i
IN GREENWOOD’S
LOVE ON THE DOLE
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented in the Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
Raulina Oktavia Br. Sibuea
Student Number : 984214056
Student Registration Number : 980051120106120056
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
iv They said that you wouldn’t make it But never mind!
Cause you have never it let go inside
You have wotrked real hard to what you want So believe and never give up!
You can reach your goals
I believe I can I believe I will
I believe my dreams are real I believe i’ll reach my goals real soon
That is what I do believe!
v and blessing during the hard days.
My deepest gratitude goes to my beloved dad in heaven. I also like to
thank my dearest mom for her endless love, pray and support. I am sorry for
making you in tears so many times. I do not mean it. I love you, Mom. I also
thank my beautiful sisters: Duma and “Butet” who patiently warn me to finish my
thesis and never let me give up.
I would like to thank Drs. Hirmawan Wijarnaka, M.Hum, my major
advisor and my co-advisor Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M. Hum., for being patient,
careful and wise during the long days of working my thesis. I am sorry for
wasting your time to read and to examine my thesis.
I also would like to express my gratitude to Mas Didit for his ‘sms’
correcting and warning toward my thesis.
My gratitude also goes to all the lecturers and Secretariat staffs of the
Faculty of Letters who have taughed and served much knowledge with me.
My deepest gratitude also goes to all my sisters: Ka Yuyun and Mba Gabi,
both of you have been my real older sisters. Yona and friends, thanks for sharing
nice time about the life. I deeply appreciate what you have done to me. Indra,
thanks for your confusing jokes. You remain me to “Chandler”. I also would like
to thank to ex all members in Gang Cabe 21d Susi, Ica, Ike, Eta and many friends
for making me comfortable in the boarding house.
My gratitude also goes to all of my ‘98’ friends. My study would have
been boring without you all. I appreciate the wonderful friendship along my study.
The last but not the least, I would like to thank my four best friends Ika,
Helga, Asti and Herning. You all inspire and teach me about ‘true friendship. All
vi A. Review of Related Studies --- 8
B. Review on Related Theories --- 10
1. Theory of Character and Characterization --- 10
2. Theory of Setting --- 11
3. Men in Perspectives--- --- 12
4. The Relation between Character, Setting and Society --- 15
5. Theory of British Working Class --- 16
C. Theoretical Framework --- 18
CHAPTER: III METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study --- 20
B. Approach --- 21
C. Method of the Study --- 22
CHAPTER: IV ANALYSIS A. Maliness Seen in the Characters --- 24
1. Harry Hardcastle --- 25
2. Ned Narkey --- 29
B. The General Condition of the Society on the Novel --- 30
C. The Concepts of Manliness --- 39
1. The Occupation --- 40
2. .Workplaces --- 42
3. Physical Appearances --- 44
CHAPTER: V CONCLUSION --- 46
BIBLIOGRPHY --- 50
APPENDICES Appendix 1 --- 55
vii
Working Class Society in Greenwood’s Love on the Dole: Yogyakarta:
English Letters Departments, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma, Yogyakarta.
Love on the Dole is the first novel of Walter Greenwood. This novel depicts the real condition of the working class society in the depression of the late ninetieth thirties. It is an important contribution to the literature about working class society.
The analysis of Love on the Dole is based on three problems formulation. The first problem is to find out the characters represent the manliness in the novel. The second problem is to analyze the condition of working class society in the novel. The last problem is to figure out how manliness concept is established among the working class society.
The theory on manliness, character and characterization are the best to explore to the analysis. There are two characters that are analyzed, Harry Hardcastle and Ned Narkey. Each character presents their manliness through their characterization. Harry describes the character who lacks in having the emblems of manliness and Ned Narkey is the opposite of Harry’s characterization. It can be seen from their job, Harry works as a clerk which is not regarded as a real man while Ned Narkey works at the factory, the place where people think a real man should work. The novel also explores the British working class people’s condition, the theory of British working class is required to be a guideline. To get the picture vividly about their condition, the theory of setting is crucial needed. Through the elements of setting, the condition of the society in Hanky Park is easier to analyze and to conclude.
In order to reach the objectives above , the library research is used. The Novel “Love on the Dole is the primary source for this thesis. Other sources come from some books and criticisms applied as the secondary sources. In this analysis, the manliness is close to the working class people’s condition in the novel that is why it is important to apply Sociocultural approach.
viii
ABSTRAK
Raulina Oktavia Br. Sibuea, (2007). The Concept of Manliness of the Working Class Society in Greenwood’s Love on the Dole: Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra
Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Love on the Dole merupakan karya novel pertama dari Walter Greenwood. Novel ini menggambarkan realita masyarakat kelas pekerja pada masa depresi akhir tahun 30an. Novel memberikan kontribusi yang penting bagi literature tentang masyarakat pekerja.
Skripsi ini terbagi menjadi 3 pokok masalah. Pokok masalah yang pertama adalah pembahasan tentang karakter-karakter yang mencerminkan sikap seorang pria sejati yang digambarkan di dalam novel.pokok masalah yang kedua adalah membahasa tentang kondisi masayarakat pekerja yang terdapat di dalam novel. Dan yang terakhir adalah membahas tentang konsep pria sejati yang terdapat di dalam novel.
Dalam skripsi ini teori tentang sikap laki-laki, karakter dan penokohan adalah teori yang tepat digunakan. Terdapat 2 karakter yang akan dianalisa, yaitu Harry Hardcastle dan Ned narkey. Tiap karakter menggambarkan identitas kelakian melalui penokohan mereka. Harry menggambarkan karakter yang kurang beruntung dalam memenuhi identitas sebagai pria sejati. Sedangkan Ned Narkey sebaliknya, Ia adalah seorang pria sejati. Hal ini dapat dilihat dari pekerjaan mereka, Harry adalah seorang pegawai kantoran biasa sedangkan Ned bekerja di pabrik, tempat dimana seorang pria sejati seharusnya bekerja. Novel ini juga membahas tentang kondisi masyarakat kelas pekerja Inggris, untuk itu teori tentang masyarakat kelas pekerja Inggris sangat layak sebagai garis besarnya. Untuk dapat menyimpulkan kondisi kelas pekerja Inggris sesungguhnya, teori setting sangat penting digunakan. Melalui elemen yang terdapat dalam teori setting, masyarakat di Hanky Park lebih mudah dianalisa dan disimpulkan.
