The 99 percent

Introduction:

“There are some upon this earth of yours who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.”

—The Ghost of Christmas Present

 Charles Dickens is often referred to as “the inventor of Christmas”, having written five Christmas themed novellas and…

Introduction:

D. H. Lawrence's "How Beastly the Bourgeois Is" is a poem that starts with calling the bourgeois beastly, "especially the male of the species" (Lawrence, line 2). He gets straight to the point that he is trying to unpack. Lawrence then proceeds to explain their outer appearance: "Presentable, eminently presentable--" (line 3), "Isn't he handsome?  Isn't he healthy?  Isn't he a fine specimen?" (line 5), and even "God's own image?" (line 7). This sarcasm is provided to the reader's expectation higher…

Introduction

“Want and sickness are too common in many stations of life to deserve more notice than is usually bestowed on the most ordinary vicissitudes of human nature.” -The Stroller’s Tale, Charles Dickens

In this gallery, you will bear witness to some of the horrors that went on behind the scenes for circus performers during the Victorian era. During this time, performers were treated as human commodities that came and went; If the show wasn’t fresh, or it wasn’t travelling somewhere new, then performers were…

Introduction

“If any accident occurs to any of us who are not upon the society, they must be as bad off as I am. If I only had a little nourishment to strengthen me, I could do my work again; but, poor as I am, I can’t get strength to do it.” – The Coal Heavers, Henry Mayhew

 Both Henry Mayhew and Charles Dickens wrote about and interviewed London’s poor and working classes during the Victorian period, to great effect. However, the two men differed greatly in their approaches. Mayhew preferred to take a closer look…

Introduction

“A Christmas Carol begins appropriately enough on the night before Christmas. Dickens starts his tale with the famous line, “Marley was dead: to begin with” (45). With these words, he brings death to the fore, an ironic beginning, considering that death marks the end of life and thus the end to one’s story” (Oshima). Charles Dickens uses many themes in his book “A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas” one of the main aspects being death. One of the key examples being the Ghost of Christmas Future with his whole idea confronting…

Introduction

            The bourgeoisie, contrary to popular belief, is a French term originally meaning “upper and middle classes”; however, the word has seen some misuse as it has transcended languages, not only exclusive to English, wherein it means simply “middle class,” but other languages, as well. Therefore, in my gallery I will refer to the bourgeoisie under the original French denomination, as to remain as semantically correct as possible.

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