Discuss some of the social changes in nineteenth-century Britain which Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens wrote about.

Social changes in 19th century Britain highlighted by Thomas

Hardy:

→ The breaking up of rural communities because of

industrialization. Due to industrialization, peasants who toiled

with their lands were disappearing as large or big farmers

enclosed lands, bought machines and employed labourers to

produce for the market.

→ In his novel ‘Mayor of Casterbridge’, Hardy mourns the loss of

the more personalized world which is being replaced by a more

efficiently managed urban culture.

Social Changes Highlighted by Charles Dickens:

(1) Charles Dickens wrote mainly about the emergence of the

industrial age and it’s effects on society and the common

people.

(2) Growth of factories and expanded cities led to the growth of

business and economy and increased the profits of capitalists.

(3) At the same time workers faced immense problems. Use of

machines resulted in unemployment of ordinary labour; they

became homeless, creating a problem of housing. Pursuit of

profit became the goal of factory owners while the workers

were undervalued and almost lost their identity Human beings

were reduced to being mere instruments of production.