Studi pustaka digunakan untuk melengkapi tujuan-tujuan di atas. Novel Love on the Dole adalah sumber data primer. Selain itu beberapa buku dan kritik-kirtik sastra digunakan sebagai data sekunder. Dan dikarenakan analisa tentang sikap laki-laki sangat dekat dengan kondisi masyarakt pekerja dalam novel, sangatlah penting menggunakan pendekatan sociocultural.
Untuk menyimpulkan suatu konsep tentang sikap laki-laki yang telah terbangun dalam masyarakat pekerja, kita harus mengetahui ide tentang seorang laki. Ide tentang laki lahir dari orang yang terbiasa berpikir seorang laki-laki seharusnya identik berhubungan dengan kekuatan. Karenanya seorang pria sejati harus memiliki tubuh yang menyakinkan dengan fisik besar, kuat dan berotot, selain tiu pekerja yang mereka harus juga berhubungan dengan kekuatan.
1 A. Background of the Study
Graham Little defines literature as one of the elements of culture. It
contains values, thoughts, problems and conflicts. Literature is considered as a
tool to pass the experience from one generation to the next generation.
Sometimes, literature has a function as a description of the situation happening in
certain of time and place (Little, 1963: 01). One of the genres of literary work is a
novel. Abrams notes that literary works is viewed as an imitation, reflection, or
representation of world and human life (Abrams, 1981: 36-37). Many novelists
write their novels to express their experiences and total conception of life. A novel
really reflects the situation in which the author lives. A novel may become the
matter of the author to give criticism, satire to their society. The society presented
in the novel is not seen simply as a faithful mirror of the reality, but it can be seen
as a close description of it. It means that the novelist portrays the society based on
his own imagination. The society may exist as a reality or simply an imagination
of the author.
The livelihood of the working class people has inspired many novelists in
writing their novels. One of the novelists who write the working class society as
his general theme is Walter Greenwood. He is seriously concerned with the
working class society. His own experience of being a member of the working
2
about the debilitating effect of unemployment and poverty that happened in the
working class people. Greenwood took the working class people who lived in the
1930s as his novel’s setting of time. The condition of working people is tragically
described. They have to survive with having no job, money and foods. They are
extremely sunk because the British government pays less attention to their life.
Their position seems ignored in many aspects, such as financial social and
political. They also have to live in the harsh environment
(http://wcml.org.uk/greenwood.html).
Walter Greenwood’s wrote Love on the Dole in 1933. It is based on
Greenwood’s early years in Salford. He successfully recounts the livelihood of the
working class people during the 1920s and ‘30s. In the first publishing, many
publishers rejected Greenwood’s manuscripts. They thought Love on the Dole was
only a story which was expressing pessimism and it was difficult to accept. In the
following two years, the novel Love on the Dole was published. It was different
when the novel has been played and filmed. Love on Dole was successful to be
played than to be published. Greenwood and Ronald Gow worked together to take
the novel into a play at Garrick Theater in 1934, London.
Love on the Dole presents the reality of working class people in natural
view. Working class people have to live in an urban area namely it Hanky Park.
They live in poverty circumstances. They must survive with ridiculous small low
wages. The general characters described in the novel are living with no hope.
Their difficulties and discontented lives throw them into misery. As workers, they
government policy, the cutting of Unemployment Benefit or dole which brings
them deeper in poverty and financial problem. Financial problem has driven those
working people depend on their lives on the pawnshop and moneylender.
In the novel Love on the Dole, there are problems to discuss. They live in
the poverty circumstances. They have to afford money at the plants, factories and
the mills. Their money is not enough to survive. They work without thinking
about the future or career. The working class people also have to face the
unemployment, the sexual permissive and the debts. Those conditions raise many
ideas and the ideas themselves become the concept that exists among the society.
Since the analysis discusses about working class people in Greenwood’s
Love on the Dole, setting and characters become the main focus of the thesis.
Many social problems happen among the society because of the discontented life.
Their condition is real and it can still be seen in our everyday life. Love on the
Dole is not only a portrait of British working society but also a conscious
expression of reality.
Many problems exist in the novel, Love on the Dole, but the most
interesting problem that the writer is concerned with is the manliness problem.
Greenwood seriously depicts the working class men who are trapped in ideas of
being a masculine person. Its idea influences their choice of physical appearance
and earning power. The working class has certain qualities of being a masculine
person such as having strong body, heavy voice, moustache, muscular body, big
brown shiny body and tremendous man power. Those qualities are defined by
4
masculine man. The expected qualities as a masculine man establish the concept
of manliness among the working people. To be considered as real men, a man
should have strong body, heavy voice, moustache, muscular body and tremendous
man power. The concept is difficult to apply because the working class men
should face the real life that lives in the poverty circumstances. The fact explains
that the working class men must have money to afford. It means that they have to
work. They have to solve their economy problems and it makes them to gain any
job that they can get. Although the working class men desire to have a job such as,
working at plants, mills and factory, it is difficult to happen. Many working class
men cannot choose their job and that is why some men do work such as clerk,
choirboys. Those jobs do not represent the manliness idea.
To have a job that represents the manliness become the dilemma. Not all
people can be selected to work the place that has the stamp of manliness. Only
men who have the strong body, muscle and big can work at those plants, mills or
factories. They work as manual worker that is to look at the machine running. The
education is not important to have because they have no future or career. The
owner of plants, mills or the factory just requires their power. If the worker is not
strong anymore, they will be fired. These conditions are the main reason why the
writer is interested to analyze its dilemma. Through Harry Hardcastle and Ned
Narkey, the writer wants to figure out how the characterizations of those
characters represent the manliness and how the condition of working class society
in the novel makes the concept of manliness raising.
B. Problem Formulation
1. How do the characters represent manliness in the novel?
2. How is the society described in the novel?
3. How is the concept of manliness seen as in the British working class society?
C. Objectives of the Study
The writer formulates the first question in order to know the characters
that represent manliness. Characters, shown by Harry Hardcastle and Ned Narkey,
are a significant to know what kind of ideas that raise the concept of manliness.
Since those two characters above are a part of the working class society,
the society itself can not be ignored. To discuss about the manliness is represented
by the characterization of Harry Hardcastle and Ned Narkey, the society has a big
contribution. Among the working class people believe that a real man should have
some certain standardization of being masculine. They conclude that a real man
physically has to have a strong body, muscle and big size. The working class
society considers the plants, mill or factories are the place where the men should
have or work. A real man must work with machine, gigantic tools or the thing
that need power to operate it. The novel takes the setting in the early 1930s. The
history record influences the circumstances of working class society in the novel.
