Aspects of child labor in Tonna's "Helen Fleetwood".
This article explores the unique role of Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna's "Helen Fleetwood" (1841), one of the first social-problem novels, in shaping the concerns and strategies of the genre. Writing at a moment of cultural change in the attitude toward children, Tonna's Blakean vision of child labor as diabolical allows her to offer a daring critique of social institutions. Yet her political vision is inconsistent: although she redeems the working-class child's point of view and rehumanizes this figure, Tonna's staging of child labor as originating in a metaphysical, divine plan leads her to construct children's suffering as a justifiable and even desirable ethos.
Galia
G
Benziman
D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000191:economics / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D008091:Literature / Q000266:history; D012923:Social Class / Q000266:history; D012924:Social Conditions / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D012940:Social Problems / Q000191:economics / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D012941:Social Responsibility; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors / Q000266:history; D014937:Work / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology