The Water Babies and Victorian Childhood Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6250 words

The Water Babies and Victorian Childhood - set about ExampleAt the outset it is submitted that the diverse nature of Victorian literature highlighted how youngs became a means finished which readers defined their social identity and formed their attitudes to such issues as nationalism, gender differences and the nature of the family (James 2006, p.xi). To this end, the Victorian novel developed as a realist concept.For example, on the one hand, in Oliver Twist, Dickens utilises dramatic irony and chaff within lengthy descriptive sentence paragraphs in order to highlight the situation of many measly homeless children. For example, in the preface to the 1841 edition, Dickens depicts the cold, wet, shelterless, midnight streets of London the exit and frowsy dens, where vice is closely packed and lacks room to turn the haunts of hunger and disease the shabby rages that scarcely hold together where are the leader of these things?The paragraph is comprised of a characteristically long sentence, listing the dire circumstances faced by the children. Moreover, the physical exertion of alliteration and assonance further highlight the predicament of homeless children and the use of words with reference to foul and vice depicts the reality of lost innocence of children. This is further heightened when Dickens reverses the Victorian puritanical blame patronize onto the upper echelons of society by creating a pause followed by the rhetorical question - where are the liking of these things?