Working class people in the novel live under the depression era after the First
World War took place. The condition of society is revealed through their daily
6
suffering have become the social problems that are difficult to solve. The social
problems such as, unemployment, and poverty, make the increasing of many ideas
that the society believe and there happen as the consequences of circumstances
around them. One of ideas that people believe is manliness.
In the third question, the concept of manliness among the British working
class people will discuss. Through this discussion that it will be found the same
concept that exist in the working class society in the novel.
D. Definition of Terms
Everyone has their own interpretation about something. Social scientists
must have an agreement about the terminology in social science itself. In order to
strengthen my thesis, I choose several terms that are needed to explain. They aim
to avoid ambiguity interpretation:
1. Concept
In Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary Unabridged (1993: 1268), a
concept is an idea, especially a generalized idea of a class of an object. After the
people can accept that idea in the real life and believe it. It can be defined as a
2. Manliness
Based on Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English (1987:
523), manliness is defined as the qualities traditionally attributed to a man or
befitting a man; masculine. They can be concluded that the concept of manliness
means the idea of being male; something is proceeding from the characteristic of
being male.
3. Working Class Society
According to New Encyclopedia Britannica (1925: 749), the working class is
the class of people who work for wages and do not own properly, chiefly manual
worker in mining and manufacturing. In Webster’s New Twentieth Century
Dictionary Unbridged (1993: 1723), the society is the system or condition of
living together as a communication, or a group of people lives together under the
same environment and regarded a homogeneous unit or entity.
From both explanations above, it can be concluded that the working class
society is a group of people who lives in the manufacturing and mining system
and under the same environment. In this thesis, the society lives under the same
circumstances and environment; poor, gloomy, slummy, helplessness and
hopelessness. They also have to work hard and most of their jobs do not require
8
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
Love on the Dole is one of Greenwood’s works in the late twenties. This
novel was his first novel, and then was followed by other novels such as There
Was a Time; his autobiography, His Worship, the Major, The secret Kingdom, and
The Cure of Love (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/greenwood.html). He
also wrote several articles for the Picture Post. Most of his works focus on the
workers’ life which is caught in hopelessness and helplessness. He was really
concerned about the working class people and then he wrote a novel which told
about working class people who lived in an urban area in Northern England.
William (1992: 41) says that the life experience of working class people is
extremely powerful to be expressed in the work of writers who grew up in
working class communities and one of those writers is Walter Greenwood.
Greenwood is an English novelist who comes from a poor working class
family. Inspired by his reality experiences as a member of working class, he wrote
his first novel. He is able to describe the bitterness of working class people life
that is trapped many poverty and unemployment. He succeeded in portraying
vividly the depressed condition in his first novel. After years of unemployment
and dole cut, Greenwood finally received his news on his first novel. In 1933,
Love on the Dole was published for the first time after long observation. Even this
its popularity. Then, when it came to be played by Roland Gow at the Garrick
Theater in 1934, Love on the Dole was accepted by the public. Thus, it was
followed by the novel, and it became the best seller
(http://wcml.org.uk/greenwood.html).
The Times Literary Supplement wrote that Greenwood had given the
readers a terrible picture of people who were caught in hopelessness and
helplessness. Reviewers in Letters and Life marked this novel had a quality of
inevitable disaster from the beginning of the story.Started from the beginning the
story, Love on the Dole tells about having no hope for the characters who shuffled
toward their inevitable doom.
There are many criticisms toward Greenwood’s Love on the Dole. D.M.
Roskies, as adopted by There Was a Time (1967: 79) states that the movement of
the novel’s action is based on Greenwood’s obsession with crushed, surrender,
poisoned hope. His novel is regarded as a distrustful novel because it tells about
his doubtful on any solution of economic problems which is offered by the
government when he lived. Carole Snee also has the same opinion with Roskies,
she thinks that Love on the Dole portrays the denial of future possibility to social
problems that happened at that time (http://wcml.org.uk/greenwood.html). Many
reviewers expressed their pessimistic about Greenwood’s novel theme. The
reviewers felt disturbed by his novel’s bitterness because many readers hated to be
reminded about human suffering.
Roland Gow was the one who sent Love on the Dole to get its popularity
10
beginning, the British Board of Film censors did not allow that movie to be played
but more than one million people had seen illegally that movie. Its decision did
not take long time because two years later, many people had been allowed to
watch Love on the Dole because the British government thought that movie was
suitable to invite volunteers to fight in the Second World War.
(http://www.worldsocialism.org/SPGB/nov 99/theatnov.html).
In Love on the Dole, Greenwood has shown his attention on social
problems. His own background encourages him having ability to reflect the
realistic condition toward working class society even many reviewers disagree his
story idea. Through Love on the Dole, Greenwood gives many information of
working class society that happened his life time.
B. Review on Related Theories
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
Abrams conveys that his description of “characters” is Character are the
persons, in a dramatic or narrative work, endowed with moral and dispositional
qualities that are expressed in what they say, the dialogue and what they do the
action” ( Abrams, 1981: 21).
Abrams divides the characters in literary work into two kinds. They are
protagonist and antagonist. The chief character of a work, on whom our interest
centers are called the protagonist or hero, and if he is pitted against an important
opponent, that is called antagonist (1981: 128).
The term character is commonly used in two ways. It designates the individuals who appear in the story as in “How many characters are there?” and it refers to the mixtures of interests, desires, emotions, and moral principles that makes up each on these individuals, as in “How would you describe his character?
Stanton (1965:18) also states that there are central characters and minor
characters. A central character is a character that is relevant to every event in a
story. Usually, each event causes some changes either in them or in our attitude
toward them. And minor characters are characters whose attitude is very
important toward central characters.
Most literature ordinary focuses on the similarities and differences
between one individual with special intensity. After finding the differences and
the similarities, we can connect the message to what the author wants to talk. The
capability of the author to describe is usual mentioned characterization. Jerome
Beaty says
Among the means of characterization, in addition to direct, is describing the way character look, their physical appearances, and their clothing, bearing, make up and so on; the way they speak, the way they think, or what they think, what they do, and what other people say about them (1984: 231).
It means that characterization may help us to recognize what the character in story
is like.
2. Theory of Setting
In Glossary of Literary Terms, setting means the general local, historical
time, and social circumstances in which its action occurs (Abrams, 1981: 192).
12
place, setting of time, and setting of society. In other words society is included
parts of setting.
