background context for acc

summary of dicken’s life

he lived in the victorian era and wrote terrifying descriptions of life in london
he experience prison and poverty in his own childhood as his father was sent to a debters prison ad he was sent to a blacking factory at 11
he found the law didn’t practise what they preached and became a life-long supporter of the poor

key word:

political diatribe = text critises something or someone
allegory = people {characters} representing larger things
context = background information

london in the victorian era

dirty
dark
crowded
pollution
large gaps between the rich and poor
miserable
malnourishment
constricted
disease ridden

what was life like?

there was extreme social inequality between the rich and the poor and those who were poor had to work long, painful hours in factories, mills and docks only to be paid the bare minimum. things were so bad that in 1834 the poor law act was established and workhouses were started which provided food clothes and shelter for those who were in desperate need. although this was seen as a solution to help the poor back to there feet, it was actually the opposite. the workhouses trapped the poor in a never ending cycle as they earned wages while at the workhouses for doing jobs and were told that the owners of the workhouses would look after the money they had earned and then give it to them when they left. however this did not happen and when the people eventually left the workhouses, they ended up back in within a few months. many people would rather die than go to the workhouses due to the horrible conditions they would have to live with.

what was the malthusian theory?

thomas malthus discovered that the amount of food being produced and the population weren’t in sync. as the population increases, the amount of food stayed the same. he concluded that hunger, diseases and death were needed to keep the population down.
dickens was critical of this theory and thought it was cruel and harsh

Knowt