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CHAPTER IV
ANALYSISAND FINDING
4.1 Exploitation Asthe Impact of Industrial Revolution to the Children.
“The Cry of the Children” is a thirteen part poem which was written by Elizabeth Browning and published in 1843.It was written at the time when
government investigations had exposed the exploitation of children employed in coal mines and factories during industrial revolution. In this chapter, the writer is going to
analyze the impact of Industrial Revolution to the children and what kind of suffering the children underwent during Industrial Revolution depicted in The Cry of The
Children poem.
A text commonly used in college British Literature classes describes the industrial revolution in these terms:
For the great majority of the laboring class the results of the policy of laissez faire were inadequate wages, long hours of work under sordid conditions, and the
large- scale employment of women and children for task which destroy body and soul. Reports from investigating committees on coal mines found male and female
children or even five years of age harnesses to heavy coal-sledges which they dragged crawling on their hands and knees. . . Norton Anthology, page 3
It was in England that the Industrial revolution first booming. The English were the first and for many decades the only people in the world experienced the
material benefits and social cost of industrialization. The Industrial Revolution was an era where machines with advanced technology that can help human works found.
Work that was formerly done manually by human, replaced by machines. This, led to
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the development of industrial areas where factories and mining areas emerging. Massive urbanization took place in UK. The inhabitants of the village,the farmers
moved to cities in the hope of obtaining a better life.
Some families migrated to industrialized cities; they wanted to have jobs because most of them were living in poverty in country sides. So each member of the
family has to work. They live in cheap and small houses or rooms or in tenements without bathrooms and other facilities. Those were such unhealthy houses.It was an
extreme poverty where everyone needed to work to survive. Indeed, even children went to work as the negative effect that Industrial Revolution had. The main reason
was that industries needed the cheapest workers so those workers were children who were paid less than adults men, even women. Children had capability to do some
works that no one could do so; they were working from 4 or 5 years and so on. Therefore, families’ need more support from children. The workers have to work
hard all day long, doing heavy jobs and risky, but they do not get reward accordingly.
During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Great Britain became the first country to industrialize. It was also the first country where the nature
of children’s work changed so dramatically that child labor becomes a social problem and a political issue.Children as young as six years old during the industrial
revolution worked for hours for little or no pay. Children sometimes worked up to 19 hours a day, with a one-hour total break. This was a little bit on the extreme, but it
was not common for children who worked in factories to work 12-14 hours with the same minimal breaks. The children were forced to do the work of adults who were
risky, but they were only paid 10-20 of the adult wage. Therefore, there are more
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children who work as laborers to reduce production costs. Children were forced to work lifting heavy loads, working in the factories filled with big machines, and
worked in the coal mines which were very dangerous for them.
Elizabeth exposes this situation through this poem. She wants to tell the readers that the children who are not supposed to work have to work hard in the coal
mining and factories. The children worked underground and drag their burden tiring through the coal dark; they also drove the wheels of iron in the factory that is so
dangerous for the people especially for children. As seen in line below:
For, all day, we drag our burden tiring, Through the coal-dark, underground —
Or, all day, we drive the wheels of iron In the factories, round and round
Stanza VI; line 9-12
In her poem, Elizabeth symbolized England as “the country of free”. The country where the people should live freely and happily but, the fact is really
different. In industrialization era, England was burgeoning rapidly, but the people who want to get benefit from this situation have to face the tragic fact. So many
children suffer because of the avarice of the gold heaper, in this case capitalist. The children suffered because of poverty in their country which was growing
progressively. The children who should be happy were weeping in the playtime of the others.
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They are weeping in the playtime of the others, In the country of the free.
Stanza I; Line 11-12
The industrialization is in accordance with the growth of capitalism in this era. Capitalism is an economic system in which individuals in private did production
activities. In the 18
th
century duringthe industrial revolution many developing capital owners controlling industrial equipment, hiring people to run the machines. The
purpose of the capitalism itself is a cheap production cost and high profit. It can be seen that the exploitation of children during industrialization was caused by
capitalism. The capitalist hired the children to minimize the production cost but still can get high profit, because the children’s wage was so much lower than adult but
the productivity was comparable. This made children were exploited for manufacturing in the early phases of the industrial revolution between 18
th
and 19
th
centuries. In her poem, Elizabeth symbolized the capitalist as “gold heaper”. The people who exploited the children, got a lot of money regardless the suffering
experienced by these children. She mentioned “purple” the color that symbolized nobility, which represent the capitalist. She also mentioned “gold heaper” which
represents the people who get advantage from the children’s suffering. In stanza XIII, Elizabeth expresses the cry of the children that kept asking how long their cruel
nation will stand to move the world on their heart.
How long, they say, how long, O cruel nation, Will you stand, to move the world on a childs heart —
Stifle down with a mailed heel its palpitation, And tread onward to your throne amid the mart
Our blood splashes upward, O gold-heaper, And your purple shows your path
Stanza XIII, line 5-10
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During industrialization people increasingly rarely interact with other people and become individualist. They do not care about the problems which happened at
that time in their society. But, there were people in this time that strongly advocated the use or the abolishment of child labor, or at least the improvement of conditions.
One of them is Elizabeth Browning. She is one of the figures whois against the exploitation of children. She wrote this poem as her critic toward government and
English people who did not care about this big social issue which occurred around them. She symbolized them as “my brother” in this poem. The poet asks all English
people to hear the cry of children. As in line below:
Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, Ere the sorrow comes with years?
They are leaning their young heads against their mothers — And that cannot stop their tears.
Stanza I; line 1-4
4.2 The Suffering that Undergone by the Children
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