move whenever and wherever he liked. As a result, religious tolerance grew. The idea of one nationality in one country started to develop and caused nationalism. Because of this and other ideologies a new group of political refugees grew and hence, government policy had a large influence on people in Europe now.

Revolutionary winds made the Evangelican fundamentalism re-emerge in Britain, and after 1793, Catholics were allowed to vote but could not sit in Parlia ment. This parlamentary decision intensified the divisions between the Protestant north-east and the rest of the coundry.

Next, for much of the late eighteenth century and early 1800s, the British fleet was involved in actions against the French and Spanish in the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Caribbean under the guidance of Horatio Nelson, who secured British naval dominance. In 1820, George IV succeeded the throne following his father’s death. His reign was marked by a singular outstanding event: the passage of the Catholic Emancipation Act, which he opposed. When he died in 1830, he was succeeded by his brother, William IV (1830-1837), Duke of Clarence.

In 1824, workers joined together to protect themselves against powerful capitalist employers and ask for fair wages and reasonable conditions. This movement favoured the legalisation of the first Trade Unions .

In 1832, William IV secured the passage of the first Reform Bill by agreeing to create new peers to overcome the hostile majority in the House of Lords and to make Parliament a more democratic body. The Reform Act, also known as the

‘Representation of the People Act’, aimed to extend the voting rights and redistribute

Parliamentary seats. As a result, ‘Pocket’ and ‘Rotten’ boroughs were abolished, and seats were redistributed on a more equitable basis in the counties.

Next year, the reformed Parliament stated a legislative accomplishment regarding first, the emancipation of slaves in the British colonies throughout the British Empire , and second, the Factory Act (1833), an effective act regula ting child labour in factories which set the minimum age (9 years), the hours of work (8 hours), and the kind of labour to carry out.

Up to 1836, there was a period of greater political confidence which led to an increasing activity in the trade-unions. It must be borne in mind that the Industrial Revolution was based on the economic doctrine of Free Trade which means that the government should not interfere in the natural processes of trade and industry. This uncontrolled capitalism led to vast social differences.

3.2.2. Social consequences.

Regarding social consequences we can talk about a demographic revolution in this period. The growth of population was due to the improvement of food supplies, better hygiene conditions and a reduction in the mortality rate of epidemics. Population grew very quickly due to a decreased death rate and increased fertility. After 1750 there was more and more subsistence- migration. People did not migrate to earn some extra money, but to make their living. They needed money to buy a piece of land, to pay their taxes and their debts. More and more beggars and wanderers migrated through Europe.

Actually, up to 1837 the main political consequences on social events are closely connected to this move from the country to the towns and the division of labour in the industry market. Thus, the most outstanding consequences are listed as follows:

the emancipation of slaves in British colonies (1833);

the organization of work, commonly known as the division of labour, in the industry market, brought about several changes: a specialization of work with the aim of speeding mass production; hence, workers lived in work houses, usually crowded and dirty, and had to work all day; men and women were separated which involved family separation; the regulation of child labour in factories; and the distinction of two social classes: the rich and the poor, thus the proletarians (also capitalist employers) and the workers (employees).

Hence, we find the term ‘working classes’, which is divided in turn depending on the salary the employee obtained (high-paid, regular, casual, lowest, etc). From the negotiation of workers’s salary, trade unions were established to achieve better wages and conditions of work. These unions (also called Friendly Societies) make us aware of the wide variety of organizations created by working-class peoples in England.

3.2.3. Economic consequences.

3.2.3.1. Agriculture.

Up to 1750 people still lived in the countryside, and between 1750 and 1815, only 7% of the European population lived in cities. Yet, life in the villages changed since agricultural production became more intensive and large scale in order to produce raw materials for the rural industry. As a result, the number of farmers without land grew whereas the number of proletarians continued to grow. The landless farmers did not have the security they had previously when working for a land owning farmer.

Towns with rural industry grew and provided much work. World trade and politics became more influential in the every-day life of the villagers, and as a result, the group of proletarians grew quickly due to downwards social mobility and the fact that proletarians had more children than farmers. One reason was through new farming systems involving the rotation of turnips and clover, although these were part of the general intensification of agricultural production, with more food being produced from the same area of land. Intensity was also increased by land reclamation, especially the draining of the fenlands of eastern England, from the 17th century onwards, when a low- intensity agricultural system based on fishing and fowling was replaced by a high- intensity system based on arable crops. Other examples include the clearing of woodland and the reclamation of upland pastures.

Modern farmers did not hire help for a whole year anymore, but only for the harvest season. Because they now only produced one or two crops, the harvest season was very short as well. The economy needed teams of harvesters that went from town to town. By 1850, the countryside had become very overcrowded, partially because of the rural industry that was located there. Hence Malthus developed a theory on the population growth: too much population growth would lead to disaster and misery.

3.2.3.2. Industry.

Industrialization shaped social class and labor organizations in terms of connections between industrialization and the rise of new types of labor organizations and mobilization. In fact, the nineteenth-literature reveals to a high extent the emergence and conditions of new social classes during the industrial period through relevant literary figures, such as Charles’ Dickens and his works, to be revised in next chapter. In particular, specific conditions for children employed by

19th-century England before and after major legislation passed in 1833, 1842, and 1847; the wide variety of organizations created by working-class peoples in England, Western Europe, and the United States in response to the conditions.

Between 1815 and 1914, an industrial revolution took place. The industries in the cities eventually won the competition with the rural industries. Because of the industrial revolution that took place, urbanisation started in the 19th century. Cities still needed many new people every now and again because of bad sanitary conditions and diseases. We may find several types of cities: cities with textile industry, cities with heavy industry and administrative or commercial cities. Meanwhile, in terms of industrial development, the iron industry had been equally revolutionised by the invention of smelting by pit-coal brought into use between 1740 and 1750, and by the application in 1788 of the steam-engine to blast furnaces. In the eight years which followed this later date, the amount of iron manufactured nearly doubled itself.

3.2.3.3. Trade.

In addition, the industrial revolution also effected transportation and hence, trade. In the nineteeth century bicycles, steamships and trains made it easier for people to move further away. In the twentieth century, the explosion motor further accelerated this process. An ever- growing part of world population became subdued to market economy. A further growth of the factory system took place independent of machinery, and owed its origin to the expansion of trade, an expansion which was itself due to the great advance made at this time in the means of communication.

The canal system was being rapidly developed throughout the country. In 1777 the Grand Trunk canal which connected the Trent and Mersey, was finished; Hull and Liverpool were connected by one canal while another connected them both with Bristol; and in 1792, the Grand Junction canal, 90 miles in length, made a water-way from London through Oxford to the chief midland towns. Some years afterwards, the roads were greatly improved under Telford and Macadam;

between 1818 and 1829 more than a thousand additional miles of turnpike road were constructed; and the next year, 1830, saw the opening of the first railroad.

These improved means of communication caused an extraordinary increase in commerce, and to secure a sufficient supply of goods it became the interest of the merchants to collect weavers around them in great numbers, to get looms together in a workshop, and to give out the warp themselves to the workpeople. To these latter this system meant a change from independence to dependence; at the beginning of the century the report of a committee asserts the essential role of commerce and communication in the expansion of the Industrial Revolution all over Europe and the rest of the world.

3.2.4. Technological consequences.

The main technological consequences were that new technologies were applied to the production of goods and services. We must take into account the move from hand-made work to manufactures, which is a prominent fact regarding the substitution of the factory for the domestic system. As a result, we find the mechanical discoveries of the time, namely focused on four great inventions which altered the character of the cotton manufacture: the spinning- jenny, patented by Hargreaves in 1770; the waterframe, invented by Arkwright the year before; Crompton’s mule introduced in 1779, and the self-acting mule, first invented by Kelly in 1792, but not brought into use till Roberts improved it in 1825. None of these by themselves would have revolutionised the industry, but in 1769 James Watt took out his patent for the steam- engine. Sixteen years later it was applied to the cotton manufacture, and in 1785 Boulton and Watt made an engine for a cotton-mill at Papplewick in Notts, and in the same year Arkwright’s patent expired.

These two facts taken together mark the introduction of the factory system, but the most famous invention of all, and the most fatal to domestic industry, the power-loom, though also patented by Cartwright in 1785, did not come into use for several years, and till the power-loom was introduced the workman was hardly injured. At first, in fact, machinery raised the wages of spinners and weavers owing to the great prosperity it brought to the trade. In fifteen years the cotton trade trebled itself; from 1788 to 1803 has been called its golden age. for, before the power-loom but after the introduction of the mule and other mechanical improvements by which for the first time yarn sufficiently fine for muslin.

The eighteenth-century technological background is namely represented by the scientific developments that took place under royal patronage of the Georgian succession line. During the

course of the eighteenth century, a variety of inventions allowed for greater mechanisation to be applied to the industry and this led in turn to the industrial structure changing to a factory-based system. These inventions were the basis for the increased productivity of the textile industry throughout Britain and this century was to witness the beginnings of an industrial revolution in Britain which was to change the world from 1750 on.

1712 by Thomas Newcomen and developed over the next ninety years by James

Watt and Richard Trevithick.

In 1733, John Kay invented the Flying Shuttle so as to vowe broader pieces of cloth at a quicker rate.

Due to the high cost of horse-drawn road transport, the numerous slow-flowing rivers of England had been the main transport for heavy goods. To increase the capacity of the water system, new canals were designed and built, such as the Bridgewater Canal (1759-61), the Grand Trunk Canal (1766- 77), and the Grand Junction Canal between London and Birmingham (1805).

In 1764, James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny so as to produce more than one thread at a time.

In 1769, Richard Arkwright invented the water frame, which allowed cotton to be spun for the first time).

In 1779, Samuel Compton’s Mule allowed the spinning of finer cloths.

In 1786, Edmund Cartwright’s Power Loom completed the mechanisation of the weaving process.

Throughout the nineteenth century, the British canal network was expanded until the building of the Manchester Ship Canal (in 1894).

Exploitation of new, rich coal and ore reserves kept raw material costs down and the repositioning of factories near these reserves (and near population centres) slowly transferred the balance of political power from the landowner to the industrial capitalist (while creating an urban working class).

3.2.5. Cultural consequences.

The eighteenth-century cultural background is reflected in the following events which we shall classify as follows:

The Calendar reform in England in 1752 was already recognised in Scotland since 1600 on New Year’s Day after a decree from James VI. Because calendrical reform in the sixteenth century had been advocated by the Pope, Protestant England had refused to comply. Only in 1752 were the Gregorian reforms of 1582 fully accepted in Britain (and the American colonies). Consequently, New Year’s Day was decreed to be 1

January and not 25 March and eleven days were removed from the calendar (3-13

September 1752) to ensure that Britain was co-ordinated with most of the rest of

Europe.

Another great cultural event was the foundation of the British Museum on 5 April 1753. The Museum houses a number of important and varied collections, the first of which were donated in the 1750s. The Museum was instituted in 1759 and expanded in 1822 to include the Royal Library, that is, the basis for the collection of the British Library. Now housed in Bloomsbury, the Museum continues to be free to the public and houses the national collection of treasures such as the Elgin Marbles as well as a National Copyright Library at St Pancras.

