Baharuddin 1

Khairul Hisyam Bin Baharuddin

BBL5105

7 April 2010

Fascination with the United States from Charles Dickens’ Viewpoint in American Notes

Charles Dickens is an English novelist and is generally considered the greatest writer of

the Victorian era. His many volumes of written work include such works as A Christmas Carol,

A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, and many more. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity

than had any previous author during his lifetime. Much in his work could appeal to simple and

sophisticated, and to the poor and to the rich. The qualities of his work enabled his fame to

spread worldwide very quickly. He was much more than a great entertainer in his writings as the

range, compassion, and intelligence of his apprehension of his society and its shortcomings

enriched his novels and made him both one of the great forces in 19th-century literature and an

influential spokesman of the conscience of his age (Britannica, 2009).

Dickens’ great concern in American Notes is the way this new country (America) was

established and what it would become. He had come to America expecting perfection, and sees a

country still attempting to work out its identity. He is afraid for its future and what it would

become. He views America’s institutions in terms of the business it conducts, the politics it is

involved in and the apparent human relationships between the two aforementioned things. He

suggests to the reader that America’s various institutions can be described with terms such as

lack of refinement, selfishness and dirtiness. He is angry about the Americans' bad manners

because they are inconsistent with the democratic principle, which should guarantee equal rights

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for all. On the other hand, he criticizes those individuals who have blind patriotism for their

country and give no thought to any other views.

The reasons for his fascination with America are complex, but one convincing

explanation is provided by F. S. Schwarzbach in his excellent “Introduction” to the Everyman

edition (1997) of American Notes:

“America in the 1840s was still in the eyes of the world and itself a grand experiment, the

leading democracy in an age of political reaction….a social and political laboratory in

which a new system was being tested, in distance and in spirit far from the corrupt and

anachronistic institutions of the anciens régimes of Europe.” (Quoted in Taylor, 2002: 1)

Dickens certainly saw the United States in this way, and made his visit to America in

1842 precisely to see for himself this new “laboratory” in which democratic government was

being tested:

As he writes in the later chapters of American Notes, “in spite of the advantage she

[America] has over all other nations in the elastic freshness and vigor of her youth, she is

far from being a model for the earth to copy […]. I went there expecting greater things

than I found” (Dickens, 1842: 276).

The main form of disillusionment charted by American Notes, however, is not this post-

Romantic disappointment with the return to nature; rather, the book is particularly concerned

with the overall failure of the very modern utopia promised by America's various institutions.

After preliminary chapters on “Going Away” and the “Voyage Out,” Dickens's American

travels commence in Boston, from where he goes on to describe New York, Philadelphia and

Washington. The descriptions of these places consist largely of detailed analyses of each city's

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“experimental” public institutions. Three main institutions scrutinized are Boston’s House of

Correction and Asylum for the Blind, Philadelphia’s Eastern Penitentiary, and The House of

Representatives at Washington.

First is Boston’s House of Correction and Asylum for the Blind. This is the place where

Dickens describes the children there and deaf-blind Laura Bridgman's treatment. Dickens

describes the children there to be comparable to school-going children in a normal school and

gives his view on the wearing of school uniform:

The children were at their daily tasks in different rooms, except a few who were already

dismissed, and were at play. Here, as in many institutions, no uniform is worn; and I was

very glad of it, for two reasons. Firstly, because I am sure that nothing but senseless

custom and want of thought would reconcile us to the liveries and badges we are so fond

of at home. Secondly, because the absence of these things presents each child to the

visitor in his or her own proper character, with its individuality unimpaired; not lost in a

dull, ugly, monotonous repetition of the same unmeaning garb: which is really an

important consideration. (Dickens, 1842: 18)

From this excerpt, it can be concluded that Dickens agrees with the institution’s policy of

not making the students wear a formal uniform. His first comment is on the senseless customs

and want of wearing a uniform. It can be assumed that Dickens view this act as a senseless

custom as the students themselves might not know the ‘hidden curriculum’ of building-up school

spirit (belonging and equality) and preparation for the general workforce (Most industries require

that their workers look united and enthusiastic to serve the customer. When the workers wear a

uniform, customers will approach them with assurance that they will be treated by company

personnel). His second comment is on the individuality of the person wearing a uniform. School

uniforms tend to restrain a student’s individuality. When a person wears a uniform, his freedom

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to express his feelings and thoughts are restricted as the uniform forces the individual to conform

to the restriction imposed by the uniform. A typical school child in a British education system

will usually not have the freedom to freely alter the uniform that he is wearing according to his

own desire and this limits the freedom to express his inner feelings and thoughts.

Second is Laura Bridgman’s treatment at the institution. Laura Bridgman is a deaf-blind

child and from the following excerpt it seems that Dickens knows more on how to teach a deaf-

blind person at the institution compared to the teachers there:

The first experiments were made by taking articles in common use, such as knives, forks,

spoons, keys, & etc and pasting upon them labels with their names printed in raised

letters. These she felt very carefully, and soon, of course, distinguished that the crooked

lines SPOON, differed as much from the crooked lines KEY, as the spoon differed from

the key in form.

