"Oh my friends, the down-trodden pperatives of Coketown! Oh my friends and fellow-countrymen... I tell you that the hour is come, when we must rally round one another as One united power, and crumble into dust the oppressors that too long have battened upon the plunder of our families, upon the sweat of our brows, upon the labor of our hands, upon the strength of our sinews, upon the God-created glorious rights of Humanity..."
In Book Two Chapter 4, we are introduced to, what I find, a rather ironic situation between the working class. Like learned in our Humanities class, the lower working class found it difficult to fight for their rights as individual human beings so the factory Hands decided to hold a meeting to discuss plans to improve their horrific living and working conditions. As the head orator at this meeting, Slackbridge (who is said to be "...not so honest, not so manly, not so good-humored) gives a rather drab performance of a speech to try and convince the congregation of workers of the importance of labor unions and its sense of fellowship and brotherhood within it. All but one seem to be convinced: Stephen Blackpool. He believes that this change in unionizing against the factory overseers will continue to exasperate the already tense relationship of the workers and overseers. What is Dickens trying to portray in his portrayl of Slackbridge compared to Stephen? Does Dickens use these characters to represent differentiating sides of the working class?
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