The three principal elements (place, time and society) are related one to
another. The setting of place refers to the place where the action of the novel
occurs. The place can refer to the actual place with a certain place without a clear
name. The description of place should reflect the condition and geographical
circumstances of that place. The setting time refers to when the events of the story
occurs; it is usually connected with the factual time which was a relationship with
historical events. Social setting refers to the people in the novel, the social
behavior, such as the habits, traditions, belief and moral values, and the social
status of the characters. Society is used to reveal human relationships, characters,
patterned interaction and common expectations (Nurgiyantoro, 1955: 6).
Yelland in his book A Handbook of Literary Terms states that setting is the
element that gives reader an abstracts impression of the environment in which the
characters move. The way in which characters fit the environment provides the
setting. If they are depicted as living under a constant cloud misery, setting is
drab. If they are shown leading a cheerful existence, in spite of their
circumstances, the setting is bright (1953: 184).
3. Men in Perspectives
Based on Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English
(1987: 523), manliness is defined as the qualities traditionally attributed to a man
manliness means the idea of being male; something is proceeding from the
characteristic of being male.
Edley and Wetherell in their book, Men in Perspective (1995: 96) say that
masculinity is dealing with social activities of men. Masculinity comes from the
sum of characteristic of men at work, with their family, in their communities, and
in the groups and institutions to which they belong. In many ways it is obvious,
for example miners and men engaged in similar occupation, are likely to have
very different senses of masculinity, different forms of fraternity and ways of
behaving with other men and with women, compared with professional
intellectuals paid for activities such as teaching, writing, research and study.
Masculinity was analyzed as a response to certain economic and domestic
situations, and was seen as a consequence of men’s involvement in particular sets
of social practices. Men become manly by learning social scripts. Social scripts
can be found from customs, tradition and even language of a cultural community.
It was seen as the whole way of life of a society or group. Culture was able to
understand as a framework, passed down from generation to generation, through
which ordinary people and make sense of their everyday lives.
In Men and Perspectives, Edley and Wetherell (1995: 132) also explain
that every culture in the world must embody a set of particular ideas or themes
which relates to men and masculinity. Cult can be seen as providing members of
the wider cultural community with a shared understanding of what is meant to be
a man and masculinity, and the easiest way is to simply open a book on
14
For several decades Bond has provided a very powerful and attractive model of
masculinity. Bond is an archetypal hero, forever willing to risk his own life in
order to defeat devil. As a man, Bond is portrayed as a charming and sophicated
gentlemen with impeccable style and manners. He is courageous, loyal and
romantic. In contrast, the image of manhood of another man who is represented
more primitive, raw and rugged. He is no gentlemen, with no time for social
graces and niceties. His masculinity is signified by his complete disregard of such
convention. Those images are united by their presentation of men. They provide
the readers with straightforward examples or illustrations of what a man should be
like.
Gilmore in Manhood in the Making, the cults of masculinity is something
understandable because it seems direct responses to particular social and
environment. The meaning of masculinity in any given culture can be seen as
solutions to specific social problem or need. Gilmore (1995: 223) states every
society depend for survival on the successful propagation of future generation.
After giving birth, women put the children on men’s shoulder not only because of
their greater physical size, strength and also their freedom from occupation of
pregnancy and childbirth. Men are always engaged in dangerous and injurious
activities. Cults of masculinity have to encourage men to deal with their natural
instinct to avoid danger.
Relating to men performance, Simone de Beauvoir, as quoted by Carla J.
Mc Donough in Masculinity and Performance (Time, 05-17-93: 62), explains that
masculinity, such as body shape, gesture, movement, strength and independence.
However the performance of manliness is something desirable because the
performance makes the men in having power and privilege when they can be able
to show their masculinity successfully. Men tend to exhibit their masculinity
qualities so that they might act as guardians of society. It means being manly is
something desirable, something worth trying to become.
4. The Relation between Character, Setting and Society
Character as protagonist in the novel reveals their perspective and values
through action, speech and thought. To act and to reflect their perspectives the
character need a medium. The medium is society to which they respond and in
which they exist defining a set of values distinct from that of the characters
(Langland, 1984: 9).
Harvey (1965: 56) says that through social setting we can see how
individuals in the society, how they group themselves, whether the individuals
have classes or not how an individual have is influenced by another.
According to M.J Murphy (1972: 141), society, which is included in
setting, has a great effect or influence upon the personalities, action and way of
thinking of the character. If the society changed the personalities action and way
16
5. The Working Class in British Society
The First World War was a test of belief. Religious and moral ideas were
challenged by the sufferings and separations of war. Young men left school or
work at the age of eighteen to fight, young women left home to help in hospitals
and factories. They never went back after war to the old ways of life; the old
pattern of authority in State, church, and home never returned.
There was much more freedom, especially for women in leisure times with
the popularity of mixed sports clubs and of the dancing and cinema habits. In
some circles the search for pleasure was heitic, but fewer in a position to imitate
the ‘smart set’. The war probably weakened the hold of religion where individuals
could not reconcile their knowledge of its overwhelming evil with their faith in
God.
In relations among the member of the family, the working class people are influenced by the environment. The environment plays big part to determine the
attitude of their family and their relationship as they do anywhere else. Many
working class families expect rescues from their son because the family cannot do
without help. The son of the working class has to help his family by bringing
home wage-packet. A working chap is trained to give all the time, so he can not
grow up selfish.
While the relationship between parents and children in the working class
families deserve closer study than they have hitherto received (Zweig, 1952: 65).
The relationship between mother and the children is warm but the feeling of the
from their tired, dissatisfied, frustrated and thinking only escaping from the family
life. That is why the working men, especially fathers struggle to keep emotional
and mental balance impaired. This struggle sometimes prevents the fathers from
their children as they would like to.
Drinking, gambling are kinds of working class pastime, which known as
hobbies. Some working people confess that they spend their leisure time by
gambling and drinking. Ironically, they regard their bad habits is a indulging way
to spend their leisure time.
Drinking was unquestionably the favorite leisure time activity of working
class people. The love of drinking has been a curse of the modern age and it is a
sign of social dislocation and popular suffering. However, heavy “problem”
drinking declined by the late nineteenth century, as it became less and less
socially acceptable. At the same time drinking became more public and social.
Cafes and pubs went increasingly bright, friendly places. Working class political
activities, both moderate and radical were also concentrated in tavern and pubs.
The two other leisure times passions of working classes were sports and
music halls. The most popular sports were racing and soccer. There was a great
deal of gambling on sport events, and for many working men the desire to
decipher the racing forms was a powerful incentive toward literacy. Music hall
audiences were thoroughly mixed, which may account for the fact that
drunkenness, pregnancy before marriage, marital difficulties and mother in laws
18
Zweig (1952: 210-1) describes the ideal for British working people. The
model of a working class man must be “a good fellow”. He must not only
friendly, but also generous. He has to rely on the help of his family and friends.
