O London Is A Fine Town Essay

This essay will seek to explore how far literature of the time subscribes to the view in The Beggar’s Opera – ‘O London is a Fine Town’. In order to do this, the essay will examine ‘London’ by William Blake, ‘Tintern Abbey’ and ‘Composed upon Westmisnster bridge by Wordsworth and Oliver Twist by Dickens.

The Beggar’s Opera was written in 1728 and is considered to be ‘the most complete statement of Gay’s attitude toward the town and its evils.’ The play begins with the introduction to the character of the Beggar as he announces to his audience: ‘I own myself of the Company of the Beggars; and I make one at their weekly festivals at St Giles.’ The character makes it clear he belongs to a group of beggars who reside in the area of St Giles,

A major feature of the novel is the portrayal of a child’s innocence as being tainted as a consequence of living in 19th century London. The children in the novel become symbolic of crime and poverty which is evidently a prominent feature of society. However, Dickens purposefully ensures that Oliver’s character is an innocent onlooker until he is forced into ‘the trade’ by his peers. This is evident within Chapter 10: ‘what was Oliver’s horror and alarm as he stood a few paces off, looking on with eyelids as wide open as they would possibly go, to see the Dodger plunge into the old gentleman’s pocket.’ Through this, the reader is now capable of understanding 19th century London to be full of criminalised children. Larry Wolff has argued that ‘the literary development of Oliver’s innocence creates a naïve narrative perspective which dramatizes the menace of the evils around him.’ Additionally, it is apparent that Dickens makes it evident to his reader that a child’s innocence is completely absent when in the city of London. Not only is this made obvious with the fact these orphan children are forced to revert to theft in order to survive in the capital, but they are punished by their owner if they are unable to exercise crime: ‘whenever the Dodger or Charley Bates came home at night, empty-handed, he would expatiate with great vehemence on the misery of idle and lazy habits… by

To examine this, the essay will explore Composed upon Westminster Bridge’ by Wordsworth. In the poem, the speaker appears to be looking over the city of London to which he declares that ‘Earth has not anything to show more fair.’ Additionally, the speaker personifies the London by giving it the ability to achieve human things: ‘the city now doth, like a garment, wear the beauty of the morning.’ From this, it would appear that the speaker is looking upon the city and this experience creates emotions within him which are too powerful and overwhelming to comprehend. Therefore, this suggests that not all literature of the 18th and 19th century looked upon London is negative terms as Wordsworth’s poem reflects the beauty and astonishment of the