Darkness in the City of Light

By Nathaniel Jones

Once upon a time in 19^th century England, civilization was coming to an end, and the destruction came disguised as progress and growth. Cities were booming, and those with the power were having a blast – and with all blasts come death to those that that blast touches. More and more people began leaving the country in favor of the promise of happiness that the modern city offered. The country folk left the lives that they and their ancestors had known for generations because they believed that in the city, they would find lives of luxury – a world of pleasure at their fingertips, where wealth and power are ripe for the picking. However, all of the dreams that the city seemed to offer the keys to – freedom, wealth, power, joy, happiness – all of these were simply illusions floating on the surface, disguising the truth about all of the growth and advancement of society. The truth was that in the city, all of the things that the people wanted were being destroyed. For in the modern city, there is no space for the simple joys of life. The people did not believe this, though, and they continued to enter the city, believing that perhaps if they waited out all of the pain and suffering that the city gave them, they would eventually achieve happiness. By looking at novels from the 1800s, we are able to see how the people of that time period were trying to make their dreams reconcile with the reality of modern civilization, and the pain that resulted from it.

Human beings as a species long for something better, but rarely do anything to get it. Instead of trying to make the world a better place, they try to find someone or something else to fix things instead. Sometimes people find politicians, sometimes it’s new inventions to make life easier. For women in the 1800s, the key to a better life was to find a husband that could pull you out of the filth and into a life of luxury. In the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin, the daughters in a small rural community are all trying to net one of the wealthy bachelors so that they can be happy. One of these girls, Charlotte Lucas, catches Mr. Collins, a man with quite a bit of money, but as far as his personality goes, there is not much there. Charlotte falls into one of the traps of high society when she gives up the chance for love so that she can be part of the city, where she hopes to find happiness, and ends up only finding misery when she realizes that the money is not worth the man.

Of course, young women are not the only ones hurt by choosing money and power over relationships. In Hard Times by Charles Dickens, the wealthy people of the city, particularly Mr. Gradgrind, as part of high society, know that in order for their society to thrive, they must mold the children into thoughtless worker bees by filling their heads with facts as opposed to ideas. This molding helps to destroy another of the desires that people seek in the city – emotional fulfillment. In the country, there is so much heavy physical labor that there seems to be little time to enjoy the goodness of life – but in the city, it looks as if everything is easy, and you can spend all day doing high-culture activities, such as going to a museum, or a zoo. However, the truth of the city is that while the rich people can go to the museums and zoos, the people at the bottom of the societal ladder do even more physical labor than those in the country, and make so little money that they cannot afford the museum, and in fact they are discouraged from going, because such excursions are not at all based on facts. Sure, you could learn about art at a museum, but many of those paintings could not possibly happen in real life.

There are plenty of reasons for going to the city. However, happiness is not one of them. For those with money and power, the city is a terrific place to thrive, and there are always plenty of people who are willing to increase the wealth of those at the top by working hard for low wages. But for those that will be working for low wages, the city is nothing more than a trap where all that appears to be gold is actually pyrite, and all that appears to promise happiness only brings about misery, until one realizes that the city is not a place that will pull you up to the top – once you realize that money is not happiness, and things won’t bring you joy, you alone can decide what is the top, and you have what it takes to get there.