Another relevant event has to do with overseas exploration and the name of James Cook in the Pacific. As we know, interests in the wider world expanded through the eighteenth century and in 1768, James Cook undertook the first of three voyages to the Pacific, surveying New Zealand, modern Australia, Tahiti and Hawaii. His second voyage (1773) made him the first Britain to reach Antarctica, and his third voyage (1778-1779) led him to discover and name island groups in the South Pacific, such as the Sandwich Islands. Unfortunately, Cook was killed on Hawai on 14 February 1779. Musically, the period started with Handel regularly composing and performing in London and ended with Mendelsson’s Fingal’s Cave likewise being performed to a metropolitan audience. Other works such as Rule Britannia, God save the King and

Auld Lang Syne also date from this period. In 1823, the Royal Academy of Music opened in London.

3.2.6. Literary background.

Regarding the literary background of the eighteenth century, we shall overview how Georgian literature dealt with art, music and a variety of genres throught the century. Thus the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries saw a wide variety of authors who produced a flourishing scholarly and popular works that we still consider ‘classics’, for example, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719), Hume’s Treatise on Human Nature (1739), Johnson’s Dictionary (1755), Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776), Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776). Yet, the turn of the century saw artists such as Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (1811), Scott’s Waverley Novels (1814 onwards), Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and Tennyson’s Lady of Shalot (1832).

According to Alexander (2000:173), “the status of literature is shown by periodicals which carried out essays on civilized neutral topics, including literature itself; by the sums subscribed for editions of Prior and Pope and Johnson’s Dictionary as a monument to English letters; by Gothic fiction where the neo-classicism prevails until mid-century, and art imitates reality. Hence much 18^th-century literature has a polite or aristocratic tone, but its authors were largely middle -class, as were its readers. The art of letters had social prestige, and poets found patrons among the nobility, who also wrote.

Hence we shall approach the Augustan Age in its late period up to the beginning of the

Victorian Age, which has other literary features distinct to the previous Romanticism (1790-

1830s). As stated before, the European War at the close of the eighteenth century saw England and France engaged in open warfare (1793). A reaction was soon felt and stated in the literature of the time by the elder writers of the period (Wordsworth, Coleridge), who held the new era with joy. The industrial revolution also raised unespected developments as well as feelings of disappointment, disillusion, dejection, and despair. A new feeling for nature followed under the relevant figures in poetry.

Then we shall explore the Romantic period, which is characterized by a poetical attitude to nature regarding common phenomena as earth, air and sea, as well as its main literary productions in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century in relation to poetry, drama and prose (including political writing of the period).

3.2.6.1. Poetry.

Regarding poetry, it developed on standard literary forms under the age of the lyric (the Spenserian stanza and the ballad) , which reflected the Romantic spirit of the time in liberal and varied measure. It comprised the exalted passion of Shelley, the meditative simplicity of Wordsworth, the sumptuous descriptions of Keats, and the golden notes of Coleridge. Within descriptive and narrative poems, we find Byron’s early works, Keats’s tales, Coleridge’s supernatural stories, and Scott’s martial and historical romances.

Poetry is characterized by a spirit of revolt where the general tendency is towards simplicity of diction and away from the mannerisms of the eighteenth century, except for Keats who is too fond of golden diction and did not avoid the temptation to be ornate.

3.2.6.2. Drama.

Drama was, however, written as freely as ever, monopolized the activities of the major poets. The comic spirit in drama was in abeyance, but in general there was a poor specimen of the writers’ power. Some examples are Shelley’s Oedipus Tyrannus, or Swellfoot the Tyrant; Wordsworth’s The Borderers and Coleridge’s Remorse.

3.2.6.3. Prose.

We find different types of prose productions, but in general the novel showed in this period the most marked development under the figures of Scott and Jane Austen. So we shall namely mention (1) the novel, (2) literary criticism, (3) periodical literature (political, philosophical), (4) essays (carlyle and Macaulay); and other (5) miscellaneous works which receive scanty notice. In addition, the development of Economic Science in England has four chief landmarks, each connected with the name of four great English economists: first, the publication of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776), in which he investigated the causes of wealth and aimed at the substitution of industrial freedom for a system of restriction; second, Malthus’s Essay on Population (1798), which he directed his inquiries not to the causes of wealth but to the causes of poverty; third, Ricardo’s Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817), and in which Ricardo sought to ascertain the laws of the distribution of wealth; John Stuart Mill’s Principles of Political Economy (1848), in which he asserted that the chief merit of his treatise was how wealth ought to be distributed.

4. MAIN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGES REFLECTED IN THE LITERATURE OF THE TIME: CHARLES DICKENS.

In Chapter 4, we shall provide an overvie w of the main social and political changes which are reflected in the literature of the time through the figure of the Victorian novelist Charles Dickens. In this chapter, we shall deal with our third literary period, that is, from 1837 to 1901 so as to frame Charles Dickens’ literary works in an appropriate social and political context to make him coincide with the late consequences of the Industrial Revolution. So, we shall start by reviewing the (1) political and (2) social background which will prepare the ground for the (3) literary background regarding (a) poetry, (b) drama, and (c) prose, where we finally find the figure of (4) Charles Dickens, in terms of (a) life, (b) style and (c) his main works.

4.1. Political background.

The political background is namely represented by the accession of Queen Victoriato the throne when her uncle, William IV dies in 1837. So Victoria would reign from 1837 to 1901 and would be the longest reigning British monarch. In general terms, during Victoria’s reign, the revolution in industrial practices continued to change British life, bringing about urbanisation, a good communications network and wealth. In addition, Britain became a champion of Free Trade across her massive Empire, and industrialisation and trade were glorified in the Great Exhibitions. Yet, by the turn of the century, Britain’s industrial advantage was being challenged successfully by other nations such as the USA across the ocean and Germany on the continent.

