The state of child labor during the nineteenth century is presented in Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies. Through the book’s characters, Kingsley exposed and criticized the Victorians’ attitudes towards child labor. Tom, the novel’s ten year old protagonist is a direct product of a flawed upbringing caused by child labor and pauper apprenticeship as a chimney sweep boy. Tom’s character sheds light on the mistreatment and haunting reality of Victorian era child labor that left children in dangerous and lonely situations. Without parents or siblings, Tom serves to his master Mr. Grimes’ apprenticeship. The role of Mr. Grimes is to train and employ as well as care for Tom’s well being and moral guidance. However, because Tom comes from a very poor background and Mr. Grimes is far from the ideal master, Tom is taken advantage of, abused, and neglected by his master. Kingsley uses the character of Tom as a chimney sweep to relate and make connections to other forced jobs on Victorian children such as child labor in coal mining industries.
Throughout the novel, Kingsley highlights the disturbing reality of the Victorian society’s master’s treatment of their apprentices through Mr. Grimes and Tom. Mr. Grimes is the complete opposite of what a good master is. He drinks excessively, beats Tom, takes his money, gives him little to eat, and fails to teach him morals and faith. Working long hours as a chimney sweep, Tom did not have time to learn to “read nor write, and did not care to do either. He had never heard of God or of Christ” nor did Mr. Grimes give him the opportunity to (1; ch.1). Growing up with a cruel lifestyle, Tom began to see it as a way of life, “as for chimney sweeping, and being hungry, and being beaten, he took all that for the way of the world” (2; ch.1). This shows the ill treatment that many children experienced whether through pauper apprenticeship or other industrial “apprenticeships.” The children somehow become detached from the world as they began to view it only based on what they’re being forced to see/experience.
Tom’s tough labor as a chimney sweep demonstrates the typical life of Victorian Britain’s child labor in other industries like coal mining. There are many instants that Tom’s experience as a chimney sweep related to the coal mining industry that mistreated children just like the mistreatment of Master Grimes. When money becomes a priority for masters, they can careless for the well being and education of their apprentices thus neglecting their existence as human beings. Without proper upbringing of a child, he/she is bound to being wild and untamable. For one, cleanliness that Tom lacks is common among child workers as many were too poor to afford soap, water, and new clothing. Tom “has never washed himself, for there was no water up in the court where he lived” showcasing the life of chimney sweeps and coal mining child workers (1; ch.1). With long hours of work and little attention for cleanliness by either the parents or masters, children went about their day in awful sanitary conditions
The soot and filth that Tom realizes is on his body reveals the connection between coal mining children and the soot and smog that was constantly left on their bodies from working in dirty and squeezed places underground. When Tom falls down the wrong chimney and is faced with Ellie, he is astonished at her cleanliness; something he lacks and wondered if washing oneself would make them look this clean. He “looked at his own wrist and tried to rub the soot off and wondered whether it would ever come off” showing the extent to which Tom has never washed himself nor was told to care for his appearance by his master (14; ch.1). When Tom catches his reflection in the mirror, he is utterly disgusted by his appearance and undoubtedly referring to the person in the mirror as a “little black ape”, “And Tom, for the first time in his life, found out that he was dirty; and burst into tears with shame and anger; and turned to sneak up the chimney again and hide, and upset the fender, and threw the fire irons down, with a noise as of ten thousand tin kettles tied to ten thousand mad dog’s tails” (14; ch.1).
It was at this moment that Tom realized how distant he was from the normalcy of society. He realized that being clean was a norm and being filthy with soot and smog was a sin and he must find a way to purify his body. Tom’s awareness of reality brought him shame and anger that for years he lived his life based on the close reality of his master. Tom now recognizes that there is more to his life than just a dirty chimney sweep. The whole allusion to being dirty and black in Tom’s situation references to the typical life of coal mining children. The black and dirtiness of coals marked their place in society as coal mining children who were perceived as filthy and poor. Kingsley clearly uses Tom’s awful sanitation to shed light on the social reforms he actively fought for such as clean housing for the poor, education, and the unprivileged laboring classes (What is The Victorian Web). During a time when little attention was given to the poor and children, Kingsley sought to change things whether through reforms, novels, or speeches and so the character of Tom became a representation for everything he strongly believed in.