Then small detached labels, with the same words printed upon them, were put into her

hands; and she soon observed that they were similar to the ones pasted on the articles.

She showed her perception of this similarity by laying the label KEY upon the key, and

the label SPOON upon the spoon. She was encouraged here by the natural sign of

approbation, patting on the head.

The same process was then repeated with all the articles which she could handle; and she

very easily learned to place the proper labels upon them. It was evident, however, that the

only intellectual exercise was that of imitation and memory. She recollected that the label

BOOK was placed upon a book, and she repeated the process first from imitation, next

from memory, with only the motive of love of approbation, but apparently without the

intellectual perception of any relation between the things. (Dickens, 1842: 20)

From this excerpt, it is shown that Dickens had a partial success in teaching Laura

Bridgman to be able to recognize household items and the words that are used to refer to them.

Laura Bridgman is successful at imitating the actions that are ‘shown to her’ and recalls what she

remembers from her memory in order to match the words that relate to a particular item. She

seems to be learning that way because she is motivated by the desire to be given a pat on the

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head for her correct actions of matching the words to the items that they refer to. The reader

notices that although Dickens is partially successful in teaching Laura Bridgman how to identify

objects, he too is not totally better than the teachers teaching the ‘special needs’ students at the

institution. This is because Dickens himself is not a well-trained teacher that can successfully

train a special needs child. He may know a bit more compared to the teachers there at the

institution, but he does not truly understand the teacher’s and student’s role in a classroom in

terms of educational testing and evaluation. The teacher, to the best of his ability, will try to

convey a useful lesson to the student. The extent to which a student understands what is taught

can be measured by a test on the particular lesson. The extent to which the student understands

things in general is very specific to the individual and is different from one individual to another.

Next is Philadelphia’s Eastern Penitentiary. This is where Dickens attacks the system of

solitary confinement with brilliant use of rhetoric. Dickens believes that the people in charge of

the penitentiary do not know what they are doing:

The system here, is rigid, strict, and hopeless solitary confinement. I believe it, in its effects, to

be cruel and wrong.

In its intention, I am well convinced that it is kind, humane, and meant for reformation; but I am

persuaded that those who devised this system of Prison Discipline, and those benevolent

gentlemen who carry it into execution, do not know what it is that they are doing. I believe that

very few men are capable of estimating the immense amount of torture and agony which this

dreadful punishment, prolonged for years, inflicts upon the sufferers; and in guessing at it

myself, and in reasoning from what I have seen written upon their faces, and what to my certain

knowledge they feel within, I am only the more convinced that there is a depth of terrible

endurance in it which none but the sufferers themselves can fathom, and which no man has a

right to inflict upon his fellow-creature. I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries

of the brain, to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body: and because its ghastly

signs and tokens are not so palpable to the eye and sense of touch as scars upon the flesh;

because its wounds are not upon the surface, and it extorts few cries that human ears can hear;

therefore I the more denounce it, as a secret punishment which slumbering humanity is not

roused up to stay. I hesitated once, debating with myself, whether, if I had the power of saying

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'Yes' or 'No,' I would allow it to be tried in certain cases, where the terms of imprisonment were

short; but now, I solemnly declare, that with no rewards or honours could I walk a happy man

beneath the open sky by day, or lie me down upon my bed at night, with the consciousness that

one human creature, for any length of time, no matter what, lay suffering this unknown

punishment in his silent cell, and I the cause, or I consenting to it in the least degree.

From this excerpt, Dickens questions whether or not the prison system in America is

cruel or not cruel. He believes that the prison system in America to be a cruel institution as it

forces the prisoners into a hopeless solitary confinement. This is because whenever a person is

accused of committing a crime during this time period, he is directly sent to spend his time in

prison while waiting for trail. This is very different from the practice being conducted nowadays

as the person who is accused of committing a crime has the right to post bail. Bail is a sum of

money deposited to secure an accused person's temporary release from custody and to guarantee

that person's appearance in court at a later date. When the court system in the 1840s in America

detains an accused person, the person has to wait days and sometimes up to months in order to

see a magistrate and be released. This causes an unnecessary prison sentence being served by the

accused. Instead of allowing the accused freedom to an attorney and freedom of movement to

gather facts and evidence to support his claims, the accused must first serve time in prison. This

may cause the accused to lose precious time in building a concrete defense for himself and may

not be prepared to successfully deflect the claims made by the public prosecutor.

Another point is the affect of the prison term on the prisoner. Prisons in general are not

comfortable places to stay in for any period of time. A prisoner usually stays in a small cell with

iron bars surrounding the windows and the entrance of the cell itself. Inside the cell, the prisoner

will usually have a makeshift bed and access to a sink and a toilet. The prisoner does not have

many private moments for himself as he has to bear other inmates who are at the opposite cell in

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front of him and the guards who constantly do rounds from peeking into his cell. This causes a

psychological trauma for the prisoner as he has little privacy for himself. Most of the actions that

he does in his cell can be viewed by other people. A person who does not have much privacy will

be in a state of anxiety as private acts conducted in the cell, which is viewed by other people, can

be used to oppress the prisoner by immoral parties; be it the guards or other prisoners. This

problem is made worse when the prisoner loses his face with people who are outside of the

prison system. A person who is serving a prison sentenced is stigmatized and ostracized just for

being in prison. When the said person is released into society, the bad reputation gained while in

prison also taints other aspects of his life in society in general and the family unit in particular.

