In Sir Thomas Mallory’s The Fair Maid of Astolat the maid is given very little agency as compared to Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem, The Lady of Shallot, which features the lady as having great, almost magical, skills. Tennyson’s poem gives a very different view of the Lady and focuses much more attention on the Lady, differing from Mallory’s work that focuses greatly on the glory of the knights and their significance. I found Tennyson’s poem to give more dignity to the Lady as the tone of her dying from grief in Mallory’s work came across as condescending in the story as it gave very little possibility that the Lady could live independently from her lover. I think that Tennyson’s view on the Lady is influenced by the rise in women’s agency that occurred during the Victorian Era. The contrast between the two works is distinguished by the very different view points the entire situation is described in both pieces.  The aspects of the original Arthurian legend that Tennyson’s poem leaves out greatly impacted the initial comparison I made when I read both works, and the image of the story that I had from reading both works was very different. I think it is also significant that I read Mallory’s work first because I feel that having read the Tennyson piece first would result in a disappointing resolution to the mystery about the Lady that is laid out in The Lady of Shallot.

One aspect of the novel, Oliver Twist, is the fact that he is faced with constant injustices from the moment he is born. At first the fact that Oliver is met with injustice after injustice can seem frustrating as a reader who is waiting for a good outcome to happen to the main character at some point, but further evaluation of Dickens’ motives help lead to the realization that this could have been Dickens’ point that people who begin their lives with wealth, which had passed Oliver by at the fault of the doctor and nurse who aided in his birth, are living at the complete opposite side of the spectrum as compared to those who are born poor orphans, as the doctor and nurse determined Oliver would be. Many of Oliver’s injustices come from social institutions of the time period including the Church and the workhouse welfare system that existed in England in the nineteenth century. The injustice I found to stand out the most was the fact that Oliver would have had a family if his mother was able to identify herself. His family was in fact quite wealthy and could have helped Oliver avoid most all of the tragedy that he experiences during his upbringing. This injustice technically could be blamed on Sally, the nurse who helped deliver Oliver, since she stole the locket from Agnes which was her only chance of being identified. I believe that the actual blame is to be placed on the circumstances that existed in Victorian culture which led Agnes to make the choices that she did, that being choosing to give birth in a workhouse instead of facing the social consequences that came with having a child out of wedlock and the shame that would bring upon her family. 

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.

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.