Thomas Carlyle

past and present

The conditions of England as a critic

Thomas Carlyle (1795__1881). who studied extensively the cause of french

Revolution was apprehensive about England's future.
He believed that England was infected by dissease called Industrial Revolution or
Mechanization.and he presented the Chartism .as a symptom of this disease.
He was certain that effect of this could be revolution.if the government did nothing to
improve the living conditions of laboring class take for example Carly's warning in
his long essay on Chartism(1839) in which he stated that , if something be not done,
Something will be itself one day and in a fashion that will please nobody.

According to Carlyle the cure for this disease was real aristocracy .He had a faith that
this unclassed aristocrats could lead the Laboring __ Class through ( Change or
misfortune or circumstances of modern history. He hardly had a confidence and was
critical about the casual land owners and Aristocrats who were Mamoon worshippers
that instead of being " The captain of industry " They were a gang of industrial
robbers. Carlyle solution to the problem of Mechanization of the laboring _. class and
mamonization of the airstocrats was the same mentioned in Sartor Resartus "
spritiual rebirth of the both individual and the society. He romanticized the vision of
the past based on the chronicle of the English Monk.

Thomas Carlyle was born in a Protestant family.who followed the teachings of the
John Calvin. Carly's Calvinistic may have exerted theinfluencebon English
Contemporary society. He was widely respected as a social critic and a Victorian sage
.wrote political essays, The philosophical satire and fictions in which he blurred the
lines between the literary genre .Some of his famous works are " Signd of the Times"
(1829) , Sartur Resorts (1832) Chartism ( 1843) .

Past and present starts with a visit to work house was a response to the economic
crisis that began in the early 1840. Carlyle shows a depressing picture of the daily life
of workers around 2 million , werd sitting idle in work houses and poor law prisons .
This book like its predecessor , Charism 1839 and The Latter day Pamphlets (1850)
presents a further analysis of the conditions of England . Carlyle opposed the
Medieval past and Victorian present of the 1830 and 1840 . this latter was a time of
Uncontrolled industrialization , worship of money , explotiation of week , low wages ,
poverty , Unemployment and riots .which would bring England to self distruction.

In Book 1 Proem Carlyle eexpresses his critical opinion about the present conditions
of England in an elevated, Despite England's abundant Resources

textual lines
Tthe conditions of England n which many pamphlets are now in the Course of
Publication, and many thoughts Unpublished are going in every reflective Head , is
justly regarded as one of the most ominous, and withal one of the strangest ever seen
in this world (71)

Carlyle shows a depressing Picture of the daily wages of the workers , Manyvof
Whom are Unable to find meaningful work.

Textual :
of these successful silkful workers some two millions , it is now counted , sit in
workhouses , poor _ law prisons have out door relief." flung over wall to them , The
workhouses Bastille being filled to bursting

Carlyle's solution was Same as that proposed in Sartor Resartus (1832) a spiritual
rebirth of both individual and society. The two secions of the book show the
contrasting vision of book past and present . He idealized that the vision of the past is
based on the chronicle of the English Monk.

Carlyle shows the organization of life and work of the Mediveal Monks.as an
authentic Idyll, where as he finds the contemporary life increasingly Unbearable due
to lack of true leadership.

Carlyle argues that a new " Aristocracy of talent should take lead in the countryand
the English people must choose true heroes and not Quacks.

Midas as a Comparison

I found the comparison of midas to England at the begning of industrial age to be the
most appropriate. as the greed comes with the age of industrialization , there internal
turmoil. Carlyle points out that " England is full of wealth , supply of want in every
kind; Yet England is dying of inanition." (477) Midas is approxima tely
as the story goes a king wished that everything can be changed into gold. with
England and limitless potential that the industrial age brought there was the thought
that the average laborer could not fully experienced benefit that new material wealth
brought .this idea