Finally is the House of Representatives at Washington. Dickens views it with no more or

less contempt than the House of Commons in London. Dickens describes his reactions as an

observer in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords by comparing it to what he sees

in the House of Representatives in America:

It may be from some imperfect development of my organ of veneration [but] I do not

remember having ever fainted away, or having even been moved to tears of joyful pride,

at sight of any legislative body. I have borne the House of Commons like a man, and

have yielded to no weakness, but slumber, in the House of Lords […]. It is possible that I

may be of a cold and insensible temperament, amounting to iciness, in such matters; and

therefore my impressions of the live pillars of the Capitol at Washington must be

received with such grains of allowance as this free confession may seem to demand.

Did I see in this public body an assemblage of men, bound together in the sacred names

of Liberty, and Freedom? [….] . I saw in them, the wheels that move the meanest

perversion of virtuous Political Machinery that the worst tools ever wrought […]. [I saw]

shameful trucklings to mercenary knaves, whose claim to be considered, is, that every

day and week they sow new crops of ruin with their venal types, which are the dragon's

teeth of yore, in everything but sharpness. ( Dickens, 1842; 127-9).

From this excerpt, Dickens does not see the House of Representatives in America as

being more interesting compared to the House of Commons and House of Lords in London. He

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asks the reader to excuse his comment on the aforementioned legislative body in America as he

does not see anything different in it compared to what he had seen before in London. Instead of

seeing something new and efficiently managed, Dickens notices the politicians at the place

behave in a selfish manner. Many politicians tend to rely on other men who are dishonest and

deceitful (knave) in order to make sure that their political campaign runs smoothly without any

disturbances from the general public. As an alternative to carrying out all the promises that the

politician has promised for the people in his constituency, the politician uses the knaves in order

to accept bribes and gain more wealth for themselves. This causes lack of transparency and

accountability of the politicians in the eyes of the general public. This phenomenon is not

something new and shows that the availability to wield power tends to corrupt the individual.

It can be concluded that Dickens saw certain things that he liked and disliked in the

aforementioned institutions. Dickens does not see the House of Representatives in America as

being more interesting compared to the House of Commons and House of Lords in London.

Dickens also notices the politicians at the place behave in a selfish manner. Dickens questions

whether or not the prison system in America is cruel or not cruel. He believes that the prison

system in America to be a cruel institution as it forces the prisoners into a hopeless solitary

confinement and causes the prisoner to suffer psychological pains inside and outside of prison.

Dickens agrees with the policy of not making the students wear a formal uniform in Boston’s

House of Correction and Asylum for the Blind while he disagrees with the method the teachers

use to teach Laura Bridgman. Hence, Dickens is trying to find the best practices done in the

aforementioned institutions to appreciate the same institutions back in London.

As an overall conclusion, Charles Dickens act of visiting the aforementioned institutions

in America is to see firsthand how the institutions operate in a country that had gained

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independence from British rule. Charles Dickens came to America expecting perfection, and sees

a country still attempting to work out its various institutions and its own identity which is

separate from the one practiced during the British rule over America. Dickens’ tour of America’s

various institutions show that “Merely reading about conditions elsewhere was not enough.

Those who could travel, should. (Buzard, 2002: 37) This is because different people view the

same things differently. Perception of what is good or bad is rather relative and depends on the

individual viewing it. When a person chooses to travel to a foreign land that he has only read and

heard of, it will satisfy his curiosity of that particular place and would make him confirm or

refute remarks made by other people. Blanton (2002) agrees with this and states that the desire to

travel to a place is “…related to human curiosity and to a travel writer’s desire to mediate

between things foreign and things familiar, to help us understand that world which is other to

us.” (Blanton, 2002: 2).

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Works Cited

Anon. "American Notes by Charles Dickens. Search, Read, Study, Discuss." The

Literature Network: Online Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays & Summaries. Web.

23 Mar. 2010. <http://www.online-literature.com/dickens/americannotes/>.

Blanton, Casey. Travel Writing: The Self and the World. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Print.

Buzard, James. "The Grand Tour and after (1660-1840)." The Cambridge Companion to

Travel Writing. Eds. Peter Hulme and Tim Youngs. Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Cambridge Collections Online. Cambridge University Press. 02 April 2010

"Dickens, Charles." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica 2009 Student and

Home Edition. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 2009.

Taylor, Jonathan. "Literary Encyclopedia: American Notes for General Circulation."

Charles Dickens: American Notes for General Circulation (1842). The Literary Encyclopedia,

25 June 2002. Web. 23 Mar. 2010.

<http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6731>.