Cause of Death: Capitalism Meghan Edwards College

They say that assiduous work fuels the best and happiest lives; but, what if work becomes that life? This immense level of work removes the possibility of any facet of life that does not include labor. Lord Alfred Tennyson in his poem, “The Lotos-Eaters” and Elizabeth Gaskell in her novel, North and South, similarly describe the affects of poor labor practices that were common throughout Victorian England. Tennyson equates death with peace and resolution to indicate a desire for death as consequence of the unnaturalness of exploitative labor practices. Gaskell takes it a step further through the inclusion of the actual deaths of three characters with relations to work: Bessy Higgins, a child laborer, and Mr. Boucher, a victim of the unions. Thus, the two texts indicate the innate unnaturalness of immense work with the most natural consequence being death.

Tennyson indicates the unnaturalness of labor through the juxtaposition of stanzas describing natural processes with that of stanzas describing the affects of work. The third stanza of the poem’s “Choric Song” relays the natural progression of fruit and is accompanied by delicate diction that creates beautiful nature imagery. Tennyson describes the apple falling from the tree...