Procreative Vigour Analysis

Organicism has a long history going as far back as Plato who talked of the world being a “living creature” having a “body”. The notion persisted till it became a “common place of physico–theology in eighteenth century”. Throughout the nineteenth century “the prevailing models of knowledge”, according to Foucault, “remained biological”. And even in the twentieth century, Alfred Marshall referred to the predominant importance of “economic biology”. There are, however, “competing varieties” of organicism developing in literature, aesthetics, philosophy, biology, medicine, organic chemistry, psychology, and political economy. What’s common to all these disciplines is the belief in society as “a vast living system” and the accent on “the circulation

Poverty, starvation, labour, food, crime, religion – part of the Victorian episteme – are all enacted in the novel. Various aspects of political economy have here substantial presence. Filer, in fact, explicitly mentions the subject. And if one political economist were to be mentioned, it’d be Malthus. His view that a healthy body’s “procreative vigour” would in a couple of generations, spell disaster comes in for sarcastic ridicule in Alderman Cute’s admonition to Meg. And it’s quite a detailed admonition: How after marriage she’ll quarrel with her husband and be a distressed wife; how he’ll put her down and her children who “will grow up bad, of course”; how they will be without shoes and stockings, and so on, not forgetting to mention suicide! Filer tries a terse variation, while reproving Richard, when he remarks that the poor have no “right or business to be married”. But Trotty’s “Born bad!” refrain is at the expense of the believers in original sin and, in fact, endorses Malthus who resolutely opposed the doctrine. Trotty has internalized the doctrine but the “correction” or explanation comes when the Bell tells him that it’s the circumstances that make one bad. This gets comprehensive illustration in Trotty’s dystopian vision, which is very much a “literary” device. Meg, Richard, Fern, Lilian

But this is after all a highly unidimensional view as the novel makes abundantly clear. We find here that life and vitality can exist in half-fed bodies while it may not in tripe-snatching, muffin-guzzling and much-panting bodies. As for love of food, while hungry and salivating Trotty can resist the self-bought “hissing bacon” to feed his guests Fern and Lilian, well-fed Cute robs Trotty of his “animal food” while Filer calls the robbed man a robber. And Trotty is bouncy too as witnessed in his refrain “here we are, and here we go”, Lilian on his shoulder all the time. Political economists being materialists have little patience with religion. The novel, however, recognizes the consolatory aspect of religion. The bells often cheer up Trotty and there are many references to God as “Great Father” or “Beneficent Creator”. Most importantly, it’s the Bells which have a ‘progressive’ agenda. The Goblin says “Time is for Man’s advancement” and the poor are the “mighty engine” while the high and mighty are “the dull vermin of the earth.” And the Bell comes down particularly hard on the man who turns his back on the “fallen and disfigured of his