Resistance and Class Consciousness

Brit

The working class faced many struggles, but as they asserted their rights they were able to overcome many obstacles. “This was, perhaps, the most distinguished popular culture England has known.  From this culture of craftsman and the self-taught there came scores of inventers, organizers, journalists and political theorists of impressive quality” (831).  The workers became more disciplined, worked hard to learn what was going on in the world around them through the periodicals and coffee shops, and took part in trying to improve their quality of life.  Class consciousness became even more apparent during this time as there were so many different types of workers who were being influenced in different ways, whether through various religions, friendly societies, or political consciousness. 

The effects of the Industrial Revolution changed English society as a whole.  Since there was such awareness of class, and of the different groups within each class, it is significant that “one direction of the great agitations of the artisans and outworkers, continued over fifty years, was to resist being turned into a proletariat.  When they knew that this cause was lost, yet they reached out again, in the Thirties and Forties, and sought to achieve new and only imagined forms of social control” (831).  These men were very aware of their class and very aware that their status was changing, but I think it is significant that they resisted being turned into a proletariat.  “They were told that they had no rights, but they knew that they were born free” (831).  These men continued to work hard and fight for themselves and their families despite constantly being put down or walked all over.  

I cannot help but think of all of the novels and adaptations that have been made that center around these issues of the working class man struggling to overcome, or struggling to just make it for them and their families.  Novels, and later adaptations, such as Hard Times by Charles Dickens or North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell show the working class hardships.  There are many other examples, but it shows the awareness and the reality of the Industrial Revolution as it happened.