Question

Discuss some of the social changes in nineteenth-century Britain which Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens wrote about.

Answer 1

Social changes in 19th century Britain highlighted by Thomas Hardy:

• The breaking up of rural communities because of industrialization. Due to industrialization, peasants who toiled with their lands were disappearing as large or big farmers enclosed lands, bought machines and employed labourers to produce for the market.
• In his novel ‘Mayor of Casterbridge’, Hardy mourns the loss of the more personalized world which is being replaced by a more efficiently managed urban culture.

Social Changes Highlighted by Charles Dickens:

Charles Dickens wrote mainly about the emergence of the industrial age and it’s effects on society and the common people.

• The growth of factories and expanded cities led to the growth of business and economy and increased the profits of capitalists.
• At the same time workers faced immense problems. Use of machines resulted in unemployment of ordinary labour; they became homeless, creating a problem of housing. Pursuit of profit became the goal of factory owners while the workers were undervalued and almost lost their identity Human beings were reduced to being mere instruments of production.