How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
''Deed we are in a muddle, sir. Look round town — so rich as 'tis — and see the numbers o' people as has been broughten into bein heer, fur to weave, an to card, an to piece out a livin', aw the same one way, somehows, twixt their cradles and their graves. Look how we live, and wheer we live, an in what numbers, an by what chances, and wi' what sameness; and look how the mills is awlus a goin, and how they never works us no nigher to ony dis'ant object — ceptin awlus, Death. Look how you considers of us, and writes of us, and talks of us, and goes up wi' yor deputations to Secretaries o' State 'bout us, and how yo are awlus right, and how we are awlus wrong, and never had'n no reason in us sin ever we were born. Look how this ha growen an growen, sir, bigger an bigger, broader an broader, harder an harder, fro year to year, fro generation unto generation. Who can look on 't, sir, and fairly tell a man 'tis not a muddle?' (2.5.37)
Because of the way his accent is written, we necessarily take much longer to read whatever Stephen says (because we have to make out the words rather than just the meaning). This makes everything he says carry a lot more weight, just because of how much effort is spent in deciphering it.
Quote #8
The bank had foreclosed a mortgage effected on the property thus pleasantly situated, by one of the Coketown magnates, who, in his determination to make a shorter cut than usual to an enormous fortune, overspeculated himself by about two hundred thousand pounds. These accidents did sometimes happen in the best regulated families of Coketown, but the bankrupts had no connection whatever with the improvident classes. (2.7.8)
This is the one mention in the novel of the new stock market system and the way suddenly people were able to lose huge fortunes very, very quickly. Losing money so quickly was a novelty at this time.
Quote #9
'My dear boy knows, and will give you to know, that though he come of humble parents, [Bounderby] come of parents that loved him as dear as the best could, and never thought it hardship on themselves to pinch a bit that he might write and cipher beautiful, and I've his books at home to show it! Aye, have I!' said Mrs. Pegler, with indignant pride. 'And my dear boy knows, and will give you to know, sir, that after his beloved father died, when he was eight years old, his mother, too, could pinch a bit, as it was her duty and her pleasure and her pride to do it, to help him out in life, and put him 'prentice. And a steady lad he was, and a kind master he had to lend him a hand, and well he worked his own way forward to be rich and thriving.' (3.5.54)
Dickens makes the same argument that is still made by liberals today. The ability to succeed financially in life is very much determined by context and can never be achieved without the help of others. This is the reason we live in a system with welfare and other government programs. These programs are trying to provide people with the kind of boost Mrs. Pegler is talking about here.