He should be a sociable person. He regards himself as part of community. A
worker must be a reminder of a good turn done and fishing for thanks and
gratitude, even are in bad taste because a man who is guilty will be finished in the
good opinion of his friends.
Marriage was seen as a romantic scene for young couples but it was
ordinarily for inclination and not for advantages (Mc Kay, 1983: 857). Sexual
experimentation before marriage has triumphed as had illegitimacy. Although
poverty and economic uncertainty undoubtedly prevented many lover from
marrying, there were also many among the poor and propertuless who saw little
wrong with having illegimate offspring. The pattern of romantic ideals, premarital
sexual activity, and wide spread illegitimacy was firmly established by the
mid-century among the urban working class.
C. Theoretical Framework
This thesis focuses on British working class society especially working
men. Therefore, to support this analysis the writer needs some data, theories and
information. They are needed as the framework to answer the problems that are
formulated in the first chapter, besides they can be guidance in understanding this
story further.
this analysis, such as individual’s perspectives, the condition of their living, their
social relationships and other aspects which are interesting to observe. Those
aspects are explored through the formulated problems in the thesis.
The study of Walter Greenwood’s Love on the Dole reveals some aspects
of working people’s living as the main focus of this analysis, examples are the
daily lives of working people, the way they make their living under hard
conditions, their social relationships, and also other aspects which are interesting
to explore. Those aspects mentioned above are analyzed through the problems
formulations formulated in this thesis.
This analysis based on theory character and characterization and theory of
masculinity. The masculinity is employed as a guideline to analyze the character
in the novel. The theory of setting is used because there is a close relation between
character and setting. Setting has a great influence upon personalities and way of
thinking of the characters. Setting is the medium to which the characters respond
their perspective, speech, action and thoughts.
The theory of working class is used guidelines to understand the social
background of this novel. It is that the selected theories are related to each other to
support the analysis of this research. Finally, through analysis is beneficial for the
readers and also it is beneficial in knowing the real condition of the working
20
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
Love on the Dole, the object of the study, is the first novel written by
Walter Greenwood after years of unemployment. Greenwood wrote this novel in
1933. He needed ten years to make his observation by spending his time in the
slum area of Salford and also the fingers of the working class movements of the
twenties and early thirties (http: //wcml.org.uk/greenwood.html).
Love on the Dole may be belittled because it was written as a novel rather
than as a play, but on the evidence of this reading it is one of the most important
pieces of drama of the century. Its authenticity is clear. Its characters are real, and
their concerns are our concerns (http://wcml.org.uk/greenwood.html). It speaks to
people because it paints a picture of life as it is. The setting time of the story
happened periodically determine that countless millions of people will be thrown
on the dole.
Love on the Dole was printed for the first time in July 1933. This novel
was published by Jonathan Cape Ltd. 30 Bedford Square, London and 91
Wellington Street West, Toronto. And it consists of 347 pages and divided into
three parts. Love on the Dole may be ignored because it was written as a novel
rather than as a play. However, when it was dramatized by Roland Gow and
shown at The Garrick Theather Altrincham in 1934. Then, it became a best seller.
are real and this novel speaks to people and it paints a picture of life as it is,
telling about countless millions of people will be thrown on the dole
(http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/greenwood.html).
Love on the Dole, yet has its popularity been performed in 1934, and in
1941 John Baxter was interested in transferring the novel into a movie. Love on
the Dole is a story about the working class society in the urban area of Northern
England in the 1930s. It portrays the real condition of the working class in the
depressed era. This novel can be regarded as a literary document that records the
social movement at the time when it was written. The described setting presents
the condition of the people.
B. Approach
Love on the Dole is a novel about working class society. It is used to
record and criticize the decadent society of the 1930s by showing the condition of
working class society. In analysing this novel I used to the sociocultural historical
approach because it insists that the only way to locate the real work is in reference
to the civilization that produced it (Roghberger, 1971: 9).
The sociocultural historical critics state that civilizations are made up of
the attitudes and actions of a specific group of people and point out that literature
takes these attitudes and actions as its subject matter. Holman (1986: 304) says
that milieu is the political, intellectual, and cultural environment in which an
author lives or in which a work is produced. It is important for those critics to
22
in which a work is created and which it necessarily reflects (Roghberger, 1971: 9).
When author decides to take s certain civilization, which means the
attitudes and actions of a specific group of people, as the subject matter of his
work, it means that his literary work expresses significant ideas about the society
he presents. The sociocultural historical critics assert that literature is not created
in a vacuum, and that literature expresses significant ideas of the culture that
produces it. The sociocultural historical approach takes as its basis some aspects
of the sociocultural frame of reference, combining it with an interest in the
biographical as well as a knowledge of and interest in literary history
(Roghberger, 1971: 9).
C. Method of the Study
In this thesis, the writer uses two different sources. Primary source is a
book, Greenwood’s Love on the Dole. The secondary sources are some books that
help the writer to do the analysis as references, such as Edley and Wetherell’s
Men in Perspective, Wellek and Warren’s Theory of Literature, Zweig’s The
British Worker, Abram’s A Glossary of Literary and An Introduction to Fiction by
Robert Stanton and many books that support the writer to do the thesis.
In analyzing the novel, the first step that the writer did was to read the
novel, to understand the story, and to identify aspects which were interesting to be
analyzed. Then, the writer decided to analyze the character of the novel. At the
second step the writer started formulating the problems to establish the topic for
which were applicable in analyzing the thesis. The writer also used some
information to analysis the topics presented. The last step the writer made the
24
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
A. Manliness Seen in the Characters
Being masculine means having the qualities considered as typical of or
suitable for a man. That is why it is important for a man to have some qualities.
To have some qualities are considered typical of real man, the men seem having
their pride and identity among their society. The established qualities have
emerged the concept of manliness. In this thesis of Love on the Dole, some
expected qualities will be discussed. The conditionof the working class society in
Love on the Dole is interesting to analyze because most of the working class
people in this novel are dominated by men. They believe that men must have
certain qualities of being men, such as working with gigantic tools or massive
machines. Men are considered as real man when they can show themselves by
having the qualities of men. They think that a masculine person physically should
be ragged. They define manliness by brawn not brain. Every working class men in
Love on the Dole try to identify himself as a masculine person. They want to show
to be considered as a masculine person. They do anything to strengthen their
manliness such as smoking cigarettes, having a physical job.
