10
The Victorian Age was a very ambiguous time with great prosperity and terrible poverty
going side by side. This ambiguity also becomes apparent in the perception of children and
childhood. On the one hand children were estimated as immensely important and childhood
was a heavily idealized and romanticized time children were seen as sweet, little angels who
were entirely good and innocent since they weren't corrupted by the cruel world yet. Herbert
Tucker even calls it an `obsession' when he says that `never before had childhood became an
obsession within the culture at large yet in this case `obsession' is not too strong a word.'
9
But on the other hand, despite this obsession with children, the child mortality rate, especially
in poorer districts of great cities, was appallingly high
10
and child labour was a regular
occurrence `in a society in which child labor provided an opportunity for additional income
for hard-pressed families and capital advantage for eager employers.'
11
Although children had
already been working before the rise of the Industrial Revolution, during `the early part of the
nineteenth century, child labour became to be used on a scale it had never been used on
before'
12
, mainly for the simple reason that steam power and new machinery allowed children
to take over work that had previously required the strength of grown men. `The Industrial
Revolution heralded in a change of form of child labour'
13
because it opened new ways to
employ children in sectors which formerly had been virtually out of limits for a child's work
capacity.
Taking all these facts into account it is an interesting observation that the children of the
middle and upper-classes were adored and idolized while their poor fellows were exploited
and neglected by the same society that claimed to love children above all else. It is a fact that
`
the quality of daily life in Victorian England rested upon the underlying structure determined
by social class.
'
14
Class differences were a substantial factor of the Victorian society and
unsurprisingly the grave differences between the classes led to different and distinctive views
on ethics, work, domesticity and children in general. How much these views and perceptions
differed will be pointed out in the following two sections.
10The Victorian Age was a very ambiguous time with great prosperity and terrible povertygoing side by side. This ambiguity also becomes apparent in the perception of children andchildhood. On the one hand children were estimated as immensely important and childhoodwas a heavily idealized and romanticized time children were seen as sweet, little angels whowere entirely good and innocent since they weren't corrupted by the cruel world yet. HerbertTucker even calls it an `obsession' when he says that `never before had childhood became anobsession within the culture at large yet in this case `obsession' is not too strong a word.'9But on the other hand, despite this obsession with children, the child mortality rate, especiallyin poorer districts of great cities, was appallingly high10and child labour was a regularoccurrence `in a society in which child labor provided an opportunity for additional incomefor hard-pressed families and capital advantage for eager employers.'11Although children hadalready been working before the rise of the Industrial Revolution, during `the early part of thenineteenth century, child labour became to be used on a scale it had never been used onbefore'12, mainly for the simple reason that steam power and new machinery allowed childrento take over work that had previously required the strength of grown men. `The IndustrialRevolution heralded in a change of form of child labour'13เนื่องจากมันเปิดวิธีการใหม่ ๆจ้างเด็กในภาคซึ่งเดิม ได้แทบไม่จำกัดสำหรับการทำงานของเด็กกำลังการผลิตคำนึงถึงข้อเท็จจริงเหล่านี้เป็นการสังเกตที่น่าสนใจที่คนกลางและชนชั้นสูงที่เคารพ และยกย่องในขณะที่ fellows ของพวกเขายากจนไม่สามารถและที่ถูกละเลยสังคมเดียวกันที่อ้างว่า รักลูกเหนือสิ่งอื่น มันเป็นความจริงที่`คุณภาพของชีวิตประจำวันในอังกฤษวิคตอเรียนที่คัดสรรตามโครงสร้างพื้นฐานที่กำหนดโดยชนชั้น'14ระดับความแตกต่างได้พบปัจจัยของสังคมวิคตอเรียน และประกอบจนข้อแตกต่างระหว่างชนชั้นที่นำไปสู่มุมมองที่แตกต่าง และโดดเด่นจริยธรรม งาน domesticity และเด็กทั่วไป มุมมองและแนวนี้เท่าไรแตกต่างจะชี้ออกในสองส่วนต่อไปนี้
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