I found the tones reflected in the poems “London” by William Blake and “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” by William Wordsworth to both express an awareness of similar conditions in London. What I mean by awareness is that in Blake’s poem, he mentions the the despair and harsh conditions that were present in London during this time period throughout the poem. Wordsworth, in contrast, chose to reflect on a time when everything seemed to be at peace, but I think he maintained the awareness that the day was yet to happen and that it would be filled with the hardship that Blake describes in his poem. 

Blake’s poem dives deep into the struggles of the people in London. In the first stanza he describes the faces of the people he encounters in London with “Marks of weakness, marks of woe.” Furthermore, he mentions the cries and sorrows of several groups of people in London, including the soldiers who he portrayed as suffering at the hands of the Nobility in the lines “…the hapless Soldiers sigh Runs in blood down the palace walls(.)” The final image Blake provides the reader with is of the Harlot, a “prostitute or promiscuous woman” according to dictionary.com, cursing the (assuringly her own) infant in the middle of the night. These images explicitly describe the life that Blake is observing in his experiences throughout London and I think he chose to focus on these negative examples in order to strengthen his critique on London. 

What drew a strong connection to the industrial and urban setting Wordsworth hints towards in his poem was the second quatrain:

The beauty of the morning; silent, bare, 

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie 

Open unto the fields, and to the sky; 

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.  

This seems to be the only section where I felt Wordsworth remotely suggested the crowdedness and population of London, especially in the second line which is a list of industrial marvels. What is different from Blake’s poem would be the context Wordsworth places these items in; the beautiful nature that surrounds and infiltrates London. I found Wordsworth setting this poem in the morning just as the sun is rising to be significant in pointing out that the air was only smokeless because work in the factories had not begun yet. This extends to all of the quietness that Wordsworth describes, as nothing in the day had begun in the London scene he was describing. 

I found the first image of Gustave Dore’s series to be a very revealing cover page as it relates to the themes that appear through out the series of illustrations. “London” is written in a creepy font which in combination with the gloomy, cloudy sky in the background contribute to the ominous tones that come from this image. The man is carrying what appears to be an embellished oar. He is resting on a small boat and is dressed in rags which I thought represented a significant contrast to the thoughtful design of the decorated oar. 

The facial expressions of the man and lion are key to the message I found in this image. The man’s facial expression emits defeat, a falling from power, some anguish, and sorrow. The lion appears to be giving a stern look of disappointment and anger towards the man. I found the lion to have a scornful expression that accounts for the sorrow that appears to be coming from the man’s facial expression. These significances lead up to what I think is one of the most significant aspects of this image which is the setting. The man and the lion are resting under a bridge, assumingely having been cast out of society and what ever position they held in it previously. The lion is a regal icon, and its presence under a bridge represents a long fall from power. Furthermore, the lion appears to be filthy. The metaphor that the lion is the “king of the jungle” seems to be playing an important role in this image as the man has fallen from what ever noble position he previously held and his undignified demeanor resembles that of the dirty lion. 

I think this is a great cover image for the series as the theme of poverty is seen throughout the series. I think Dore was trying to express the troubling social and financial conditions that existed in London during the 19th century, and this image has many things going on to express that.

Lines Composed Upon Westminster Abbey is a classic appraisal of the beauty of London by Wordsworth, but after reading Blake and interpreting Doré’s engravings, it is hard to read this poem separating Wordsworth’s perception from the others.

Wordsworth writes of the beauty, the captivating, the glittering, calming, effects that London has on those who pass by. Wordsworth’s beauty is in the silence of the streets, the sleeping homes, the glittering of the city from the sunlight, the cleanliness free from pollution, and the emptiness in the lack of people. Wordsworth sees the beauty of London as the beauty of the city itself. His imagery gives life to the city, to the sky, to the famous river, but all without referencing the people. Wordsworth claims that the city is what is beautiful and those who have a lively soul can appreciate it for what it is, but the way he does so takes away from those who live in it. Many believe that the people makes a city what it is, make it great, and are the heart of place, but Wordsworth seems to believe the opposite. He chooses to describe London’s beauty from afar, without the interaction of others.

