In his novel Oliver Twist, Dickens creates the idea of children of unfortunate circumstance as from the time that he was born, Oliver has been forced to endure terrible things not for what he has done but for just being in the place. Since his mother died, Oliver was sent to live at the baby farm becoming a child of circumstance as he was unable to do anything yet for himself so someone else made the choices for him. Oliver was later sent back to the workhouse because he was old enough to go but also because no one had anywhere else for him to go. His mother gave birth to him while he was living in the workhouse and thus, Oliver was ultimately destined to return though not by choice.

At each stage of his life, the people Oliver encountered were cruel to him and attempted to use him for their own gain or reasons. Instead of having a parent to care for him or being old enough to choose what situations he wanted to be in, Oliver is shoved around from place to place being treated as worthless and a product of his environment. Oliver becomes a child of unfortunate circumstance as he is forced to accept the life that those in power over him have given him.

Dickens presents the idea of nature versus nurture as he presents Oliver as being raised in different negative environments yet remaining seemingly innocent. When he is treated cruelly as an apprentice he runs to get away from that situation and also runs when he learns of the pickpockets as to not be a part of that life. However, due to the “nurture” side of his life being a collection of misfortunes, Oliver is still faced with false accusations and treated as a criminal. No matter how hard Oliver tries to stay out of negative situations, unfortunate circumstances and terrible people pull him back down.

Oliver is forced to be a child of circumstance in Oliver Twist as he is denied agency from the time he is a child and raised in cruelty. Although he tried to escape many of the situations that he encountered, Oliver ultimately was always pulled back into the unfortunate lives of those around him. Through Oliver Twist, Dickens essentially depicts the effects of being a child of circumstance but the potential to overcome the problems that are forced upon you if you have the ambition and innocence.

An aspect of the novel that seems important to examine in Pride and Prejudice is the dynamic of the relationships between members of the Bennet family. It seems that the difference in character among the Bennet sisters seems to be due to who they are closer to whether their father or mother. From early on in the novel, it is presented that Mr. Bennet seemed to favor his second daughter, Elizabeth, more than the rest. Elizabeth and her father due to his favor seem to be closer in understanding as Mrs. Bennet and her other sisters seem to be in understanding. I think it can be argued that family dynamic and the connection to one parent or the other can create differing character traits.

Although her sisters are all women and not too separated by age difference, they seem to have a different character as women and how to be a proper woman than Elizabeth. Since Elizabeth spends so much time listening to her father and has grown in understanding being his favorite, she has appeared to develop character traits of her own that reflect Mr. Bennet’s. Unlike her sisters, Elizabeth is more independent and strong willed when it comes to accepting the ideals of womanhood and marriage that are placed on her from the society. Elizabeth places more importance on family and love than the idea of position and marital status just for the sake of prestige. These character traits expressed through Elizabeth seem to me as a product of being close with her father. As a father Mr. Bennet is expected to place importance on his daughters finding proper matches yet as a man he values independence and respect which is often expressed when he stands up for Elizabeth not wanting to choose just any man to marry.

On the opposing side to Elizabeth’s relationship with her father is her sisters’ relationships with their mother. While Mr. Bennet influences Elizabeth’s character through his cynical ideas of society, Mrs. Bennet influences her other daughters into believing that marriage and societal status are the most important things. The sisters being closer to their mother take guidance from her as to how they should act and what they should be. For example, the oldest sister Jane is closer with her mother and thus her character portrays the ideals of a woman in the society as being innocent, beautiful, and polite as that is what is believed will win her a husband. Due to the sisters being closer to their mother than Elizabeth, each of them were more adapted to societal dynamics of womanhood and much more submissive than she was in being closer with their father.

Ultimately, the character of a person is influenced greatly by who they are more closely affiliated with or raised by as seen in Pride and Prejudice. If a daughter is closer with their father as Elizabeth was, often they grow up to be more rough or independent as a father does not have the same understanding of what it is to be a woman. On the other side, if a daughter is closer to their mother they also can learn to be independent but they will also be raised in understanding what it means to be a woman and how they will be looked at by being a woman as a mother would have experienced those things herself. The family dynamic in Pride and Prejudice depicts the way that a person’s character can be affected due to who raised or cared more for them.

Henry Mayhew’s “Watercress Girl” and G.M.W. Reynolds’s Mysteries of London depict the two differing sides of defeating one’s poverty and accumulating wealth which becomes hard work versus theft. Each text makes its own statement in terms of how people choose to create their wealth in a time when poverty is common throughout the area. While Mayhew’s “Watercress Girl” presents an image of working how one can in order to make money, Reynold’s first few chapters of Mysteries of Londonpresent the narrative of taking another’s wealth and claiming it as your own.