Yet, we shall mention the benchmarks under her rule, since important constitutional changes took place. Thus:

In 1837, the Chartist movement was founded.

In 1838 (May 1), a people’s charter was published and this constituted six demands: a demand for universal manhood suffrage (but not votes for women); secret ballot; annual parliamentary elections; equal electoral districts; the abolition of the property qualification for MPs; and the payment of MPs (to allow working-class representatives to sit in parliament). A public campaign was mounted to back the charter and over

1,250,000 people signed up to its aspirations.

In June 1839 the charter was presented to parliament but was rejected. The Chartist Movement continued to agitate and expand and, although Chartist conferences continued for a further decade, the movement slipped into decline.

In 1840, Victoria married her first cousin, Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha and for the next twenty years they instituted several constitutional changes.

Some of these changes were made in favor of a more constitutiona l monarchy above party faction, which would catch the spirit of the age.

In 1846 the Corn Law Act was passed again (since it was set up in 1815 already as a measure to protect the economic interests of landowners after the Napoleonic Wars). Yet, this kept the price of not only corn but also bread artificially high. Although an Anti-Corn Law League formed to oppose the legislation, it was not until the potato famine in Ireland that repeal was enacted in a belated attempt to alleviate some of the suffering. The repeal marked an end to protectionist policies and can be seen as a major stepping stone in turning Britain into a free trading nation.

Between 1848 and 1875, Parliament passed a series of acts in an attempt to improve sanitary conditions in the thriving urban areas as a result of a growing Sanitary Reform Movement. The act of 1848 (the first of its kind) provided for a Central Board of Health with powers to supervise street cleaning, refuse collection, water supply and sewerage disposal. The later acts passed responsibility to local boards of health and extended their powers to include drainage and sanitation.

In 1850, Parliament passed another Factory Act which restricted all women and young people to no more than ten-and-a-half hours work a day. It must be borne in mind that the previous Factory Acts were passed in 1819 (limiting those aged nine and above to a twelve hour day) and in 1833 (prohibiting the employment of under nines in mills and further restricted the time).

From the 1850s, Britain was the leading industrial power in the world. Superseding the early dominance of textiles, railway, construction, iron- and steel-working soon gave new impetus to the British economy.

Yet, the most outstanding event after 1837 was the Great Exhibition in 1851. This imperial and industrial celebration was held in Hyde Park in London in the specially constructed Crystal Palace. Over 13,000 exhibits were viewed by over 6,200,000 visitors to the exhibition. The profits from the event allowed for the foundation of public works such as the Albert Hall, the Science Museum, the National History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Other important events were the Crimean War between 1854 and 1856, which at first was between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, and later Britain and France were involved.

In 1855, Parliament launched the Limited Liabilities Act, by means of which companies were allowed to limit the liability of their individual investors to the value of their

shares. As a result of the act the risk is credited with being the basis for the increased investment in trade and industry, although most of the evidence for this is apocryphal. Between 1857 and 1858, there was an Indian Mutiny between Indian soldiers (Hindu and Muslim) who opposed their British commanders following a series of insensitive military demands which disrespected traditional beliefs. The mutiny led to the end of East India Company rule in India and its replacement by direct British governmental rule.

In 1867 we find the Second Reform Act, which attempted to redistribute parliamentary seats in a more equitable manner. Reform of the franchise was not the only social change in the Victorian era, but the increased visibility of women in society, as well as a growth in both leisure time and leisure activities (seaside holidays, football, rugby, cricket and golf).

In May 1868, thirty-four union representatives from the north and midlands of England met in Manchester for the first Trades Union Congress. At their second annual meeting a year later, also in Manchester, forty representatives attended – speaking for over a quarter of a million workers.

In 1870 the State launched the Education Act which provided for genuine mass education on a scale not seen before. Elected school boards were permitted to levy money for fees and given powers to enforce attendance of most children below the age of thirteen.

The Third Reform Act took place in 1884 and extended the 1867 concessions from the boroughs to the countryside. Another act a year later redistributed constituencies, giving more representation to urban areas, particularly in London.

In 1893, Keir Hardie founded an Independent Labour Party with the intention of gaining the election of members of the working class to parliament. The Labour Party replaced the Liberal Party as the main party of opposition to the Conservatives over the following decade.

Following the death of Albert in 1861, Victoria had increasingly wit hdrawn from national affairs and criticism of the Queen lessened and she resumed her interest in constitutional and imperial affairs (she was created Empress of India in 1877).

Victoria’s death in January 1901 was an occasion of national mourning.

Finally, to close the century we find the Boer War (1899-1902) which started as Britain attempted to annex the Transvaal Republic in southern Africa. In December 1880, the Boers of the Transvaal revolted against British rule, defeated an imperial force and forced the British government to recognise their independence. Finally, the peace of Vereenig ing in May 1902 annexed the Boer Republics of Transvaal and the Orange

Free State to the British Empire (which, in 1910, became part of the Union of South

Africa).

4.2. Social background.

As stated above, one of the main social features of this period is the urbanisation of the mass population after 1850. In the harvest season, people worked on the countryside and the rest of the time in the cities, which meant that more and more people could not fall back on the countryside. That is when circle migration became chain migration. Cities with textile or heavy- industry attracted labourers, just like commercial and administrative centres. People from all over Europe (after 1861 also from Eastern Europe) and even from other continents moved towards the new industry-centres in England, France and Germany. Revolutions and nationalism also caused migration all over Europe in this period because of the wish to make states with one nationality in them, rulers suppressed minorities and encouraged people from their own nationality to return home.

Another specific social feature which will be reflected in the literature of the time is the standard of living of some members of the labouring population, who began to increase quite quickly between the years 1868 and 1874, and the period between 1880 and 1896. A new social class emerged after 1850, the middle class, which was made up of a fairly small and easily identifiable group: the professionals, businessmen, bankers, and shopkeepers, among others.