The working class people believe that there are two important emblems of
manliness. Firstly, they should have his physical appearances such as have strong
body, heavy voice, moustache, muscles, and big body, raw and ragged. Secondly,
they must have the ability of being independent. They have to free from parent’s
Despite they have muscular body and moustache, if they have no money to earn,
they are not considered as a masculine man. In Love on the Dole, men cannot be
regarded as a masculine person if they lose one of those important things above.
Harry Hardcastle and Ned Narkey are two characters that exist in Love on
the Dole. Both of them come from the same background, which is the working
class. They live in straitened condition in a slum area in British society where the
setting presented in Love on the Dole. Harry Hardcastle is obsessed in having the
qualities to be considered as a real man. He does everything to get the stamp of
manliness while Ned Narkey has everything to be regarded as a masculine person.
In the following part, we will discuss Harry Hardcastle and Ned Narkey in
describing manliness through their characterization.
1. Harry Hardcastle
Harry Hardcastle is a young man who just graduates from schooling
Since he was still at school he works as a part-time clerk at Price and Jones’s
pawnshop. He has been working for three years and he is a hard worker.
“Bleak visions both of school classroom and of Price and Jones’s pawnshop where he worked as half-time clerk rose to his mind. He would be writing tickets there from half past six this morning until school time; he would return after school and continue writing pawn tickets until the place closed (p.20).
The condition of his family forces him to get a job. He comes from a poor family
and his father works as miner. As a miner, his father can not be able to finance
their family with his own salary. That is why Harry goes to work to help their
parents. In this case, Harry Hardcastle has been considered as a masculine person.
26
with maturity and it means being independent from parent’s support. He does not
realize that he has filled that quality of being a man.
Harry Hardcastle is obsessed in being a masculine person. He moves out
from his first job as a clerk at Price and Jones’s pawnshop because it does not
reflect a real man job. And he feels ashamed to clerking.
“A spiteful voice in his brain whispered that he was doomed to clerking, reminded him that, even now, he wore the uniform of offices, Eton collar, stud bow and those abominable knickerbockers. He felt ashamed of himself, slunk along by the walls trying to make himself inconspicuous. All these men and boys wore overalls; they weren’t clerks, they were Men, engaged in men’s work. Sullen obstinacy mingled with rebellious separation stirred in his heart. They aint getting me clerking,’ he muttered” (p.24-5).
Harry Harcastle thinks that being a clerk is not a real man’s job. He cannot
be a real man if he keeps holding a job as a clerk. That is why he feels ashamed
when he sees his friends wearing overalls which reflected that they work at men’s
job. Therefore, he decides to resign from clerking. Harry judges to be a masculine
man he must be involved in using physical power.
Harry sees that men’s job is working in that big factories with all the
plants and machines which need physical power to handle those machines. Those
physical jobs cannot be done by the women because women are not considered as
strong as men. People such as clerks and choirboys are considered to be
‘feminine’ because in their work, they do not use the physical power which
reflects the image of masculine.
To be considered a masculine man, a man must have a job which is also
identified as the ‘real work’ of man. It can be found at Marlowe’s. This great
do. Marlowe’s has many massive and gigantic machines which is identified as the
symbol of manliness. That is why Harry Hardcastle tries to apply as a worker at
Marlowe’s. He wants to be identified as a real man. Then, he resigns as soon as he
is accepted at Marlowe’s. He feels so glad being accepted.
“What luck! He really was engaged. And in so short a space of time! What would the boys have to say to this? He gazed at the papers in his hand. There was the magic word ‘Indentures!’ And they’d given him a number, 2510”(p.34).
Wearing overalls and boots are the uniforms that have to be wore at
Marlowe’s. Those uniforms are seen as the attributes of ‘men’. Many people are
proud whenever they wear uniforms.
“Harry gaze fixed on the pavement, was become acutely self-conscious of the incongruity of his school boy clothes and believed that every girl he passed must be similarly impressed. He felt a fool to be wearing such now that he was a Marlowe’s employee. Why hadn’t he had the foresight to slip on the overalls before he came out of the shop? He then could have walked proud and ashamed in the center of the roadway” (p.67).
After being accepted at Marlowe’s, Harry becomes very proud and it makes a fool
of him by wearing boots and overall out of the shop. He cannot express how he
feels when he goes to work at Marlowe’s.
Physical appearance also can support in filling the image of manliness.
Men with having big muscles are seen as real men because they have proved
themselves as men through their strength. Ned Narkey is the symbol of a real
man. He is strong and that is why he can lift a girder, a thing that ordinary men
can not do. People often admire his strength that is portrayed through his
physique, and it is including Harry Hardcastle.
28
strength; according to to the boys Ned could life a girder that four ordinary men couldn’t move. But he wasn’t a nice fellow”(p.28).
Ned Narkey’s physique is desirable for some people and he is one of the persons
whom Harry has been jealous with. Harry admires Ned’s strength. It makes Harry
intimidated when he tries to talk to Ned Narkey, and Harry always avoids himself
to be involved in conversation with Ned Narkey.
Harry Hardcastle’s obsession wants to be a strong man. Among the
working class people, there exists one concept that only strong muscular men are
employed because they have to run heavy machinery. To have strong body and
muscles becomes the one of standards among working people to be considered as
a masculine man. Persons who seem lack of strong muscular will feel ashamed in
front of other people.
That is why Harry really hates his sister, when she mocks him “‘Old
Samson, ‘she said, with a provocative laugh: ‘All muscle.’” (p.22). He always
flushes every time his sister reminds him on his miserable muscles.
Finally, Harry clearly sees the real condition that happens to him. He
needs to survive to live. He serves for seven years as an apprentice to get nothing.
He is fired at the end of his apprentice time. His dream as an engineer at
Marlowe’s seems not coming true. It is tragic because he has been fired in his
very wanted job. He gets a job that reflects a real man job but it cannot last
forever. He never realizes these circumstances before. His circumstances bring
him to the Unemployment Benefit or Dole, the benefit is given to those who lose
their job. Their experienced unemployment has learnt Harry and his friend about
afford money the men have to get a job. The muscular men means nothing if they
have no a job. When they lose their jobs they have to rely on their parents again.
