Academic: Alienation of Classes in Victorian Literature
Haley Floyd
Fatima Ebrahim
LIT - 310
February 19th, 2019
Southern New Hampshire University
Alienation of Classes in “Cry of the Children” and “West London”
During the Victorian era, alienation of the poor was a widespread epidemic brought about by the industrialization of the era, and many fell victim to this plague. Despite the severity of the issue, many remained willfully ignorant of this situation, only making this sudden alienation worse. Because of the severity of the situation and publics lack of either desire to do anything or general lack of knowledge of the subject, a great deal of criticism that came about in relation to the issue of poverty and the alienation of the poor was through literature, as it paved a path that allowed a creative outlet to burrow through this ignorance to make way for change. ----Mathew Arnold’s societal criticism of the abundant abuse and neglect of the poverty stricken during the Victorian Period in “West London” is comparable to Elizabeth Barret Browning’s “The Cry of the Children”, which aims to offer a criticism of the industrial abuse of the labor of poverty stricken children; Browning and Alfred showed a preoccupation when it came to the idea of alienation and used this theme to their advantage to argue its damaging effects on poverty and society’s ability to acknowledge the issue as a whole.
“West London” was a piece written in 1867 by Matthew Arnold in response to the general ignorance of poverty. Laid out against the upper class West London, Arnold portrays a lower class family seeking help in a society in which she sticks out from the crowd, yet somehow remains invisible to those around her due to the nature of her existence. Arnold uses this poem and its ideas as a criticism of the willful ignorance and disregard for the lower classes and the poverty of which they suffer. In similar fashion, “The Cry of the Children” was a poem written by Elizabeth Barret Browning published in 1843 in response to the child labor pandemic that had swept an industrialized London. Specifically, Browning composed this piece in response to the “Report of the children’s Employment Commission” written by Richard Henry Horne, which addressed child labor in the mining and manufacturing industries (The Broadview Anthology of British Literature). This poem takes care to explore a great deal of the suffering of working class children during the Victorian era, detailing their fears, pains, and faith carefully. Browning takes advantage of such factors to lay a foundation on which to argue the horrors of which these children are subjected to in attempts to cease the epidemic. Each poet takes care to thoughtfully explore the issues relating to poverty within their works.
In the poem “West London” Matthew Arnold uses the idea of poverty to offer a bleak look at the class issues dominating Victorian society through the actions and observations of the characters involved. This poem may be short and rather to the point, however, it offers a rather deep and straightforward look into the social issues of the time, especially when it came to the division of classes. In this poem, the narrator presents a scene in which a “tramp” and her children are begging for money. The tramp and her children are described as “…ill, moody, and tongue-tied; / A babe was in her arms, and at her side / A girl; their clothes were rags, their feet were bare.”(2-4). This description is, much like the poem itself, somewhat short, yet highly indicative of the status of the family. This is the first of many indicative issues in the poem relating to poverty. Dressed in rags and suffering for it, this family has the clear appearance of the less fortunate of the city. West London is a part of the city often known for its upper class residence, with a majority of the population bring of the more fortunate class. Because of this, this family acts as somewhat of a representation of those who suffer under these upper class citizens. Initially, one might assume this would mean the tramp might seek aid from the richer folks of the city. However, while begging, the narrator notes that the family only relies on the working class to help them, avoiding the upper classes all together. This action is heavily indicative of the divisions between classes due to the social subtext it presents. One may be able to argue that this representation was part of Arnold’s argument on the ignorance of the poverty issue in the Victorian era. This is all a heavy reference to Arnold’s own beliefs, as
He criticizes 19th-century English politicians for their lack of purpose and their excessive concern with the machinery of society. The English people--and the narrow-minded middle class in particular--lack "sweetness and light," a phrase which Arnold borrowed from Jonathan Swift. England can only be saved by the development of "culture," which for Arnold means the free play of critical intelligence, a willingness to question all authority and to make judgments in a leisurely and disinterested way. (Encyclopedia of World Biography)
