FACTORY LIVES PAPER - Essay Example

The working conditions in the factories had become worse as the industrial revolution took place. Workers had long working hours, poor working conditions, and instability of their jobs. There were no effective government regulations to prevent unsafe and dangerous conditions for workers. A great number of accidents used to take place in factories. One such accident is narrated by William Dodd who was a factory cripple. William worked for 18 hours in an English textile factory and was given a job as a piecer which led to great pressure on his right knee, leaving him crippled.

He attended his evening classes and was later given the job of a clerk in the factory which made him badly crippled1. Another story is the Factory Girl written by Ellen Johnston telling about her experiences as a child worker in a factory. She writes how she was physically abused and so was her mother. She was a writer but she worked in factories all her life which also lead to her bad health and eventually she had to shift to Scotland as the doctor suggested change of air2. Women and children were made to work for long hours in dangerous conditions that cost people their lives.

William Dodd led a bachelor’s life because no woman wanted to marry a cripple. The Cry of the Children by Elizabeth Barrett demonstrates the tough working conditions for children as they had to work in mines and manufactories. The factory workers’ lives weren’t just torturous while at work, they struggled with a working life outside factories too. Ellen explains in her autobiography how she suffered physical abuse at the hands of her mother when she tried to run away from the factory work.

She also received a bad reputation in the society just because she wanted to run away from the tough factory working life her mother was living. These workers lived a tough life as they had to spend long hours at work, their wages were low, and they had low