Entertainment during the Industrial Revolution

Presented by Jermaine Conyers and Benson Harlan

Overall Class Thesis

The Industrial Revolution, which transformed the global economy during the 18th and 19th centuries, began in England because the government's classical liberal policies enabled capital to be invested in innovative scientific advances which first revolutionized agricultural production and then led to the invention of the steam engine. Investors then financed new applications of steam power that revolutionized the production and transportation of goods at low prices to markets around the world. The Industrial Revolution enabled England to experience rapid growth in the standard of living for everyone and, therefore, represented social progress.

Topic Sentence

Entertainment was used by the Classical Liberals during the Industrial Revolution to please the working class as a break from hard labor, while entertainment was used by authors and poets to insinuate ideas of terrible living conditions and make them unhappy in their acceptable lives.

How we are Proving It

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• Classical Liberal point of view: Charles Dickens was misusing entertainment by giving the commoners ideas through stories to fight for reform that was completely unnecessary. Because of Dickens, the common people were made to think about the negatives of their lives instead of enjoying their free time with sports and other forms of entertainment to work without complaint as well as see Classical Liberal capitalists as villains.

Radical and Classical Liberal Clash

• Organized sports achieved a new primacy.
• First time pornograpghy was produced in a volume capable of satisfying the mass readership.
• New coming of drugs/possession of drugs, for example Opium dens, cocaine and arsenic
• P.T. Barnum’s freak show industry boom.
• Charles Dickens advocating for the Radical Liberals and hitting the hearts of the people.
• Writings would be in newspapers from the new printing press and had hooked endings which “forced” people to come and buy the next day.

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Organized Sports

• In the 19th century there was a British boom of people that learned how to swim.
• Swimming was a rare talent around this time.
• The first international game of cricket was played in 1868
• The Football league was founded in England in 1888

Drugs

• Narcotics were household items during the nineteenth century
• Laudanum, Cocaine, and Arsenic could all be bought at a Pharmacy without prescription
• British farming of opioids was a significant part of the trade with the chinese.
• Everyone of all ages and classes were severely addicted
• “Opium preparations were sold freely in towns and country markets, indeed the consumption of opium was just as popular in the country as it was in urban areas.” (Opium in Victorian Britain, Ellen Castelow)

Opium Smokers in the East End of London

Pornography

• For the first time porn was produced in a volume capable of satisfying the mass readership.
• Lubricious stories like Lady Pokingham or They Do It(1888) were produced all over the country.
• The Pimlico studio of Henry Hayler was the main producer of this material, with 130,248 obscene photographs and 5,000 magic lantern slides.

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Jack the Ripper

• For three months in 1888, fear was in the people of London.
• 5 women were murdered by a man who became known as “Jack the Ripper”
• These murders were gruesome and disgusting, but was all over the newspaper. Jack the Ripper even communicated w the police through messages after his murders.
• Life was also horrible for people around time. .
• People lived in hovels, and the only way to make a living was by criminal means. Some women made money from prostitution and the only outlet was a bottle of gin.

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“At 1.45am. the body of Catherine Eddowes, 43, was found just a few minutes walk away in an alley between Mitre Square and Duke Street (now known as St. James’ Passage). Her body had been ripped open and her throat slashed. Both eyelids had been cut and part of her nose and right ear were cut off. The uterus and left kidney were removed and entrails thrown over the right shoulder.

A trail of blood led the police to a doorway nearby where a message had been chalked. It read, “The Jewes are not the men to be blamed for nothing”. For some inexplicable reason, the head of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Charles Warren ordered it to be rubbed out! So what could have been a valuable clue was destroyed.”

(“The History of Jack the Ripper.” Historic UK, www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Jack-the-Ripper/.)

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“Freak Shows”

• These freak shows really hit mainstream in the 19th century
• P.T. Barnum is the man that really made this popular.
• Helped the economy by paying taxes, issued invoices, and made marketing plans.

Charles Dickens LITERATURE - Charles Dickens

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Charles Dickens

• Dickens used his observation in his books to describe the streets of Victorian London extremely vividly
• Sanitation, disease, dense population, and the suffering of the poor were all shown in his works.
• The Great Stink 1858
• Oliver Twist describes London’s Cattle-Market
• “It was market-morning. The ground was covered, nearly ankle-deep, with filth and mire; a thick steam, perpetually rising from the reeking bodies of the cattle,”
• The market was then moved to the slaughterhouse in 1855 (Oliver Twist, Dickens) (Dicken's London)
• His father was imprisoned for debt and worked in the Warren’s Blacking Factory
• Used his works such as “A Christmas Carol” to show the terrible ways of workhouses
• I help to support the establishments I have mentioned—they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.” Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.” “If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. (A Christmas Carol, DIckens)

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Regent Street

Manchester, England, 1851 The Royal Collection

Conclusion

• Classical Liberals and wealthy Capitalists hoped to use entertainment as a means of distraction for the working class of the industrial revolution to occupy the common people after they left their jobs.
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• Writers such as Charles Dickens combatted the Classical Liberals with subtly biased entertainment via serialized stories which imbedded ideas in the minds of the readers, making them think about the drawbacks of their life and convincing them to advocate for Radical Reform that did not help the economy.
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• Charles Dickens eventually persuaded the working class to institute unproductive reforms that decreased profits.

Works Cited

“Industrialism and Imperialism: The Great Exhibition of 1851.” Mosaic: Sources, web.archive.org/web/20030627045757/college.hmco.com/history/west/mosaic/chapter14/module52.html.

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Sweet, Matthew. “History - British History in Depth: Sex, Drugs and Music Hall.” BBC, BBC, 17 Feb. 2011, www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/pleasure_01.shtml.

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Summerscale, Kate. “Origins of the Detective Hero in Fiction.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 4 Apr. 2008, www.theguardian.com/books/2008/apr/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview29.

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Perdue, David A. “Dicken's London.” The Charles Dickens Page, 1997, charlesdickenspage.com/charles_dickens_london.html.

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Castelow, Ellen. “Opium in Victorian Britain.” Historic UK, www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Opium-in-Victorian-Britain/.

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Life, The School of. “LITERATURE - Charles Dickens.” YouTube, YouTube, 17 June 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9dB9BZWDBU.

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Jaffee, Valerie, and Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist: Charles Dickens. Spark Pub, 2002.

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Dickens, Charles, et al. A Christmas Carol: Charles Dickens. DK Pub., 1997.

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