Poverty in Victorian England
Subject: Poverty
in Victorian England
Subtopics:
The causes of poverty:
population increases, class distinctions, lack of education, labor supply and
demand; Industrial Revolution and its impact on the working poor; child labor
and exploitation; Charles Dickens as a model for poverty-rights advocacy
Research Question(s): What caused the vast disparity between the exorbitantly wealthy and the pitifully poor in Victorian England? How did the progression of society and its laws exacerbate or mitigate this disparity?
Relevance: Poverty is a central and permeating theme throughout Oliver Twist. Oliver’s struggle with poverty is a central to his story; without it, the poignant encounters of charity and goodness he experiences would be lost. Dickens uses poverty to both highlight the positive aspects of Victorian life in this way as well as expose the negative underside of Victorian society.
Research Plan: I will begin my research by establishing the factual basis of poverty during the period. Once I’ve set out the numerical and quantifiable basics of the subject, I’ll expand my focus to sociological and anthropological issues. I’ll use Internet sites and databases (such as Victorian Web) to find essays, articles and spreadsheets relating to my topic. Surely the library has a collection of books or other reference materials that will help shed light on the broad topic as well as the specifics of my subject. If not, I may use the inter-library loan to acquire some appropriate texts. I expect an abundance of illustrations and visual representations of poverty and its difficulties to survive the period; they should be relatively simple to find via Internet or encyclopedia/reference text. Furthermore, I imagine the suffering and emotional turmoil caused by poverty to have motivated other artistic expression such as poetry.
Questions/Concerns: Perhaps this topic might be difficult to narrow down. How do I choose on what I should focus? Also, how should I incorporate all of the relevant information I gather into my paper (eg. illustrations, poetry, ect.)?
Research Question(s): What caused the vast disparity between the exorbitantly wealthy and the pitifully poor in Victorian England? How did the progression of society and its laws exacerbate or mitigate this disparity?
Relevance: Poverty is a central and permeating theme throughout Oliver Twist. Oliver’s struggle with poverty is a central to his story; without it, the poignant encounters of charity and goodness he experiences would be lost. Dickens uses poverty to both highlight the positive aspects of Victorian life in this way as well as expose the negative underside of Victorian society.
Research Plan: I will begin my research by establishing the factual basis of poverty during the period. Once I’ve set out the numerical and quantifiable basics of the subject, I’ll expand my focus to sociological and anthropological issues. I’ll use Internet sites and databases (such as Victorian Web) to find essays, articles and spreadsheets relating to my topic. Surely the library has a collection of books or other reference materials that will help shed light on the broad topic as well as the specifics of my subject. If not, I may use the inter-library loan to acquire some appropriate texts. I expect an abundance of illustrations and visual representations of poverty and its difficulties to survive the period; they should be relatively simple to find via Internet or encyclopedia/reference text. Furthermore, I imagine the suffering and emotional turmoil caused by poverty to have motivated other artistic expression such as poetry.
Questions/Concerns: Perhaps this topic might be difficult to narrow down. How do I choose on what I should focus? Also, how should I incorporate all of the relevant information I gather into my paper (eg. illustrations, poetry, ect.)?
