Violence in Victorian London : abuse, assault, and murder through the eyes of Charles Dickens

Abstract

In this dissertation, I explore the dark nature of Victorian London through Charles Dickens’s depiction of violence. Queen Victoria’s reign was characterised by all types of violence, and Dickens strives to capture this reality in his novels. I discuss physical, emotional, and psychological violence by looking at four of Dickens’s novels, which are Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The first chapter delves into the emotional and psychological violence inflicted on the downtrodden by discussing abuse. It exposes the cruelty of Victorian workhouses and Dickens’s disapproval of the Poor Law of 1834. It also portrays the horrors of child labour through chimney sweeping, and the villainy of professional thieves, who bribed homeless children into working for them. Moreover, it depicts domestic Victorian norms through the abuse of women, while also highlighting the corruption of the members of middle classes, who abused their prosperous positions to get away with their crimes. The second chapter is dedicated to physical confrontation by depicting the common, yet devastating crime of assault. Dickens gives various motives for which one would resort to physical violence in Victorian London, yet he still does not condone it. The third chapter continues on the same trail of thought, depicting Dickens’s presentation and condemnation of murder. He moves away from contemporary Victorian writers who glorified crime, and portrays murder as the evil deed that it is. The evolution of his portrayal of murder from his early novels to his final ones shows that even though he presents it through characters of different social classes, his attitude towards it does not change. Throughout my dissertation, I emphasise Dickens’s unwavering sympathy for the downtrodden and his relentless condemnation of evil, presenting him as a social reformer disguised as a writer.