Mayhew’s “Watercress Girl” presents a conversation with an eight-year-old little girl about her life in the city of London. The girl tells of the little money that she is able to make by buying cresses and selling them to the people who walk through the streets. She tells of the sharing of spaces with her parents and three siblings and how she must work in order to help out her family. While she describes some days as making a good amount of money, she also recounts how some days she is treated rudely as people want to only pay her what she herself paid to get them. In the tale, Mayhew notes how the girl though so young has the mentality of a woman. “Watercress Girl” shows the effects that poverty in nineteenth century London impacted the family dynamics and the lives of each child. While most children have little more to concern themselves with than what to play, this girl is forced by poverty to stand out on the streets and work attempting to make enough money to help out her family. Through the girl, Mayhew presents poverty in London as a problem that ages those effected forcing them to become a part of the work force that they should not have to experience until a much later age. The tale acts as a commentary towards wealth as it shows that wealth is to be accomplished through hard work and takes time to achieve for all those involved.

Reynolds’sMysteries of London presents a conversation between two men in an uninhabited house where they are hiding the wealth that they accumulate within the walls. These men a seen to be burglars who have only been coming into the wealth through theft against homes and people that they see to be easy targets for one reason or another. Through these men, Reynolds is showing a way in which some individuals chose to fight poverty and develop wealth in nineteenth century London. These men thieve on the vulnerable as a way of making money for themselves that instead of sharing or putting to good use as buying their own house, they choose to hide it away from the rest of the world. This thieving could lead to the potential poverty of those being stolen from and if not used leave the men with nothing as well. Reynolds shows how some chose to steal their wealth instead of working for themselves and finding their way out of poverty.

Mayhew’s “Watercress Girl” and Reynolds’s Mysteries of London present opposing images of the character of individuals within poverty as one side chooses work and the other chooses theft. The age difference between Mayhew’s girl and Reynolds’s two men is substantial yet the mentalities towards wealth could not be more different. While Mayhew depicts the pursuit of wealth and reaching out of poverty as a means to help one’s family, Reynolds shows the pursuit of wealth as purely selfish. Mayhew shows that hard work in the face of poverty creates more value in the wealth that comes out of it while Reynolds’s shows that theft in pursuit of wealth leads to a lack of value in the wealth one possesses as they will always want more. These two tests depict images of poverty and wealth in nineteenth century London through the means in which individuals would choose to live their lives.

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.

In terms of close reading images, there seems to be a lot to dissect when it comes to the photographs of London by John Thomson. Thomson, in his collection Street Life in London, presents images of the jobs and life seen within the streets of London and the lives that these working individuals lived during these working hours. Two images in particular stood out to me as they seemed to represent the darker side of the street life. “The London Boardmen” and “The Crawlers” both depict an unsavory image of life within the London streets when faced with old age or physical inabilities.

The image entitled “The London Boardmen” portrays an older man walking with an advertising sign both on the front of his body and the front of his hat. As a boardman, the older man is acting as a physical advertisement for whatever he is being asked to promote which gives very little compensation. Jobs such as these were left as one of the only options for making a living if a person does not have education or is not physically capable of doing much else except walking. The man within “The London Boardmen” photograph appears to be of significant age, upon inspection could be judged to be within his seventies or eighties. It stands out as significant to notices that he appears to be holding a cane in his left hand that he is using in order to walk. His entire job is to walk around as an advertisement yet he is using a cane and appears to be walking with a lean that might cause discomfort walking around the streets all day. Upon close viewing of the photograph it strikes me the sad expression that the man has on his face. He does not appear to have any enjoyment for the job that he is doing which brings a somber tone to the photograph as I would have hoped that by so late in a person’s life they would be in a place that they are happy.

The image entitled “The Crawlers” portrays an older woman sitting with a baby in her arms on what appears to be a doorstep. The quote describing the content of the image claims that the old woman in the photo was the widow of a tailor and had been living with her daughter and son-in-law but soon left to the streets after much fighting with the family leaving her penniless and in the streets. In the photo, the woman appears tired and worn out leaning her head against the stone wall. Her skirt looks worn and dirty as if she has been too long out on the street without anything. It strikes me as significant the way her body seems to be weary and frail as she leans against the wall seemingly for support as if she has been sitting there for a long period of time. The image seems to portray the impact on older women when they are left with no one to care for them and no means to care for themselves due to old age or lack of knowledge for jobs. Her face is covered in harsh lines and a frown which gives a somber tone as the woman does not appear to be happy nor have been happy in a long time.

In comparison, both “The London Boardmen” and “The Crawlers” by John Thomson depict the effects of a lack of physical ability and personal means on individuals in London once the reach the elder part of their lives. These two images show individuals in the later stages of their lives in which they are seemingly alone and forced to find their own ways to get by in any means necessary in the streets of London. The photographs should be examined together as they each have a very somber mood and force the viewer to see a darker side to the stories or images that might come to one’s mind when they think of London. For myself, personally, these images made me feel very sad for the individuals within them as the elderly where I have grown up have been retired or cared for by their families where they are not expected to continue working passed their ability or treated in an alienated manner. I believe Thomson’s images “The London Boardmen” and “The Crawlers” allow for the darker side of the London streets to be seen.