When reading Lines Composed…, he first person narrative places the reader into the narrator’s shoes. The “I” becomes “me” to the reader and the perceptions and emotions of Wordsworth transfer onto the reader. He keeps the pleasant and raising tone within his upbeat iambic pentameter meter and his strict rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA DEDEDE (I believe that at the time this was written majest-ee was pronounced magist-i,  which would make it rhyme with by, lie, etc., but I may be wrong). This meter and rhyme scheme are important in keeping the reader focused in on the praising tone rather than perceiving it as more mocking or sarcastic. In order to keep this strict meter, Wordsworth even goes as far as to contract never as “Ne’er” once to keep the syllable count from going above 5, where never is left alone in several other lines throughout.

I notice in the poem that every line starts with a capital letter and the line breaks mark both the end of the line structurally and sentence-like. There is no enjambment found in Wordsworth’s work. I see this as a way to appeal to a greater variety of readers. Enjambment for me is one of the most confusing poems to read even in modern times where I have had schooling and been exposed to it. I feel as if the tone, meter, and simple structure make for an easier and understandable read to the lower class. It is a means of setting the education level needed to understand this poem to a more basic level to unite the social classes. This is also done by his emotion writing rather than perfectly replicating an image. By this I mean Wordsworth was known for writing about the emotions, feelings, and individual experiences with a scene, rather than describing with such immense detail that one creates a universal image that is applicable across all readers. By Wordsworth praising the city, the home, of all of these social classes while also inspiring emotions such as love and appreciation, he unites all social classes through their love for a common place, leaving a lot of the imagery open to interpretation for each reader.

Through his use of imagery, Wordsworth seems to be presenting an image of London that appeals to tourists, to travelers, locals, and promotes London as the place to be. The poem draws attention towards the city and inspires the reader to seek that same breathtaking beauty and appreciation for London the way Wordsworth does. The reader can picture beauty in the city and picture the morning sun glittering off of ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples, but these specific sites and details are left open to the reader. Not everyone has the same ideals and definitions of beauty. Different classes, countries, cultures, and languages perceive beauty in contrasting ways. By listing beauty in kinds of places, he describes what is there, but lets the reader’s imagination fill in the blanks and the details of what that building should look like in its most beautiful form. This to me creates a more universal story that can appeal to a larger audience. The imagery of the river flowing unrushed, at its own pace is also used as a means of slowing down the reading of the poem. The emptiness, the calmness, the still hearts, and sleeping all have very calming effects as to set a slower, more appreciative pace for taking in both the poem and London.

I can’t help but picture my own experiences and appreciation for the beauty of London while standing on Tower Bridge and Westminster Bridge. It is a stunning city, not in the business and technology like New York, but in the cleanliness, beauty, and classy buildings. After seeing Doré’s sketches I can’t help but imagine what lies in the streets behind what Wordsworth and I have both seen (At vastly different times in London’s history of course). I have always viewed London from the same perspective Wordsworth has. I have walked through the markets, looked at the items without making eye contact with the sellers, I have looked at the city from a distance, from up above in the London Eye, and all that time what reality have I been ignorant to? Was Wordsworth also ignorant to the poverty stricken truth to life in those alleys or did he also see it and choose to ignore it? Wordsworth wrote this poem from the perspective of someone taking a step back to view the city. I believe it very well have been to remind himself of the beauty of London after constant reminders of poverty and homelessness overwhelmed him.

Each of these authors’ stories must be taken with a grain of salt. Each author is motivated to express different realities, different lesson, and different ideals that lead to exaggerations intended to manipulate the reader to see their perspectives. In the case of Lines Composed Upon Westminster Abbey by Wordsworth, his actions are intended to inspire love and admiration for London, England in his readers and he does so by writing a poem that can be equally appreciated and understood by all.

Gustave Doré sketched with beautiful technique, very dramatic depictions of Victorian life in London in his image Houndsditch. His extreme detail, shading, and his unique use of line direction, shade, thickness, and spacing add a lot of depth and realism to the works. This realism adds to the dramatic differences in the classes that are depicted within each image. When I look at this sketch, I see a man of a wealthier class who is walking down an alley looking at what this woman and her children have to sell. He is dressed in a long coat and a top hat while they are all dressed in wrinkled rags and huddled together as if it is cold. The house behind them is falling apart and has cracks in the windows.

