Social and Economic Issues in Source C

The following sample essay on “Source C”: tells about the social and economic problems of the early nineteenth century.

Source C was written by Charles Dickens who became a famous author and was acutely aware of the social and economic problems of the early nineteenth century so his facts are likely to be reliable. He was alive at the time of the Andover Workhouse scandal so he would have bee aware of the terrible conditions some workhouses were in and he was able to describe inhospitable workhouses so the source is useful for investigating the Andover Workhouse.

Charles Dickens used the Andover Workhouse scandal and other accounts of inhospitable workhouses to bas his novel Oliver Twist on.

Source C is a primary source and was written in 1838, which was year after the McDougals were employed in the Andover Workhouse. This is useful because Charles Dickens would have known what the Workhouses were like. This is because he was alive at the time of the scandal, so he would have known how bad some of the workhouses were therefore this source could be based on one of the inhospitable workhouses.

So this is useful in investigating the events of the Andover Workhouse because their conditions could have been similar.

Source C was written quite factually as Dickens based some of the novel on the Andover Workhouse Scandal and he was aware of the social evils of this time. Source C is limited however because it only tells us what the meal times were like.

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It doesn’t tell us that the work they did between meals was crushing bones or flints it doesn’t tell us that in most workhouses there were three meal times a day and it doesn’t tell us that adults would have been treated the same. Source C is also limited because inmates usually had to work in silence and the boys in the source were whispering to each other, which they would normally have been punished for.

Andover Workhouse

Source c also states that the master would punish the children with violence but it is limited because it doesn’t state how the adults would have been punished. If source C doesn’t give this information about the workhouse it is talking about then I cannot identify it with the Andover Workhouse therefore the source is limited. The source is limited because it doesn’t state which workhouse it is and all workhouses were different so the source may not be useful to investigate the Andover Workhouse events.

It doesn’t state how many people were in the workhouse and may be limited because there could have been more or less than in the Andover Workhouse. Source C was originally written as a novel so it could have been exaggerated to sell and the words used to suggest this are, ‘Stupefied astonishment,’ and ‘desperate’ so this may not be useful for investigating the events in the Andover Workhouse because the source maybe unreliable. However, the source maybe limited because even Dickens didn’t include the full horrors of the workhouses in this novel.

Charles Dickens wrote source C and he was a rich man who didn’t leave any money to the poor when he died so it is unlikely that he cared as much as it is made out. He may have wanted more money and therefore may have exaggerated his novel so it would sell. This means Source is likely to be limited for investigating the events of the Andover Workhouse. The source was written in 1838 so the source is more likely to be an opinion from the time. Therefore it may limited for investigating the events of the Andover Workhouse because we are not informed of another opinion.

The source in some ways seems to be exaggerated because it uses words like ‘paralysed’ and ‘reckless’ so this maybe limited for investigating the events of the Andover Workhouse because it is unreliable. I think the source is useful in some ways for investigating the Andover Workhouse events for example the food they ate and how they were placed at dinner. However the source is limited in other ways because it is restricted so it is no use for investigating the events of the Andover Workhouse.