Money Relations By Marx And Engels

All of these examples of the poor conditions of being in the lower class are demonstrated by Marx and Engels when they write that the “bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation” (Engels, Marx 16). The Dorrit family is reduced to their lack of income. The money relation that exists within the Dorrit family is the relation that William has not been able to pay off his debt which has put his family into the Marshalsea prison with him. It is not a direct money relation in this sense with the Dorrits. Where it is a direct money relation in the Dorrit family is in the last example provided, in which William manipulates Amy into an emotional relationship with John Chivery for material gain. Marx and Engels also write that the proletariat “live only so long as they find

While he still is residing in the Marshalsea, he boasts to the other prisoners about the money he has come into. When William looks out of his window onto the collegians he calls them “poor creatures” (442). The use of the word creatures implies a dehumanizing nature that William has already adopted moments after he has found out that he has money and will be able to leave the Marshalsea. He also orders that the family’s old clothes be “taken and burned” (445). This action shows the fact that William is so infatuated with the money, making him inconsiderate to those who are still in the Marshalsea. Those clothes, instead of going to waste, could have gone to those who were still in the Marshalsea, or even repurposed as blankets since it is apparent that the Marshalsea gets very cold during the winter months. This immediate change of disposition in William demonstrates the notion that those with money are often careless in their relationships with those who are less