Hence, the upper middle class was to be divided into two groups: those working in professional jobs and with a university educational background and those which did not enjoy a university education. The former group refers to the sons of doctors, lawyers, the clergy of the established church, civil servants and administrative posts whereas the second group involves the sons of the owners of agrarian properties, such as cotton mills, shipyards, and farmers among others.

Finally another relevant feature regarding social changes was the role that women played in society through institutions such as charities, churches, local politics, and the arts, especially music. Women’s expectations changed from the idea of breeding children and running the household,to the privilege of studying at universities and colleges at Oxford, Cambridge and London. Yet, the professions remained prohibited for women, but a few succeeded in practising as doctors. As we shall see, all these changes, social and political, will be reflected by Charles Dickens in most of his novels (Great Expectations, Bleak House).

4.3. Literary background.

The Victorian Age includes, as stated before, several changes different in nature and, in this respect, the literary background presents a great variety of aspects. Thus, the literary period is characterized by its morality, which to a great extent is a natural revolt against the grossness of the earlier Regency, and the influence of the Victorian Court. In addition, literary productions are affected by the intellectual developments in science, religion, and politics.

Also, the new education acts of the period made education compulsory, which rapidly produced an enormous reading public. Actually, the cheapening of printing and paper increased the demand for books among which the most popular form was the novel. Finally, we also observe a strong literary interaction between American and European writers (specially in political and philosopical writings). In Britain, the influence of the great German writers was continuous (Carly le, Arnold).

The Victorian literature is characterized by the telling of every detail, as in photography so as to get a real image of the object or person described. The fact may suggest concepts of clarity, precision, and certainty. On the contrary, the disadvantages of being close to the object, and of possessing masses of information about it is the production of copious works. So we notice that this aspect of clarity is reflected in the main literary productions of the period, which are namely divided into three groups: political, philosophical and social so as to reflect the events of the time. But before examining prose in this aspect, let us briefly examine first the other two literary forms: poetry and drama.

4.3.1. Poetry.

The Victorian Age produced literary works of a high quality, but, except in the novel, the amount of actual innovation is by no means great. Actually, the lyrical output is very large and varied, but there is no work worth mentioning since there were many attempts at purely narrative poetry. Despite the efforts to revive the epic, the impulse was not sufficiently strong. Thus, Browning’s Ring and the Book (a psychological epic) and William Morris’ The Earthly Paradise (a return to the old romantic tale).

4.3.2. Drama.

Similarly, there are no drama productions which are worth mentioning since there were no efforts to revive the poetical drama. Of them all, we may highlight Swinburne’s tragedies

(concerned with Mary Queen of Scots), Browning’s earlier plays (before he overdeveloped his style) and Tennyson’s Ulysses and Tithonus.

4.3.3. Prose: the novel.

There is no doubt that the king style in prose was the novel by the middle of the nineteenth century, which is presented with a political, philosophical or social overtone (Thackeray, Dickens, Brontë). Another variety of prose is the short story (namely developed in the next century); the essays, in the treatise-style (Carlyle, Symonds, Pater); the lecture, which became prominent both in England and in America; historical novel, strongly represented by William Stubbs, Edward A. Freeman and Samuel R. Gardiner; and finally, we find the scientific treatise so as to account of the scientific developments of the period (Browne, Burton, Berkeley).

Political writing reflects the political consequences of the industrial revolution in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Britain. Therefore, writers such as Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873), Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) and Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) among others, show, denunciate and value the moral and political affairs which deeply affected society in Britain at that period. Thus, some of their works are respectively, Coningsby: or the New Generation (1844), Sybil: or The Two Nations (1845), dealing with the politics of his day; Richelieu, or the Conspiracy (1839), A Strange Story (1862) and The Coming Race (1871); Phineas Finn (1869) and Phineas Redux (1874), where Trollope makes a satire of the political period; and finally, Carlyle’s The French Revolution (1837) and Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches (1845), in an attempt to criticize Cromwells’ methods.

Philosophical writing is represented by George Eliot (1819-1880), who is actually a woman writing under a pen-name, George Meredith (1828-1909) and Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895). His main works reflect the most outstanding philosophical and moral problems of the period, thus respectively: Eliot’s Adam Bede (1859), an excellent picture of English country life among the humbler classes, Felix Holt the Radical (1866), a critical work on the Reform Bill, and Daniel Deronda (1876), which strongly coloured preoccupation at that period with moral problems and and inexorable realism; Meredith’s Vittoria (1867) which revindicates the spirited handling of the Italian insurrectionary movement and The Egoist (1879), with a moral plot; finally, Huxley’s Man’s Place in Nature (1863), Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews (1870), and American Addresses (1877).

Finally, social writing is represented by:

o William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) , whose works showed a biting humour and the observation of human weaknesses, thus The Book of Snobs (1849), The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon (1844), a picaresque novel, and Vanity Fair (1847-1848), which tells about the fortunes of Becky Sharp to denounce the mournful vision of the vanities of mankind, and The Virginians (1857-

1859).

o The Brontë sisters, Charlotte (1816-1855), Emily (1818- 1878) and Anne (1820-

1849) wrote melodramatic, terror and passionate novels addressing the features of the period in which they lived. Thus, Charlotte’s Jane Eyre (1847), full of countryside details, Shirley (1849) and Villette (1853); Emily’s unique Wuthering Heights (1847) in a description of the wild, desolate moors where the main characters conceive their passions in gigantic proportions , described with a stark realism; finally, Anne’s Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848).

o Wilkie Collins (1824-1889), who was considered to be the most successful of the followers of Dickens, specialized in the mystery novel to which he sometimes added a spice of the supernatural. Thus The Dead Secret (1857), The Woman in White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868) as one of his earliest detective stories.

o Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), who was strongly criticized by his stark pesimism in his writing. Among his most famous works, we highlight Tess of the D’Urbevilles (1891), Poems of the past and present (1901), The dynasts (1903-

1908), and Moments of Vision (1917). He is regarded as one of the first modernists in content, attitude rather than form.

o Finally, among many others not mentioned, Charles Dickens (1812-1870) who showed in all his novels a great interest in Social Reform at his time.

