Examensarbeit aus dem Jahr 2013 im Fachbereich Englisch - Literatur, Werke, Universität Paderborn (Institut für Anglisik/Amerikanistik), Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: When the empty bottles ran short, there were labels to be pasted on full ones, or corks to be fitted to them, or seals to be put upon the corks, or finished bottles to be packed in casks. All this work was my work, and of the boys employed upon it I was one. [] As often as Mick Walker went away in the course of that forenoon, I mingled my tears with the water in which I was washing the bottles, and sobbed as if there were a flaw in my own breast, and it were in danger of bursting. This citation taken from Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield impressively exemplifies a very important aspect of British history and the history of The Industrial Revolution in general. The time which is nowadays mostly associated with great progress, rising productivity rates, mass production and a general advancement in terms of science and technology was to large extends based upon the cheap and disposable manpower of children and young adults who between 1800 and 1850, [] helped make Britains economy the most advanced in the world. As Marjorie Cruickshank puts it in her book Children and Industry child labour was ubiquitous in Victorian England: They [the children] were visible everywhere in the crowded thoroughfares as sweepers, beggars, and pickpockets. They were part of the mass of labourers in the workshops, factories and brickfields. With regard to this estimation the following term-paper will deal with the description of working-class childhoods and child labour in Victorian England as they are presented in Charles Dickens novels David Copperfield and Oliver Twist. How was the life and work of children during the climax of the first phase of the Industrial Revolution like? Which aspects of childhood were Dickens describing in his novels and were his depictions close to reality or did he rather rely on artistic exaggeration? In order to answer these questions the first part of this work will deal with the Victorian perception of childhood in general before it focuses on the portrayals of children and childhood which Dickens has immortalized in his works. There will be a closer look at the perception of childhood during the time in which the novels are taking place, which roughly relates to the first decade of Queen Victorias reign from the late 1830s to the early 1850s. The question is how children were perceived by the Victorians and how the phenomenon of increasing child labour did fit into that particular perception. [...]

1. Introduction2. The Perception of Childhood and Child Labour in Victorian Britain2.1 The Middle-class - A romanticized Idealization2.2 The Working-cass - The economic Factor of Child Labour3. A Comment on Victorian Society - The Representation of Childhood and Child Labour in Charles Dickens' Novels3.1 Oliver Twist3.1.1 Orphans and the Workhouse3.1.2 Apprenticeship and Child Labour3.1.3 Thieves and Prostitutes3.2 David Copperfield3.2.1 Child Labour in Factories3.2.2 Debtor's Prison3.2.3 Fallen Women3.3 Dickens' Critique4. Health and Safety Concerns4.1 Accidents and Dangers at Work4.2 Work related Diseases and long term Effects on Life Expectancy5. Contemporary Perception of Child Labour6. Political Countermeasures against Child Labour6.1 The Fsctories Act of 18447. Conclusion8. List of Literature