“They are not men at all, never have been. Even those who moustaches, who were twenty-one years of age, were, from the point of view of money, only overgrown boys, dependent on the support and generosity of their parents”(p.98)
In the beginning, Harry sees that manliness is seen just from the physical
appearance, physical job and the place where they have to work. Finally, he finds
the different of point of view toward a masculine man. After losing his job as an
apprentice in seven years, he is fired. Finally he realizes that a ral man should be
dependent on his parents. He feels that it is difficult to be seen as an overgrown
boy depend the generosity of his parents. Harry realizes that his poor parent is
disable to pay his unemployed life, especially he has been married to Helen. Harry
finally understand it is useless to fill the stamp of manliness when he can not
finance himself ang his new family.
2. Ned Narkey
Another character in Love on the Dole is Ned Narkey. A young man who
has physique of a Mongolian Wrestler “There was Ned Narkey, a huge fellow with
the physique of a Mongolian wrestler” (p.28). He is a symbol of a real man;
strong and powerful “…according to the boys Ned could lift a girder that four
ordinary men couldn’t move” (p.28). Many people admire his strength and he is
regarded as a real man because of his physique performance. There is no doubtful
he is a masculine person.
30
crane in the foundry because of his physique performance. The place where
people like Ned Narkey belongs.
“Steel platforms from which you saw great muscular men dwarfed to insignifance by the vastness of everything: men the size of Ned Narkey who had charge of the gigantic crane” (p. 64-5)
This gives impression of hard work and strength. Ned Narkey is seen as a real
man because he can prove himself as a man through his strength. His work is
identified with manliness because it is clearly using physical power of man to
handle those gigantic machines.
The two important emblems of manliness have belonged to Ned Narkey.
That is why his friends have been jealousy with him. Nobody is doubtful about his
manliness. He has everything that working men want to have in getting the stamp
of manliness.
Ned Narkey cannot survive longer in the pride of being a masculine
person. He is also fired after finishing his contract. With his friends, he comes to
find out other job. He ends as an unemployed person
B. The General Society in Love on the Dole
The working class people in this novel actually are proud with the
occupation that they have. Many of the working people in Hanky Park, are
workers in mills and factories. “Doors were opening and slamming. Men, women,
girls and boys were turning out to work” (p.32), from that quotation shows that
most people work in factories. In Love on the Dole, the people presented are
who work for wages usually at manual work and mostly they are manual workers
in mining and manufacturing. They live on the wages earned by their physical
labor. From both quotations, it can be concluded they are regarded as working
class because they live in an industrial area. Their livelihood depends on the
wages as manual labor.
Among the working class people believe that working at an office is seen
as a feminine job. A real man is proud whenever he works at ‘the real work of
man’. People feel humiliated by working as clerks and choirboys because in their
work, they do not use the physical power which reflects the image of manliness.
“Three years he’d sat in the dark corner of the pledge office writing out millions
of pawntickets. Damned in fair handwriting” (p. 21). It is humiliating for men to
do a job without the physical power because it belongs to the men. Every physical
job needs physical power to do it. Some people believe that physical job cannot be
done by women because women are regarded as strong as man. That is why many
men in Hanky Park want to work at Marlowe’s, the massive industrial company
that has many great and massive machines.
He found himself listening to the bear of the men’s feet again; an entrancing tune, inspiring, eloquent of the great engineering works where rhis army of men were employed. Reverently, he murmured its name; ‘Marlowe’s’ (p. 16).
Marlowe’s has an important contribution in creating the accepted concept of
manliness which is expressed in the work men do.
Only men work in factories. They used to wear a ‘uniform’, overall and
boots, for their work. Those uniforms give men the sense of manliness. People
lack if the uniforms they wear are not overall and boots. The uniforms they wear
32
the people work at factory. “All these men and boys wore the overall; they aren’t
clerk, they are Men, engaged in the men’s work” (p.25).
Actually the real condition of the working class people is hard. They have
to get money to afford.
Labour never ending, constant struggles to pay the rent and to buy sufficient food and clothing; not time for anything bright and beautiful. We never see such things. All we see are these grey depressing streets; mile after mile of them; never ending (p. 15).
Working people find themselves as survivor on a depressed life. They work hard
to earn money but their wages are just enough to buy food and clothes only. They
live in poor circumstances. Due to their condition, many parents let their son work
to help their family from the poverty. This condition makes people among the
working class to think that a man should have a job. Losing one’s job means
having no money to afford. “They are not men at all, never have been. Even those
who with moustaches, who were twenty-one years of age, were from the point of
money, only overgrown boys dependent on the support and generosity of their
parents” (p.98).
Among the society establish a man should be independent as fast as they can. To
have strong body or a job at plant are good to strengthen the image of manliness
but it is useless when they do not money and then they have to depend on their
parents and that mean giving the seriously financial problem among them.
Even the condition of the working class live in a slum area, the men used
to show their bad habits. Men among the working class used to visit a pub. It can
be so difficult if they are drunk. In the pub, men will show their physical
do not work at the factories.
Harry regretted Ned’s muscularity; nobody could can gain-say his striking appearance: either in his workaday apparel or his flashy week-end clothes his figure rendered him conspicuous (p. 31).
The people never feel doubtful the image of Ned Narkey as a masculine person
even his attitudes are really annoying. Based on what Ned Narkey has, he is
successful to be considered as real man. Many men have been jealousy. The
society prefers to accept the brawn and the brain.
The society never assumes their life is not easy even the member of their
family work at Marlowe’s. The job does not last forever. Every worker has their
own time to be fired. If they are not as strong as the first time they work, they will
be fired and then will be replaced by the younger generation. “Ah’m not
workin’..Ah’m out o’work.’ Someone else had his place at Marlowe’s and no
other firm required him. He was out (p.211). It used to happen in industrial
system. Every worker has no bright future. They work to have a salary until they
are fired because the age or the power of their physical.
The situation comes to worse when their salary seems not enough. The
working class men should work for money. There is choice to pick because the
job is difficult to get. Many reasons make people cannot find out the other job.
Firstly, the job is not easy to get. Secondly, there is no job in the same time can
make them proud to be a man. The third, there is other job can give the wages as
where they work at the factory.
Among the working class men establish an idea that the workers at the
34
think that they’re engineers same as they do at all the other places, but they’re
only machine minders” (p. 63). However, they are only machine minders who just
run the machines and only watch them working.
In relating to moral values, working class men don’t live in a strict
morality. The subject taboo, such as sexual activity is free to do anywhere. It can
be seen among the youths relationship. Many young people are involved in sexual
affairs and sexual activity before marriage. It is viewed as something that can
freely be done anywhere. Sexual activity is considered as the freedom of them to
have relationship with the opposite sex. They had sex either with their lovers or
with prostitutes.