4.4. Charles Dickens (1812-1870).

4.4.1. Life.

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 and he was the son of John and Elizabeth

Dickens. His father was a clerk in the Naval Pay Office who had a poor head for finances, so in

1824 found himself imprisoned for debt. His wife and children, with the exception of Charles, who was put to work at Warren’s Blacking Factory, joined him in the Marshalsea Prison. When the family finances were put at least partly to rights and his father was released, the twelve-year-

old Dickens, already scarred psychologically by the experience, was further wounded by his mother’s insistence that he continue to work at the factory.

His father, however, rescued him from that fate, and between 1824 and 1827 Dickens was a day pupil at a school in London. At fifteen, he found employment as an office boy at an attorney’s, while he studied shorthand at night. His brief stint at the Blacking Factory haunted him all of his life, but the dark secret became a source both of creative energy and of the preoccupation with the themes of alienation and betrayal which would emerge, most notably, in David Copperfield and in Great Expectations.

In 1829 he became a free-lance reporter at Doctor’s Commons Courts, and in 1830 he met and fell in love with Maria Beadnell, the daughter of a banker. By 1832 he had become a very successful shorthand reporter of Parliamentary debates in the House of Commons, and began work as a reporter for a newspaper. In 1833 his relationship with Maria Beadnell ended, probably because her parents did not think him a good match. In the same year his first published story appeared, and was followed, very shortly thereafter, by a number of other stories and sketches. In 1834, still a newspaper reporter, he adopted the soon to be famous pseudonym ‘Boz’. Later in his life both of his parents (and his brothers) were frequently after him for money. In 1835 he met and became engaged to Catherine Hogarth.

The first series of Sketches by Boz was published in 1836, and that same year Dic kens was hired to write short texts to accompany a series of humorous sporting illustrations by Robert Seymour, a popular artist. Seymour committed suicide after the second number, however, and under these peculiar circumstances Dickens altered the initial conception of The Pickwick Papers, which continued in monthly parts through November 1837, and, to everyone’s surprise, it became an enormous popular success.

4.4.2. Style.

Dickens’ novels were so demanded despite the crudity of plot, the unreality of characters and the looseness of style. His novels were also issued in parts, this resulting in much padding and slow work. Yet, his style is characterized by:

Dickens’ interest in social reform, which embody no systematic social or political theory but the evils of his day (boarding schools in Nicholas Nickleby, workhouses in Oliver Twist, the new manufacturing system in Hard Times, the Court of Chancery in Bleak House). His crudest realism showed pictures of poverty rather than political pictures of legislation, but all his novels show his preoccupation with social problems;

His imagination, shown in the multiplicity of characters and situations to create a whole world of people.

His humour and pathos, which gave him the reputation of a good humorist. His humour is not very subtle, but it goes deep, and is free and vivacious in expression. His pathos appeared in the deaths of little children, which he describes in detail (the death of Bill Sikes).

His mannerisms so as to create a characterization of the protagonists in stereotypes: the round character and the flat characters.

His style is not polished nor scholarly, but it is clear, rapid, and workmanlike, as the style of a journalist. He would use cockneyisms, and tiresome circumlocutions. In his deeply pathetic passages, he adopted a lyrical style, a kind of verse-in-prose, that is blank verse slightly disguised.

4.4.3. Works.

After the success of The Pickwick Papers (1836), Dickens embarked on a full-time career as a novelist, producing work of increasing complexity at an incredible rate, although he continued, as well, his journalistic and editorial activities. Yet, before Pickwick was finished, Oliver Twist appeared piecemeal in Bentley’s Miscellany in 1837, and continued in monthly parts until April

1839.

Nicholas Nickleby got underway in 1838, and continued through October 1839, in which year Dickens resigned as editor of Bentley’s Miscellany. The first number of Master Humphrey’s Clock appeared in 1840, but he sensibly abandoned the notion, and the books appeared separately as The Old Curiosity Shop (1840), which was an immense success. Soon he wrote Barnaby Rudge (1841), a historical novel, which continued through November of that year.

In 1842 he embarked on a visit to Canada and the United States in which he advocated international copyright and the abolition of slavery. His American Notes (1842), created a furor in America, but not Martin Chuzzlewit (1843), which was not complimentary to the Americans, and brought him unpopularity in the United States. Next year, he wrote A Christmas Carol (1843), the first of Dickens’s enormously successful Christmas books. Three years later, Dombey and Son (1846) appeared, which was written partly at Lausanne.

In that same year, Dickens and his family toured Italy, and were much abroad, in Italy, Switzerland, and France, until 1847. Dickens returned to London in December 1844, when The Chimes was published, and then went back to Italy, not to return to England until July of 1845.

1845 also brought the debut of Dickens’s amateur theatrical company, which would occupy a great deal of his time from then on. The Cricket and the Hearth , a third Christmas book, was published in December, and his Pictures From Italy appeared in 1846 in the Daily News, a paper which Dickens founded.

In 1847, in Switzerland, Dickens began Dombey and Son (1846), which ran until April 1848. The Battle of Life appeared in December of that year. In 1848 Dickens also wrote an autobiographical fragment, directed and acted in a number of amateur theatricals, and published what would be his last Christmas book, The Haunted Man , in December. Then in 1849 he wrote David Copperfield, which would run through November 1850. In that year, too, Dickens founded and installed himself as editor of the weekly Household Words (1849), which would be succeeded by All the Year Round (1859), edited until his death. 1851 found him at work on Bleak House, which appeared monthly from 1852 until September 1853.