The image appears at first glance to be a local market, but when you look closer you see the ignorance of the man towards the women and her kids. He is oblivious to their state, to the possible importance of the things that lie on the table. There is a watering can, a guitar, a large knife, pots and pans, vases, and it appears to be everything that family has. He is looking down at their table as an outsider looking in, but their faces and defeated forms give a lot away. When I look into the mother’s eyes they are fallen, lost, and sad. The girls in the back are huddled together while the girl in the middle looks angry and frustrated.

The composition is focused right in the middle with the center drawing your eye and when it begins to wander from the family, the background reinforces the conclusions drawn from the image pictured. The moos seems to be solemn, devastating, and ignorant depending on which character the viewer tends to focus on. I focus on the mother’s response to the wealthier man near her table. The focus of this image seems to be the ignorance of a man who has never walked in the shoes of another. A devastating truth can be laid out right in front of us, but we will never see the reality as long as we remain naïve and ignorant.

This image reminds me of a mission trip I went on to the Dominican Republic. Along the airports and the shores are tropical beaches and 5-star resorts, but if you go less than a few miles farther into the island, there are devastated, poverty stricken neighborhoods. The ones who work their whole lives to cater to the rich who travel their on vacation, go home at night to a house that can hardly be considered a house at all. These people could never support their families and are forced to sell anything they can get their hands on to these rich foreigners who remain ignorant to the lives these locals live. In the case of the story within this image, they all live in the same country, the same city, the same neighborhoods, and yet they remain ignorant to the reality around them.

William Blake wrote a poem titled “London” and it depicts what a man who walks through London in this era sees, but in his case he chooses to highlight and focus on these aspects of impoverished to remove the veil that lies over reality. Blake writes of weakness, plagues, mentally ill, crying of men, and fear. If the same man in Blake’s poem had been the rich man in Doré’s illustration then the image would have captured sympathy, recognition, and understanding rather than ignorance and pride. The image and poem both highlight the problems in society, the failings, the ignorance, but both take on the task in different ways. While Blake chooses to highlight the reality of the impoverished lives, Doré highlights the reality in the extreme dynamics of the relationship between the upper and lower classes in Victorian England.

The first time I read Pride and Prejudice,by Jane Austen was for this class. I had never even seen the movie with Kiera Knightley before. While reading through the first 30 or so pages some of the story and the names seemed familiar. I have seen Bridgit Jones Diary and from what I can remember, it seems like a more modern time rendition of Jane Austen’s original story. I noticed that Austen uses several themes and repeated concepts that carry on throughout the story, but the themes I noticed most prevalently were ones that related to the title itself: the varying definitions of the word pride and the inability to properly asses another upon the first encounter.

The word pride is used quite often within the novel and very early on too, which is uncommon considering that it is also the title of the book. We are introduced to this theme primarily between the two main characters in the novel. In the first 5 chapters of the story, we meet the Bennetts, more importantly Elizabeth Bennett as well as Mr. Darcy. After their first interaction she perceives him as clever, rude, disagreeable, and proud. She quickly jumps to conclusions about him and speaks with her family and their friends about the disagreeableness, overwhelming pride, and rudeness he showed towards her. In the same chapter, Miss Lucas pointed out that Darcy has every right to be prideful in his social status and wealth. While Elizabeth agreed, she claimed she would have no issue with it had he not embarrassed her and wounded her pride.