“…there were no demonstrations of affection, no embraces, no loving, now. Blimey, a fellow couldn’t help feeling that way. Was it likely that a fellow would permit all the miserable plaguing of sexual impulse if it could be helped? And discussion of the subject was taboo: ‘Oh, all men think about is that!’ ” (p. 234)
It can be said that that some of them are free in area which is considered to be
restricted, that is sexual activity especially before marriage.
Parents take responsibility to the moral decline amongst their children. In
Love on the Dole, the parents show their irresponsibility by doing something bad
in front of the children. It happens to Tom’s Hare parents. Tom Hare always sees
his parents going home with drunken condition. Then, they do have sex after
getting drunk in their house. He sees the action because their miserable house can
be hidden. This bad example has influenced upon the children’s mental
development as seen through Tom Hare. Tom Hare views the girls having a
tart’ll let y’do what y’ want if y’ve enough money. Aye, any!” (p83). Some
working people used to mention their girls ‘tarts’. It has an negative sense which
means prostitute. Tom Hare has known about ‘tarts’ . That is why he wants to
have money because he can get the girls with him.
Premarital sex is easily be found. The pregnancy before marriage is often
happened among the girls. Then, it is a pattern among some of the youth
relationship. Working people apply a strict morality. Parents seem having no time
to take care of their children. It makes the children are given so much freedom to
do something forbidden as sexual intercourse. It is shown from Harry’s father
who suggests Harry taking his lover on vacation when Harry wins his bets. It can
be seen that Harry’s father gives much freedom to Harry in doing something
forbidden because a holiday with lover is implied as permission in having sex. It
means that sexual intercourse is seen something acceptable and normally they
have experienced in having sex before marriage either with their lovers or
prostitutes.
In Love on the Dole, the other bad habits live among the society are
drinking and gambling. Their discontented lives drive them into drinking and
gambling habits “Money, money, money. The temptation to go drown and misery
in drink was, betimes, almost irresistible”(p.125). Many of them go to the public
houses for drinking beer. Public house is where the people commit their lives to
glasses of drink, can be easily found. To forget the discontented feeling, they get
drunk. That is why drinking and gambling cannot be apart from the place because
they like to drink in public houses. So that the public houses are comfortable
36
such as labour to discuss their problems.
Many working people like to lay bets on gambling. Most of them spend
their spare time by doing “… smoking, spitting, manfully, chatting wisely on
racing and forking out threepence for a communal wisely” (p.75). All of those
activities are done to have little fun in their harsh life and one of them is
gambling, that is explained by forking out threepence for a communal wisely.
They have to cure their grievance lives through their habits of self relief. It can be
understood why those people have such kinds of habits. To cover their desperately
feeling, they run to drinking and gambling. However, those habits lead them
sinking in unsolved financial problem. There is nothing left but debts.
The serious problem that can not be ignored is their livelihood depends on
the pawnshop. It is hard for them to fulfill their foods and buy clothes with their
irregular and insufficient wages. There is nothing left from their little wages.
Then, the one thing to survive they have to go to the money lender. They go to the
pawnshop, where people can pawn their priceless things for money. They have to
depend on loan from the pawnshops or money lenders. There are Price and
Jones’s pawnshop, Sam Grundy the bookmaker and Alderman Ezekiah Grumpole
the money lender and proprietor of Samaritan Clothing Club.
Every Friday or Saturday, they would hand over their wages to Mr. Price in return for whatever they had pawned today. And the next Monday they would pawn again whatever they had pawned to-day, paying Mr. Price interest on interest until they were so deep in the mire of debt that not only did Mr. Price own their and their family’s clothes, but, also, the family income as well (p.42).
They get small amount of money at high interest. This condition happens
redeem their things anymore. This pawning habit has driven them deeper into
poverty.
After having the money from the pawnshop, they spend it on food. They
buy the food to Mr. Hulkinston’s grocery shop because in that grocer’s shop they
can have foods on credit. This activity is always done in the early morning by
women. Every morning Mr. Hulkinston is ready to open his shop and waits for
women wearing shawls who come quickly in the raw of morning. They wear their
shawls because it is to hide their eyes of being recognized by other people. It is
embarrassing to come to grocer’s shop because it is the place for poor people who
do not have enough money. In fact, they do such activity because they need to
survive. This circumstance brings them putting “masks” on their faces. They
pretend to have a good life and accept their condition as normal life.
In the setting of time when this story happens, it takes the time of
depression era. It takes British working people who live in a slum industrial area.
It takes the depression era as setting. It is happened about the early 1930s. They
come from the working class who live in harsh environment and discontented
condition. They have to survive on insufficient and irregular wages. The condition
of the society is revealed from the analysis on their social manner such as habits,
moral values, and religion and economic. In their poverty condition, it raises the
concept of manliness among the society and it is caused from the environment
where they live in industrial area.
The number of unemployed people rapidly increases. They are affected by
the economic depression, which come from trade unions losing a good deal after
38
Dole, it is presented by the biggest trading company; Marlowe’s cannot go well in
cooperating with Russia. So that, the company discharges many workers, as the
result, it is the increasingly unemployment.
“Interviewed to-day, the manager of Messrs. Marlowe’s Ltd. Explained to our representatives the possible consuquences of the difficulties placed in the way of trade with Russia by the Government. “We have much work for Russia in hanfd,” the manager stated, “which is being gradually brought to a standstill by the government’s attitude. Their failure to co-operate with us in the direction will mean that we shall have to discharge a good many of our workpeople. It may even mean the closing down of our machine shop altogether as our order books are practically empty but for our contracts with Russia’” (p.246).
In this novel, the government is ruled by National government. They have
a seriously problem in keeping pound sterling from the drop of its value. As a
result, it influences the salary cuts and insurance fund by increasing contribution
and reducing the period of benefit.
For a while he toyed with the idea of what would happen say, were he to be denied the dole altogether under this ‘Means Test’ which Larry Meath had been warning everybody about before the election. Larry had said that if something called the ‘National Government’ went back they would remove many people from the dole altogether. Well, this here National Government had gone back and the bloody swines had already cut the dole from seventeen bob to fifteen (p.236).
Workers who lose their job have to claim public assistance called the
Unemployment Benefit or dole. Therefore, they have to have a test, the Means
Test, to test the family financial condition. If there is a family has working
children, or working wife, then, the father of that family does not have right to
claim the dole any longer. It is done because they have to reduce the cost the
National Government places the form of aid, known as the “dole”, under the
control of a central Unemployment Assistance Board. Many men are unemployed