In placing the poverty stricken in an area where the wealthy reside while still effectively being ignored is heavy symbolism that argues the severity of the real world’s avoidance on the issue of poverty as a whole. In comparing the two classes present in this poem, Arnold says the following “She will not ask of aliens, but of friends.” (10) It is highly indicative that this tramp singles out working class for her daughter to beg from because, in a way, members of this class understand the plight from which she and her children suffer. Arnold chooses to refer to those that the tramp’s daughter will beg from as “friends” indicative of their sympathetic status and understanding of the situations of those less fortunate. This revolves around the idea that the poor, or poorer, are, in a way, more generous because they know what it is like to have nothing, and show a degree of sympathy because of this as they are “Of sharers in a common human fate.” Arnold also insinuates, through this presentation, that upper classes lack this ability to sympathize with lower classes, making them less willing to distribute charity to those begging for it. Arnold presents the upper class members as being “alien” because of this, residing in a world apart from the poor and poverty stricken. The girl in the poem “let pass with frozen stare,” (8) the wealthy, the condition of her stare indicating just how detached and unfeeling she was towards these people who had alienated her and her community. This paints this particular class as less empathetic or even sympathetic to the issues around them as Arnold criticizes the real world’s lack of response to the issues. Arnold’s allusion to the wealthy as “aliens” not only puts these people on an entirely different plane of existence, but also offers an argument that condemns their willful ignorance upon the issues of poverty under their own noses. This is proven especially true through the use of the phrase “The unknown little from the unknowing great,” (13) as it points out just how ignorant the upper classes were to the issues revolving around poverty. Residing in a wealthy and posh part of the city, the “unknowing great” of the upper class remain unobservant of the “unknown little”, whom they believe to be just that: little in number due to their limited existence within the confines of higher society. However, the “unknown” are, in fact, greater in number because of how unknown they are, populating far more than simply the areas of the city of which the wealthy frequent, and forwarding the idea of society’s ignorance on the issue all together. Arnold’s arguments made through creative process on class divisions in this poem are an important indicator of just how effective literary arguments in creative works can be when it comes to addressing social issues.
Child labor and these children’s alienation from the society from whence they hailed was a very common issue during the Victorian era, and this is exactly what the poem “Cry of the Children” by Elizabeth Barret Browning seeks to address through its portrayal of childlike innocence and suffering in a world where they are considered to be less than human. Written after Browning’s own experience with the cries of children from the coal mines and factories of London, it is not too far to suggest that this poem acts as a criticism of the issue of child labor resulting from an epidemic of poverty, as it has been suggested that “Barrett Browning was immediately provoked into action and determined to use her poetry to publicize the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual damage done to working children by this system,”(Henry) when composing this piece after her encounter. Going further, however, Browning is also able to argue how alienation enabled and remained the primary issue when dealing with the poverty stricken children as they remained exiled from common life and society.
Child labor was an epidemic during the Victorian era, with many poorer children being forced to work long hours with few safety regulations in places like factories and coal mines, taken advantage of for their cheap labor, excessive energy and small size. From the very beginning, these conditions are depicted as horrid and cruel in Browning’s poem as she describes their cries that not even their mothers could put to rest, stating “They are leaning their young heads against their mothers, — And that cannot stop their tears.” (3-4) These children can find no comfort even within the confines of the womb, unable to find peace through the work and conditions they endure. Even further this friction shows these children as alien to the innocence to which children are usually associated with. They are, in a way, secluded from the outside world because of this.
