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Angie Carson wrote a new post on the site Nineteenth-Century Studies 9 years, 4 months ago
Voyant is an internet based tool that analyzes text in a numerical and graphical sense. Though it is fairly simple to use, Voyant offers endless number of ways to analyze one text. In our own analysis of Bleak […]
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Angie Carson commented on the post, Clothing as Distinctions of Social Class: Victorian Secrets, on the site Nineteenth-Century Studies 9 years, 5 months ago
Link citation for umbrella: http://dickensdialog.wikispaces.com/Victorian+Clothing
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Angie Carson wrote a new post on the site Nineteenth-Century Studies 9 years, 6 months ago
Jerry Bowyer wrote the article “Malthus and Scrooge: How Charles Dickens Put A Holly Branch Through The Heart Of The Worst Economics Ever” which examined Malthusian economic theory of Victorian England as seen through the lens of A Christmas Carol. While everything Bowyer mentions is true, we feel it is also important to recognize the religious aspects of Malthus’ theory and how these coincide with his views on population control.
Malthus theorizes that God created poverty so that people will not succumb to greed and help each other out. He thought that starvation was God’s test to see if you were a good moral person: if you are strong enough you will survive, and if not, society should not interfere with God’s will. On the flip side of the coin, it was thought that the upper class’s personal wealth and luxuries reflected their strong religious and moral standing.
An obvious connection of Malthus’ theory is to Darwin’s idea of “survival of the fittest.” Darwin’s Origin of Species was heavily influenced by Malthus’ An Essay on the Principle of Population. The irony of this lies in the Church’s later denunciation of Darwin’s work, despite the fact that its inspiration was drawn from the writings of a reverend.
Looking at his theory objectively, we feel that Malthus’ ideology was derived from the need of a religious explanation for the poor economic conditions of the time. This method not only provided an explanation for the aforementioned social issues, but also absolved the upper class of any responsibility for maintaining the health and safety of the lower classes. For this reason, the upper class was Malthus’ primary source of support. However it is worth noting that Malthus was heavily critical of the Poor Laws, claiming that they limited mobility of labor and provided lower classes with too much comfort. According to Malthus, workhouses were not harsh enough to galvanize the poor to rise above their situation.
Despite Malthus’ generally assoholic nature, he was willing to financially support children of the lower class by means of small allowances. In addition, he also showed great interest in what we now call the Industrial Revolution, however he feared that any technological advancements could not keep up with the increasing population.
Discussion Question: Malthusian economic theory is mentioned and criticized by Dickens in A Christmas Carol through Scrooge’s initial disregard for the fate of the “surplus population.” How does the religious aspect of Malthus’ views (that God created tough situations to test one’s morality) relate to and contrast with Dickens’ views on religion and its role during the Christmas season?Discussion Question: In A Christmas Carol, Dickens creates a narrator who has a certain stance towards or outlook on the world, whose narration projects certain values and a certain disposition towards humanity. The narrator’s purpose in telling the story, one might say, is to promote that stance or outlook, those values, that disposition — and to discredit the very different outlook, values, disposition embodied in Scrooge. What words best characterize these opposing outlooks, values, and dispositions? How are the narrator’s outlook-values-disposition embodied in his narration? How are Scrooge’s embodied in his words and actions?
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Angie Carson commented on the post, The Influence of A Christmas Carol on how Christmas Has Come to be Understood, on the site Nineteenth-Century Studies 9 years, 6 months ago
Group 4: Angie Carson, Erin Duffy, Jacob Trost, Cassandra Ballini, Heather McFarlane
A common belief of the church was that children are born sinners and need to be disciplined and taught proper morality in […]
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Angie Carson commented on the post, Social class and the impact of the poor law, on the site Nineteenth-Century Studies 9 years, 7 months ago
Group 4 Response:
From the standpoint of a writer, Dickens chose to write this novel with the intention of making Oliver a familiar, sympathetic figure who the public would easily recognize. It would be easier […]
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Angie Carson joined the group Nineteenth-Century Studies 9 years, 8 months ago
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Angie Carson wrote a new post on the site Digital Humanities at Geneseo 10 years ago
Recently New York State has passed the Dignity for All Students Act with a goal of addressing the growing problem of bullying in high schools. Part of the plan for eliminating bullying involved a six hour training […]
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Angie Carson replied to the topic Share a tool in the forum Digital Humanities 10 years ago
I have to admit that I don’t use very many tools on my computer other than the basic Microsoft Office, Google Chrome, and the like. My iPhone is also pretty basic however I have recently discovered the Blackboard app. For a while I would try to access MyCourses from Safari on my phone. If anyone else has tried this, you probably have found that…[Read more]
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Angie Carson joined the group Digital Humanities 10 years ago
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Angie Carson became a registered member 10 years, 2 months ago