There is then an extensive paragraph defining pride and separating its definition from vanity as if to clear up for the readers not only the margins of the meaning of the word, but also to clarify the theme that Austen will carry through the story. We are told that pride is a common failing that everyone experiences and it is one’s own way of seeing themselves In the case of Elizabeth and Darcy it is the way Darcy sees himself that is the problem. Later in chapter 11, vanity and pride are referenced again clarifying that pride is good in certain levels whereas vanity is a weakness. Darcy is prideful, while maybe too much, it is a strong-suit of his. At this point in the story we are influenced to despise Darcy, being influenced by the Bennetts’ feelings as well as the rest of the town. These lines spent defining and clarifying the two words seem to be Austen’s way of speaking directly to the reader through the dialogue of her characters. These lines struggle to fit into conversation through the voices of the characters and read as more of the authoritative voice of the author coming through. It seems to be Austen’s ways of justifying a goodness in Darcy and leaving messages that he isn’t just rude and disagreeable, a means of hinting towards the resolution of the story.

In chapter 34 we get more references to pride in the argument between Darcy and Elizabeth after he proposes. He claims the reason she says no is because he damaged her pride. Darcy believes the real person in the room who is too prideful to listen to reason is Elizabeth. In chapter 41 we hear of a secondary character, Whickham also referencing Darcy’s pride as the one thing that has kept Darcy in the status he is in. Up until this point we have been introduced to pride as a means of making Darcy disagreeable, something that he has taken beyond the levels of what is socially acceptable, and something that he manipulated to maintain the high social status that he has to this day. The scene where we see pride discussed by Darcy himself, he turns the word back against Elizabeth. This scene is important as it gives us a new insight into Elizabeth and raises questions as to the bias and unreliableness of the third person-limited narrator. To this point we have believed that Darcy is the one who has been over prideful, but could it very well be Elizabeth?

We later hear from Darcy’s maid who has been working for him all of her life in chapter 43. She tells a far different story of Mr. Darcy: someone who is falsely accused of being too proud. She claims he is really misunderstood because he behaves differently than the other men in social settings because his personality is more introverted. This comes as quite a shock to the reader, but is reassuring. There is a reason that Darcy is such an intriguing character who is quite liked, even though the characters in the story present him as disagreeable. Also within this chapter, we see the first instance of Darcy overcoming this pride and lack of communication with others. Elizabeth presents a shocking interaction where he approached the Gardiners and was quite agreeable and gave off a good impression. The Gardiners even went on to say that they did not see his foolish pride that everyone has talked so much about and they quite like him, another moment where the characters judged someone off of the first interaction and meet.

This chapter is Austen’s turning point in our perceptions of Darcy. Without this point it would have been too hard to jump to his good natured attempts at resolving the bad reputation of Lydia, reuniting of Jane and Bingley, and his love for Elizabeth. As well as Austen’s turning point, I believe it to also have been Elizabeth’s. This was the start of her acceptance of Darcy’s side of the story, the goodness in him, and the point where she chooses to let down her injured pride that lets her find that she too loves him.

In the final chapters of the novel, the Bennetts as a whole begin to change their opinions and perceptions of Darcy, steering away from that of proud. In chapter 59, Elizabeth herself admits to her father that she was wrong in her estimations of Darcy’s character from the start and that there is no improper pride about him. After hearing Elizabeth’s profession of reasoning, Mr. Bennett turns around. Jane was hurt for a long time over the insult to Elizabeth’s pride that occurred, but upon Elizabeth’s request she moved to accepting Darcy as well. The Gardiners, the Miss Bennetts, and even Mr. Bennett who favors and loves Elizabeth the most, come around to the truth of Darcy’s pride in the end. (Ironically since they were the ones in the beginning who spread the rumors and the gossip of Darcy’s prideful demeanor in the first place.)

The title of the novel Pride and Prejudiceis used by Austen to show the changing dynamics of Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship and speaks to the themes of pride and not judging one based off of first appearances without knowing them. In the start of the novel, Elizabeth perceives Darcy as overly proud and her perceptions move towards a man who has been misunderstood and too harshly judged upon their first meet. Elizabeth herself is wounded in her pride at the start and becomes very prejudice towards Darcy. She is too quick to jump to judgements based off of the first encounter and stories she heard by words of mouth. She later realizes that she shouldn’t have judged a book by its cover, let’s go of her own pride that she didn’t realize that she had, and opens herself up to Darcy. She begins to perceive his pride in a new light and finds justification in her love for him.