The deplorable conditions within the poem are representative of the real struggles of laborers during the Victorian era. The children’s cries and weeps are all too real in this case, and do in fact reflect cries hears by Browning herself. These cries represent the fear and horrors as something all too real during the Victorian era, but also something that was likely very common in the world as well, given the sheer amount of labor required to work these factories, making them commonplace and almost ignorable in a way as Browning calls out “Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,”(1). It is because of this that Browning likely refers to the listeners as “brothers”, referring to her countrymen as she pleaded for them to listen to their cries as they themselves went u head due to the common place of their cries due to their alienation from a safer and willingly unaware society. The way she speaks specifically of “My” brothers can also be taken as indicative of just how removed these children are from society, as Browning is unable to refer to them as being these children’s “brothers’ or even countrymen in general. It is through this that she begins her begging for others to realize the horrors the children and poverty stricken endure, calling for change. It is not only the cries that show the true representation of the struggles brought on by this labor.
The cries she describes are not for naught, as Browning goes on to describe the sorrowful looks upon the children’s faces. Browning observed that it was only the old that should weep in the line “The old man may weep for his to-morrow,” (15), and that these children should be faced with joy for their lives. However, there is no joy to be had in the situation the children are in, and Browning makes sure to bring this to attention, stating “But the young, young children, O my brothers, / Do you ask them why they stand / Weeping sore before the bosoms of their mothers, / In our happy Fatherland ?” (21-24). Because of the work and conditions they are forced to endure, these children are, in a way, loss of innocence, furthering their alienation from a society where children are considered the essence of innocence. Their seclusion from the children of other classes and being so far removed from the freedoms typically thrust upon them is very telling of just how alien they had become. Forced into the work force at such an early age they have developed the sense of loss one of older age may too feel, further representing just how difficult it had become from these children to be just that. These children are shown to be exhausted because of all this, the work draining them of much of their energy and willpower. Browning explains this sorrow and weakness in such a way to criticize the treatment the children of this poem and those in the real labor force must endure. It is an observation of what poverty and detachment from the rest of safer society has done to these children, and what industrialization has forced on society in order to fill its demands. It is in these attempts she makes pleas for change from factory owners and others in society, lest they drive these children to the “grave-rest” they seek.
Unfortunately, it is suggested that many of these children do in fact meet their grave-rest long before their time. What may be displayed as more unfortunate is how happy some of these children are to go. This is especially true of the girl “Alice” that Browning describes. She speaks of little Alice having passed, yet there was not even room in the pit she had passed in for one to remove her from her place. Browning describes the child’s face in such a way that brings about a sense of happiness and relief to her, stating “Could we see her face, be sure we should not know her, / For the smile has time for growing in her eyes ,— “(47-48) which only further emphasizes how horrible the conditions of these factories were. The children are treated as less than human and something of a source of convenience, further driving them from the society which they are forced to work to support. This indicative of just how far the work force is willing to push children while also addressing their disregard for the consequences of it. It paints a picture of heartless men driving innocence to its literal death as these children are happier to die than to go on living in the conditions to which they have been confined, the children seeking “instead of agony, bitterness and solitude in this world, the Victorian Age’s children want peace and safety of death with the hope of a bit of rest,” (Karakuzu and Sayar). This represents a further criticism by Browning on those who allow this to happen, not only referring to factory and none owners and the genes public, but also the government, who has every power to stop this, but either refuses to acknowledge it, or isn’t willing to change things for the sake of fulfilling the needs of industrialization. Browning also suggest that these children are no longer just that because of what they suffer, and have become less than human to her “brothers”, as they are so far removed from being the children’s “brothers”, continuing to force them from the society in which they dwell. It is easier to see these children gone than it is to help them, as helping them would require owning up to having barred them from the civil world.