In 1853 he toured Italy with Augustus Egg and Wilkie Collins and gave, upon his return to England, the first of many public readings from his own works. Hard Times began to appear weekly in Household Words in 1854, and continued until August. Dickens’s family spent the summer and the fall in Boulogne. In 1855 they arrived in Paris in October, and Dickens began Little Dorrit, which continued in monthly parts until June 1857. In 1856 Dickens and Wilkie Collins collaborated on a play, The Frozen Deep, and Dickens purchased Gad’s Hill, an estate he had admired since childhood.

In 1859 his London readings continued, and he began a new weekly, All the Year Round. The first installment of A Tale of Two Cities (1859) appeared in the opening number, and the novel continued through November. By 1860, the Dickens family had taken up residence at Gad’s Hill. Dickens, during a period of retrospection, burned many personal letters, and re-read his own David Copperfield, the most autobiographical of his novels, before beginning Great Expectations, which appeared weekly until August 1861.

After producing Our Mutual Friend (1864), his readings continued, in England, Scotland, and Ireland, until at last he collapsed, showing symptoms of mild stroke. Further provincial readings were cancelled, but he began upon The Mystery of Edwin Drood . Then he paid his second visit to America, but did not live to finish his last work, which was appearing in monthly parts when he died as Dickens was in poor health, due largely to consistent overwork.

Dickens’s final public readings took place in London in 1870. He suffered another stroke on June 8 at Gad’s Hill, after a full day’s work on Edwin Drood, and died the next day. He was buried at Westminster Abbey on June 14, and the last episode of the unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood appeared in September.

5. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING.

Literature, and therefore, literary language is one of the most salient aspect of educational activity. In classrooms all kinds of literary language (poetry, drama, novel, prose, periodicals – newspapers, pamphlets-), either spoken or written, is going on for most of the time. Yet, handling literary productions in the past makes relevant the analysis of ‘literature in the Victorian period and, in particular, the rise of one of the most relevant literary forms for students: the novel, as well as periodicals , poems, essays, and so on. Hence it makes sense to examine the historical background of the Industrial Revolution so as to provide a particular period of time with an appropriate context.

Currently, action research groups attempt to bring about change in classroom learning and teaching through a focus on literary production under two premises. First, because they believe learning is an integral aspect of any form of activity and second, because education at all levels must be conceived in terms of literature and history. The basis for these assumptions is to be found in an attempt, through the use of historical events, to develop understanding of students’ shared but diverse social and physical environment.

Learning involves a process of transformation of participation itself which has far reaching implications on the role of the teacher in the teaching- learning relationship. This means that literary productions are an analytic tool and that teachers need to identify the potential contributions and potential limitations of them before we can make good use of the historical events which frame the literary period. So, literature productions may be easily approached by means of the subjects of History, Language and Literature by establishing a paralelism with the Spanish one (age, literature forms, events). Since literature may be approached in linguistic terms, regarding form and function (morphology, lexis, structure, form) and also from a cross- curricular perspective (Sociology, History, English, French, Spanish Language and Literature), Spanish students are expected to know about the history of Britain and its influence in the world.

In addition, one of the objectives of teaching the English language is to provide good models of almost any kind of literary productions for future studies. Following van Ek & Trim (2001), ‘the learners can perform, within the limits of the resources available to them, those writing (and oral) tasks which adult citizens in general may wish, or be called upon, to carry out in their private capacity or as members of the general public’ when dealing with their future regarding personal and professional life.

Moreover, nowadays new technologies may provide a new direction to language teaching as they set more appropriate context for students to experience the target culture. Present-day approaches deal with a communicative competence model in which first, there is an emphasis on significance over form, and secondly, motivation and involvement are enhanced by means of new technologies. Hence literary productions and the history of the period may be approched in terms of films and drama representations in class, among others, and in this case, by means of books (novels : historical, terror, descriptive), paper (essays), among others.

The success partly lies in the way literary works become real to the users. Some of this motivational force is brought about by intervening in authentic communicative events. Otherwise, we have to recreate as much as possible the whole cultural environment in the classroom by means of documentaries, history books, or their family’s stories. This is to be achieved within the framework of the European Council (1998) and, in particular, the Spanish Educational System which establishes a common reference framework for the teaching of foreign languages where students are intended to carry out several communication tasks with specific communicative goals, for instance, how to locate a literary work within a particular historical period.

Analytic interpretation of texts in all genres should become part of every literary student’s basic competence (B.O.E., 2004). There are hidden influences at work beneath the textual surface: these may be sociocult ural, inter and intratextual. The literary student has to discover these, and wherever necessary apply them in further examination. The main aims that our currently educational system focuses on are mostly sociocultural, to facilitate the study of cultural themes, as our students must be aware of their current social reality within the European framework.

6. CONCLUSION.

Since literature reflects the main concerns of a nation at all levels, it is extremely important for students to be aware of the close rela tionship between History and Literature so as to understand the main plot of a novel, short story, or any other form of literary work. In this unit, we have particularly approached the period of the Industrial Revolution as a time of dramatic change. In general terms, it made life improve, but the industrial revolution also proved harmful since pollution increased, working conditions were harmful, and capitalists employed women and young children, making them work long and hard hours. Actually, the industrial revolution was a time for change. For the better, or for the worse.