Jane Austen has developed a pattern of pride throughout her novel in the theme of being too quick to judge. Yet, there is irony and contradictions in Jane Austen’s message, you may not be able to judge a book (a person) by its cover (the first interaction), yet her own novel Pride and Prejudiceclearly states the primary theme and topic not only as a pattern throughout the novel, but very straightforward right on the cover. In the case of the novel Pride and Prejudicethe reader can accurately judge the book by its cover, but Elizabeth as well as the rest of the characters in the novel have been proven to do so quite inadequately.

Charles Dickens’ “Night Walks” and Elizabeth Banks’ “Campaigns of Curiosity” both represent poverty and the working class in that both authors put themselves on the level of the classes they are speaking about. Dickens leaves his house to experience his version of houselessness, and Banks poses as a housemaid to know more about the working class.

In Dickens’ “Night Walks,” Dickens leaves his house to experience houselessness. He says that he does this because he cannot sleep, and he just wished to get through the night. The result is what he calls an “amateur experience of houselessness,” which led him to “sympathetic relations with people.” He would not have encountered these people if it weren’t for his insomnia, and it was not his direct intent to seek them out and empathize with them. However, he begins to equate himself with them as he goes on his walks, and he consistently uses the word “we” in his descriptions of the houseless. Dickens represents those on the street in some gruesome ways, effectively communicating the impact these people had on him. When Dickens discusses the children in Covent Garden, his descriptions of the children were particularly impactful for me. He says that the children sleep in baskets, fight over food, and are thieves. At the end of the passage, he says “A painful and unnatural result comes of the comparison one is forced to institute between the growth of corruption as displayed in the so much improved and cared for fruits of the earth, and the growth of corruption as displayed in these all uncared for (except inasmuch as ever-hunted) savages.” Any description of a person as a savage definitely comes from a place of privilege, but the passage communicates the idea that the city is failing its children, as they are not cared for, and nobody cares if they are taken care of. I think that the nighttime setting is important because the houseless population comes to life, as Dickens describes. Those in the city who are at home, asleep in their safe beds, are paying no mind to the chaos and havoc going on in the streets surrounding them. The idealized version of the city is swept aside for this realistic representation of the people suffering at the hands of their misfortunes, and Dickens appears to be the only privileged man aware of it – and the only one willing to speak of it.

Elizabeth Banks uses a similar place of privilege in order to speak about the working class in “Campaigns of Curiosity.” She is first made aware of her naivete in the first chapter, when she offers the sewing woman a “better” job. The working woman couldn’t be more offended, and she accuses Banks of trying to take away her independence. Banks recoils, confused as to how a working woman could be considered independent. The whole scene was humorous to me, but I admired the way Banks handled the situation: she tried to understand. She sought out a job that would allow her to be an “ordinary servant.” Once she finds a job, she gets a wake-up call. She did not realize how much work would be involved in being a housemaid, and how unlivable their wages were. Annie tries to teach Elizabeth the ways of the house, but she can’t help but laugh when Elizabeth underestimated the work. On page 29, Annie tells Elizabeth that it’s too bad she “took such a hard place for [her] first time in service!” On the same page, Elizabeth says that she pitied herself for all of the work she had to do. She subjected herself to the pains and struggles of the working class, but she was easily able to evade them as she saw fit. She even has to get food from her own home rather than buying it with her earnings. Her privilege is clear in that scene because she evades the confines of the working class and uses her wealth to benefit her, even though she wanted to experience being in the working class to its fullest. Therefore, she brought her own privilege into her experience, and her experience was biased by her greater wealth than the woman she was emulating. Although her intentions may have been just, her methods were not. However, because her wealth is so clearly juxtaposed by the working class, it makes the struggles of the women all the more clear, and it paints them in a very respectable light.

Both Dickens and Banks take themselves out of their places of privilege in order to understand and speak about those in poverty and the working class. Their understanding, then, is influenced by their own wealth and success, and it shapes how they view the people they speak about. There is a barrier created in each of their pieces that both of the authors must overcome, but I would argue that it gives the reader a more thorough understanding of the wealthy and the poor/working class because of that discrepancy. The reader is able to know the authors’ presuppositions, and the reader is able to see how the author shapes him or herself based on what they find out. In taking themselves out of their privileged places, they are able to communicate the struggles of the poor and of the working class, and they serve as witnesses to their experiences. If it were not for them, the reality of poverty and of the working class may not have been as evidently clear.