Kingsley sets the novel in North England which shows a great relationship between Toms’s setting and the coal mining industry. When Tom and Mr. Grimes make their way to Harthover Place in the North country, they pass through the pitmen’s village “plodding along the black dusty road, between black slag walls, with no sound but the groaning and thumping of the pit engine” (5; ch.1). Kingsley’s reference to the pitmen’s village and the “black dusty road” shows how predominate coal mining was in the North and so child labor in the mines was prominent as coal production became a dominate industry. Because coal became a popular and major substitute for wood during this time period, chimney sweeps like Tom were needed to clean the soot deposits from the walls of the fireplaces and chimneys caused primarily by coal. If the fireplace walls were not cleaned out regularly, the dirty and smoggy residue of the coals would cause harmful fumes and pollute the rest of the house. The tight chimneys and soot from the coal often left chimney sweeps in pain and agony as Tom “cried when he had to climb the dark flues, rubbing his poor knees and elbows raw; and when the soot got into his eyes” (1; ch.1). It is clear that through Tom’s experience as a chimney sweep, Kingsley brings connection and reference to the coal mining industry and its impact on child labor whether directly or indirectly.
In the 17th century, the hearth tax came into play when people began being taxed for the number of chimneys they had. What many did to avoid such taxes was connect the routes or flues of the already existing fireplaces to the new ones being built. It was also during this time when coal was found in almost every home’s chimney where smog and soot clogged the chimney walls and fuels. It was the chimney sweeps’ jobs to find their way through the flues and clean it out. Kingsley makes a major reference to this when Tom gets lost in the flues at Harthover House. Because he was not accustomed to Harthover’s house being so big and the flues running in many directions, Tom got lost “but at last, coming down as he thought the right chimney, he came down the wrong one, and found himself standing on the hearthrug in a room the like of which he had never seen before” ( 12; ch.1). It was at this point that Tom lands into Ellie’s bedroom where for the first time he realizes how dirty, smoggy, and black his body was. The coal smog and soot had built up on his body and had gotten even worse as he blindly made his way through Harthover’s chimney flues; thus showing the important role of coal production and distribution in many of the rich places of England such as in houses like Harthover as well as the coal mining child labor that is endured as it is present with Tom’s.
Kingsley also uses Tom’s lifestyle to represent the realistic lives of the other million child workers in Britain during the nineteenth century. His poor and low upbringing in the hands of Mr. Grimes and a society that fought little for child protection led Tom to become a defect of the child labor industry. The abuse and neglect that Tom takes in from his master is not even behind closed doors. Anyone that sees Tom knows of his lifestyle and neglect caused by Mr. Grimes as even those who know the master are aware of his low morals and ethics like Sir John, “a grand old man, whom even Mr. Grimes respected, not only could he send Mr. Grimes to prison when he deserved it, as he did once or twice a week” thus disclosing the actuality of what went on in open doors with child labor (2; ch.1). Mr. Grimes falls short of his responsibility as good master, someone Tom can look up to. Instead, Mr. Grimes over and over again proves just how corrupt he is when Tom witnesses “Mr. Grimes and the collier-lads poached at times” in others’ lands and streams (3; ch.1). Not only does this prove the point of illegal activity that no good master should be doing, but also creating great reference to colliers who also prove to be corrupt and illegal in their activities as well. This can relate to the corruption in the coal mines with child labor and inhumane abuse and neglect of their childhood.
Child labors whether through chimney sweep or coal mining and cruel masters dominated the reality of the Victorian era society and Kingsley’s The Water-Babies clearly shows this through Tom’s lack of cleanliness, Tom’s lack of morals and ethics, Tom’s lack of forming a conscious, and Mr. Grimes brutal and abusive reality as a person and as a master to Tom. The abuse and neglect of children in jobs unfit for their age was examined in this novel to shed light on the cruelty of society and their expectation or norms of these issues. Through literature, Kingsley is able to teach and acknowledge the social issues that demand change and improvements in order to succeed in society.
Works Cited
Kingsley, Charles. The Water-Babies. London: Penguin, 1994.
What Is the Victorian Web?, http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/kingsley/diniejko.html.
The Water-Babies Web 