The aim of this unit is to make the reader be aware of the historical relevance of the industrial revolution which demonstrated the transition from hand tools to machines, and shows the pros and cons of a revolution. Particular attention must be paid to understand the importance and consequences of new technologies (seed drill, crop rotation, stock breeding, three piece iron) in the agricultural revolultion. Also, to establish a link between the improvements in agriculture, population increase, the rise of the textile industry, the enclosure movement, urbanization, and industrialization in the eighteenth-century England.

So Unit 47 has aimed to provide a relevant framework for the literature of eighteenth and nineteenth -century Great Britain in terms of social, economic, political, cultural and technological changes within the period of the Industrial Revolution. , namely by reviewing the main socioeconomic developments, political body, and the main cultural and technological events. In addition, we have analysed the relevance of the rise of the novel in the second half of the century since it marked a hallmark in that century. By approaching the greatest eighteenth – century writers and their works, we have intended to provide a general overview of the Augustan Age and its literary production, which still reflects their prevailing ideologies at present.

We consider worth including a historical background for the eighteenth-century Great Britain since many of its most important events had their explanation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The literary background of the Augustean Age (1714-1790), namely regarding drama, poetry, and prose help us to get an organized scheme of the evolution of these literary form, which are, in turn, a reflection of the main social, economic, cultural, technogical and political events in that period. Hence, figures such as Cromwell, Pope, Johnson or Walpole make us think about turning points in the History of Great Britain, as well as historical events, such as

the execution of Charles I (1649) , the French Revolution (1789) or the Black Death (1665) that lead us to the explanation of literary development.

A general overview of the eighteenth-century Great Britain regarding social, economic and political background, scientific and technological background, and cultural and literary background in Great Britain take us to a close analysis of how literature developed in Augustan Age (1714-1790) and the earlier years of the nineteenth century (1790-1837). We have namely focused on three periods: (a) 1680- 1740, which relates to the Enlightenment, the Age of Pope (1700-c.1750) and the starting point for a profound change in literature mode, the novel. Secondly, the period between 1740 and 1788, which is related to the rise of the novel and the Age of Johnson, also known as the Age of Transition; and the period between 1788 and 1820, which relates to the late eighteenth century and the pre-Romantic period. In each section we have examined the main literary forms: poetry, drama and prose in terms of authors and their works.

Therefore, we shall underline again the relevance of the novel within this period. Following Watt (2001), “the novel is the form of literature which most fully reflects this individualist and innovating reorientation. Previous literature forms had reflected the general tendency of their cultures to make conformity to traditional practice the major test of truth: the plots of classical and Renaissance epic, for example, were based on past history or fable, and the merits of the author’s treatment were judged largely according to a view of literary decorum derived from the accepted models in the genre. This literary traditionalism was first and most fully challenged by the novel, whose primary criterion was truth to individual experience.”

According to Watt (2001) the novel was namely “begun by Defoe, Richardson and Fielding” and adds that “Richardson and Fielding saw themselves as founders of a new kind of writing, and that both viewed their work involving a break with the old-fashioned romances; but neither they nor their contemporaries provide us with the kind of characterization of the new genre that we need”. Yet, the term ‘novel’ was not fully established until the end of the eighteenth century. On the other hand, Watt considers that “Defoe and Richardson are the first great writers in our literature who did not take plots from mythology, history, legend or previous literature.

In this they differ from Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare and Milton, for instance, who, like the writers of Greece and Rome, habitually used tradition plots; and who did so, in the last analysis, because they accepted the general premise of their times”. Therefore, “after Defoe, Richardson and Fielding in their very different ways continued what was to become the novel’s usual

practice, the use of non-traditional plots, either wholly invented or based in part on a contemporary incident” (2001:15)

So far, we have attempted to provide the reader in this presentation with a linguistic, historical and cultural background on the vast amount of literature productions in Augustan Age, and its further developments up to the nineteenth century. This information is relevant for language learners, even 2nd year Bachillerato students, who do not automatically establish similiarities between Brit ish and Spanish literary works. So, learners need to have these associations brought to their attention in cross-curricular settings. As we have seen, understanding how literature genres developed into the ones we know today is important to students, who are expected to be aware of the richness of English literature.

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Alexander, M. 2000. A History of English Literature. Macmi llan Press. London.

B.O.E. 2004. Consejería de Educación y Cultura. Decreto N.º 116/2004, de 23 de enero . Currículo de la

Educación Secundaria Obligatoria en la Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia.

B.O.E. 2004 . Consejería de Educación y Cultura. De creto N.º 117/2004 , de 23 de enero . Currículo de

Bachillerato en la Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia.

Council of Europe (1998) Modern Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. A Common European

Framework of reference.

Escudero, A. 1988. La Revolución Industrial . Anaya.

MacLeod, C. 2001. Inventing the Industrial Revolution. Cambridge University Press.

Overton, M. 1996. Agricultural Revolution in England: The Transformation of the Agrarian Economy

1500–1850. Cambridge University Press.

Sanders, A . 1996. The Short Oxford History of English Literature. Oxford University Press.

Speck, W.A. 1998. Literature and Society in Eighteenth-Century England: Ideology Politics and Culture

1680-1820. Book Reviews.

Thoorens, Léon. 1969. Panorama de las literatura s Daimon: Inglaterra y América del Norte. Gran

Bretaña y Estados Unidos de América. Ediciones Daimon.

Other sources include:

_Microsof_{t (R). 1997. Encyclopedia Encarta. Microsoft Corporation.}

_Columbi_{a Electronic Encyclopedia (The)}_{. 2003. 6}^t^h_ed_{. Columbia University Press.}

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tema 47 inglés secundaria

Topic 47 – The industrial revolution in england; its influence as a model for historical transformation. Social and political changes through the literature of the period. charles dickens

Topic 47 – The industrial revolution in england; its influence as a model for historical transformation. Social and political changes through the literature of the period. charles dickens

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