Browning ends this poem with a call to action and a criticism of the government, factory owners and her people as a whole, calling “"How long," they say, "how long, O cruel nation, / Will you stand, to move the world, on a child's heart, —. (153-154). She emphasizes that the people have the power to stop this, but simply choose to ignore the issue, continuing to alienate the children to which her society had given life. Their desire to ignore the suffering of others through this poverty and child labor is a deplorable action, and one Browning seeks to stop through this story. She calls on a sense of morality to save the suffering children by forcing her countrymen to realize that they are just they, children rather than a commodity or tool distanced from society. This cruel nation is one that needs change, whether they desire it or not, and Browning does not let them forget this. This poem is a heavy call to actions built from a moral standpoint in defense of the suffering of the poor and the weak, and acts as a representation of the horrors of alienation during the Victorian era. Its thematic representation of this horror calls attention to the situations which many would ignore, acknowledging a truth of Victorian society many refused to acknowledge. It is through this writing that Browning is able to represent a situation too long ignored, addressing the truths of it and “Although this moving appeal seemed to bear no immediate fruit, its noble words probably hastened the Act of Parliament which led to the formation of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children,” (Walker). Through Cry of the Children, Browning ensures that the horrors of poverty and alienation were not infinite’s, and guarantees that these mistakes were not to be forgotten.
In writing “West London” and “The Cry of the Children”, both Arnold and Browning offered bleak looks into the societal segregation of the lower class while effectively condemning the lack of response to issues dealing into poverty. The idea behind their literatures in this case, as with many other cases during this time period, was meant to educate and call to action those around them. This idea is what effectively pulled literature into the real world, as it enabled these writers to call out not just to the people of their time, but also various classes and even era’s to come. In speaking about the systematic issues during the Victorian Era, a great many of them resulting from industrialization, Arnold and Browning brought to light more than just the issues of a singular era. Arnold was able to shed some light and focus upon the alienation of social classes, and Browning managed to bring to attention the suffering of working class children, but their contributions did not simply stop there. Rather, it is stories and writers like these that enable society to criticize itself and take note of the problems within it, while also paving way for future generations to learn, remember, and avoid similar mistakes, or even offer ways to fight against similar mistakes that do occur in the future. In composing “West London” and “The Cry of the Children”, Arnold and Browning were doing far more than criticizing their own period and the actions of an ignorant society, they were offering a critical roadmap for the future, and leaving behind a legacy to help the future avoid past mistakes and guarantee that none of these mistakes would ever be forgotten, much like the poor poverty stricken they focused upon.
Works Cited
Arnold, Matthew. "West London". The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Victorian Era edited by Joseph Black, et al., 2ns ed. Vol 5, Broadview Press, 2017, pp. 471
Browning, Elizabeth B. “The Cry of the Children.” The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, by Tammy Roberts, Broadview, 2011, pp. 135–137.
Henry, Peaches. "The sentimental artistry of Barrett Browning's 'The Cry of the Children'." Victorian Poetry, vol. 49, no. 4, 2011, p. 535+. Literature Resource Center, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A279261941/LitRC?u=nhc_main&sid=LitRC&xid=d37247f3. Accessed 23 Jan. 2019.
Karakuzu, Melih; Sayar, Ozlem. "A Comparative Analysis of the Conditions in the Romantic and Victorian Ages and Their Reflection in the Poemsthe Chimney Sweeper (1789, 1794) by William Blake and the Cry of the Children by Elizabeth Barrett Browning," Cogito: Multidisciplinary Research Journal vol. 8, no. 4 (December 2016): p. 105-109. HeinOnline, https://heinonline-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/cogito8&i=422.
"Matthew Arnold." Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale, 1998. World History in Context, http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/apps/doc/K1631000283/WHIC?u=nhc_main&sid=WHIC&xid=4cb70a6c. Accessed 25 Jan. 2019.
Walker, Janie Roxburgh. "Elizabeth Barrett Browning." Stories of the Victorian Writers, by Janie Roxburgh Walker, translated by Esther Allen and Eliot Weinberger, Cambridge University Press, 1922, p. 53. LitFinder, http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/apps/doc/LTF0000746231WK/GLS?u=nhc_main&sid=GLS&xid=6673d880. Accessed 23 Jan. 2019.
Williamson, Lori. "Sin, Organized Charity and the Poor Law in Victorian England." Victorian Studies, vol. 40, no. 1, 1996, p. 140+. World History in Context, http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/apps/doc/A20403039/WHIC?u=nhc_main&sid=WHIC&xid=0c7a17f4. Accessed 25 Jan. 2019.
