Orphans In Victorian Time

"The orphans did not earn a status in the society but they were prevalent in the Victorian literature as respectable but troubled heroes and heroines. The Victorian authors portrayed an orphan as someone living in crowded and unsanitary conditions after losing both his parents. The descriptions of the orphans in Victorian literature are to be relied upon as it is probably the only source which narrates the history of Victorian orphans" (Victorian Era Orphans and Orphanages). 

"Swelling the numbers of the truly orphaned were not only the deserted or neglected, but also the abused, the rebels and the runaways — all, in one sense or another, living rough. Such children could be and often were dangerous, especially when exploited by hardened criminals; they were a threat to law and order, their wretched lives a blot on the scutcheon of the times" ( Jacqueline Banerjee).