An Interpretation on the Victorian Social Classes and How They Shaped Human Beings

Charles Dickens is one of the most esteemed writers of his time, not only exceedingly brilliant in the ways of creating a story with multiple plots and fleshed out characters, but also in regards to his satirical and very real way of expressing views and opinions based on social stigmas that would come out as bold and potentially offensive to his contemporary readers. Dickens' characters are not only a way of defining his observations and sentiments, but when one looks closely at their thoughts and the way they view themselves, it is clearly evident that they are based upon real human beings of this time period. Dickens is known for great works read by people of his time and also still studied and greatly respected today. Looking at the way he shapes and creates characters centered upon their place on the social ladder, it gives the reader a unique look into the Victorian time period.

Dickens' Our Mutual Friend is a book based uniquely on the relationship between a person and the job in which their station has limited them to. Working up the ladder and climbing out of a lower social class was not a common occurrence during this time period. Contemporary readers of the Our Mutual Friend would have found Dickens' observances and opinions of every social class to be at time outrageous as people born into a higher class viewed it as their right and people born into a lower class would assume that their life was their poorly drawn lot. Using a number of examples of the relationships between the characters and their social standing and the way that it shaped them social and psychologically, this paper will shed light on the thoughts of Dickens and the people who lived during this era.

Jesse "Gaffer" Hexam is man who makes his living off the River Thames. Hexam is of a class of people the Henry Mayhew deems the "mud-larks" in his studiously written novel London Labor and London Poor. "Mud-Larks" are a class of people who literally live off the the river collecting just about anything and everything that they can find to make a decent wage to feed themselves. Due to the facts known about the Thames and its contents of sewage and city drainage, this is seen as the lowest and quite simply the most disgusting job to exist. Hexam's view point is made quite clear in his remark to his daughter, "how can you be so thankless to the your best friend Lizzie? The very fire that warmed you when you were a babby, was picked out of the river alongside the coal barges.(O.M.F p.15)" The river is his life and therefore the life of his children. He believes himself to be part of the river. When Hexam's son Charley is sent away by his sister because he has "quite a gift for learning, (O.M.F. p.81)" Hexam is put out, calling his own son an "unnatr'al young beggar" and claiming that his own son believes him to not be good enough. The psychological aspects of Hexam's