Works Cited:

Banks, Elizabeth. Campaigns of Curiosity. F. Tennyson Neely, 1894.

Dickens, Charles. The Uncommercial Traveller.  ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dickens/charles/d54ut/chapter13.html.

In “Composed upon Westminster Bridge”, William Wordsworth claims that the morning view of London while upon the bridge is one of the greatest things that the Earth has to shoe. He states that the “Earth has not anything to show more fair” which makes the claim that this perspective of London in the early morning light is the most amazing thing that the world has to offer. Wordsworth makes note of the way that the morning beauty clothes the entire city making it impossible to not see its wonder unless a person a truly dull with no vision of how amazing the image actually can be to the world. The calm that he experiences at looking upon the morning sun over London is one only due to the silence of the city as the buildings and businesses have yet to awaken and spoil the clear and calming air.

Wordsworth seems to fall into the realm of transcendentalism and the idea that spirituality can be found when a person has the opportunity to walk alone with nature. In the third line, Wordsworth states that the view is “A sight so touching in its majesty”. By using the diction of “majesty” which is often a term used in connection with God, Wordsworth is implying that the sight has a type of spiritual quality to it at this time of day that would be hard for a person to miss, He goes on to make a list of things that are lying silent in the beauty of the morning such as “Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples”. The list contains industrialized and often busy places that bring noise and clutter to the atmosphere when they are in full business. By making note of the silence and clarity that the morning brings to these places, Wordsworth seems to be making a movement against becoming too involved in the capital that people miss the value of the visual.

Throughout the poem, Wordsworth is presenting a picture of London a living entity whose true beauty is found when it first awakens. He personifies the nature within the scene claiming that “The river glideth at his own free will”. By stating the river flows by its will, he is giving life to an image that others might see as just a passage in the bustle of daytime. Wordsworth personifies the river as a way of representing London as more than just the capital enterprise that it might be seen as during business hours. He seems to personify London as a whole by claiming that in the calm and silence “all that mighty heart is lying still”. London is being presented by Wordsworth as a heart, the organ which keeps the body alive, as a way of showing that it is the city that holds the people together and only in the calm of morning can it be still without the bustle of the waking world. Through the use of personification, Wordsworth portrays London as a living city that is most beautiful when it can be silent.

Wordsworth’s poem makes me think about times when I have woken up to watch the sunrise before the majority of the world has awoken for the day. Sometimes I enjoy going for walks and being out in the world before business begins and cars fill the roads because it is very quiet and allows me to see things people miss when they are rushing back and forth to get a job done. “Composed upon Westminster Bridge” really reminds me of being on vacation and just getting to sit on a balcony at the beach to enjoy the waves before it becomes littered with people and beach towels. I think Wordsworth’s poem makes an important claim about the need to enjoy a city before it is fully awake.

The work of John Thomson and Adolphe Smith really struck me, and the photographs had a particularly lasting effect on me. Thomson’s photograph “The Crawlers” was the first image that stuck out to me when I was viewing the group as a whole. Upon closer inspection, there’s so much to unpack in it. First and foremost, the woman is at the center of the photograph, and it is well composed to make her the focus. She does not face the camera, but rather she looks down at the ground as the photo is taken. She appears exhausted, leaning up against the wall to rest her head. As she sits on the stoop, she is holding a baby in her lap. At first glance, it appears as if the baby is covered with its own blanket; actually, the woman is covering the baby with her shawl, protecting the child and herself at the same time. The focus of the image is blurred behind the woman, which heightens her prominence and brings her to the forefront even more. The leading lines in the door and on the wall also direct the focus to the woman’s face, which is arguably the most important part of this image; she is wrinkled, worn, and exhausted, clearly at odds with her situation. While the baby is an important part of this image as well, the child is out of focus, its face overexposed. The photograph is also angled down to the woman, and it was clearly taken when Thomson was standing up. The angle makes the woman seem even smaller and, coupled with her sitting position, it makes her appear all the more weak.

