The Intersection of Literature and Social Commentary:

Charles Dickens and Friedrich Engels

by Adina Lopatin

Because of the pervasive nature of 19^th century English poverty, social commentators found that no one literary genre was sufficient to express the depth of socioeconomic inequality in the modern industrial city. Since the first Industrial Revolution (1760-1830), the exponentially increasing demand for cheap, unskilled labor moved the lower classes from small country farms to the crowded city, forming a new urban working class cemented in poverty. The new business opportunities created a new middle class with increasing social mobility. The formation of a new social structure sparked a wave of social commentary. Herbert Spencer developed the theory of Social Darwinism while John Stuart Mill defined utilitarianism. As the inequities of capitalism became apparent, socialism began to gain popularity. Paternalism, the attitude that the lower classes deserve help but are still somewhat inferior, became increasingly prevalent as 19^th century liberalism took form. Because of the extent to which poverty pervaded society, novelists could not avoided addressing it. Charles Dickens' Hard Times focused on industrial poverty. At the same time, social commentators aiming to educate the public about the poverty around them used literary approaches to allow their works to have a wider scope. Friedrich Engels' The Condition of the Working Class in England was a social study enriched by literary devices that made it accessible to a broader audience. Modern poverty was so troubling in its extent and so unsettling in its novelty that both fiction writers and social commentators were compelled to reach beyond their disciplines to fully address the complex modern inequities.