I’d like to compare “The Crawlers” with one of Gustave Dore’s illustrations, which communicates a similar idea. Dore’s image “Orange Court – Drury Lane” depicts a much more chaotic scene. The illustration itself is very thin, and it depicts a narrow street that appears to be even narrower as it continues to the back of the image. Several people line the walls of the street; men, women, and children alike are all crowded together. There are several men in top hats, and many of the women have their heads covered, but the children do not appear to be as protected from the elements. On the left side of the image, there is a man working at some sort of a device. An elderly woman walking with a cane is at the front of the image. Dead center, however, is a girl who looks young. She is barefoot, and she is carrying a baby who appears to be the same size as her. This girl is separated from the chaos of the people surrounding her, and she has room around her, which makes her all the more prominent. There are other girls around her carrying their own children, but this girl is at the forefront of all of them. There is heavy shading in this image, particularly further up the street, which gives it a somber, nighttime note. While there are many people in the image, many of them appear emotionless as their faces are stagnant. The girl holding the child, however, has a solemn look about her face.

When comparing the images, the first point I noticed is that they both depict women with young children. Both of these women in each of the images are the focal point of the image, and their struggle with their children and their situations is apparent. I was drawn to the expression on the woman’s face in “The Crawlers,” and the same emotion drew me to the girl in the illustration. The girl in the illustration, however, does not communicate her emotions as clearly because she is surrounded by the chaos of the population. She appears to be washed out by everyone else in the image, and I believe that to be the point. I did not notice the girl on first glance, and it was only after a closer viewing that I saw her facial expression. While the woman in the photograph is alone, the girl in the illustration is purposefully surrounded. It makes her all the more vulnerable, as she is likely to be swept up in the chaotic population. The viewer of the illustration has many other people to look at, which can communicate the reality of the situation as well. The woman in the photograph, however, is the only subject, which heightens her situation in a different way: the viewing audience has no choice but to look at her.

I personally found the illustrations to be very exaggerated and overwhelming, and I’m inclined to say the photographs held more truth for me. While it can be argued that truth lies in the fact that the illustrations show more of the situation at hand, and more people experiencing the detriments of it, there’s something about the photograph that resonates with me more. It just feels as if it was a raw moment that would have happened regardless of whether or not someone was there to view it. The illustration, however, feels contrived to me. Maybe that’s just my way of denying the horrible nature of the situation, but this one woman’s struggle in “The Crawlers” resonates with me much more than the scene in “Orange Court – Drury Lane.”

While urbanization and population are not overarching themes in “A Christmas Carol,” their presence in the story as a theme relate it to Dicken’s essay, Night Walks. Urbanization and population do exist as key themes in Night Walks as Dickens reflects on the restlessness of London and its juxtaposition with the quiet and lonely night life of houseless people. I found Night Walks to represent in part a non-fiction version of “A Christmas Carol” when considering the idea of putting yourself into the shoes of a less fortunate person. This seems to occur in Night Walks, just without the influence of a ghost from the main character’s past. 

In the beginning of “A Christmas Carol” when we are first learning about Scrooge, two men looking for donations for the poor solicit Scrooge for money. As the men explain why they are in need of donations, Scrooge inquires about the social institutions that his taxes fund. With these social institutions still existing, prisons and union labor houses, Scrooge explains that this is enough charity for himself. Further, when the men point out the insufferable conditions of those institutions, Scrooge exclaims “If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides— excuse me— I don’t know that.” (Dickens, Kindle Locations 127-128). This exclamation leads us further into the values Scrooge holds especially as they relate to the poverty situation in London during this time period. 

Night Walks provides us with a more interpretive representation of population in London that I thought was particularly expressed in one quote. “The wild moon and clouds were as restless as an evil conscience in a tumbled bed, and the very shadow of the immensity of London seemed to lie oppressively upon the river.” (Dickens). In this, Dickens portrays London with immensity and goes further to describe it as having an oppressive effect on nature, and in that sense, the people who live there. The feeling of immensity is not clearly described as being felt by the speaker, as they still describe their current scene as desolate. 

I think the significance of population in these stories relates to the overall struggles with poverty that were prevalent in nineteenth century London. Scrooge sees these struggles as relating to one’s laziness or lack of skills while keeping a closed mind towards the possibility of one not having control over their economic or social position. I found the contrast between Scrooge in the beginning of “A Christmas Carol” and Dickens in Night Walks to be thought provoking because I began to think about how the differences in these characters could be identified in social and political figures and ideologies today.

Endlessly snarky, a bit insufferable, and utterly genius, Sherlock Holmes is a man known intimately by many British and American readers alike. His legacy has grown to an enormous reach—in fact, with the multitude of successful adaptations like Warner Bros.’ Sherlock Holmes, BBC’s Sherlock, and CBS’s Elementary, you would be hard pressed to find someone that’s never heard of the man at 221B Baker Street. In fact, it is (I believe) a source of pride for Londoners that this man, grown so famous that he seems more historical than fictitious, conducted his best work out of a little flat in their own city. The fact that 221B Baker Street is a real place makes the stories a little more exciting for fans…or maybe that’s just me, but I do hope we get the chance to stop by his doorstep!

Indeed, Sherlock’s residency in London is very important to the stories he exists within. Many aspects of the story rely on the rich, urban setting that London provides. Just one obvious example is that since London is a city, it is filled with many people, meaning that there are many more people physically in one square block of the place than is common in most other towns. This fact means that statistically there will be more criminals, because there are more people; therefore, the cramped spaces also lend themselves to conflict more easily.

We can clearly see how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle formed the plot of  “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” around the bustle of London at Christmastime. Once Holmes and Watson have discovered the incidents leading up to Peterson being left with Henry Baker’s hat and goose, and learn the circumstances under which the Countess of Morcar’s blue carbuncle was stolen from the Hotel Cosmopolitan, all that was left to do was to fill in the details in the middle. Their literal goose chase (clever, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle!) eventually brings them to Covent Garden—a marketplace where it would have been all too easy to blend in without being seen. The true events that occured could potentially have been lost forever at such a place, that is, if the detective were anyone other than Mr. Holmes.

When Holmes and Watson discover James Ryder, head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan, it doesn’t take long for them to discern that they have their man—but what could possibly have been his motive? Or his method? Sherlock sees a working class man and quickly understands his motive:

“Well, the temptation of sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you.”

The method, as Ryder explains, seems to have derived from a great anxiety about traveling through London with the gemstone on his person. Ryder says:

“But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the best detective that ever lived.”

The lengths at which Ryder went to in order to remain undetected with the stone seem absurd to me as a reader, who wonders, “why not just play it cool and blend in with the crowd?” All his plots involving the goose were, of course, all for nothing, as the gemstone never actually makes it into his hands.

Knowing this, and knowing that he will be too scared to try such a trick again, Holmes decides against turning this man in—an act that would certainly ruin his life. This choice aligns with Holmes’ statement early in the story about the crime scene, or lack thereof, in London:

“No, no. No crime. Only one of those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have four million human beings all jostling each other within the space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be presented which may be striking and bizarre without being criminal. We have already had experience of such.”

Holmes is positive that the case will not involve legal crime, which ends up being untrue. He is correct, however, to comment on the increased incidents that occur in such a place as London, as not all being criminal.

Finally, this passage reminded me of something Sherlock has said in another of his stories, “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”:

“It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.“

“You horrify me!”

“But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard’s blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser.”

If anything, I was glad to find that Holmes consistently defends the activities of Londoners as mischievous or troublesome at worst, and according to the above quote, held in check by the ever-present townspeople. His take on the countryside, though particularly dark, is very interesting, because what he says about concealment is actually quote true. Either way, Holmes’ allegiance to London is charming and a reassuring testament that he knows very well the city that he services.

References:

Doyle, Arthur Conan. “Adventure 7: “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”” and “Adventure 12: “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”.” The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Lit2Go Edition. 1892. Web. 17 May, 2018