Critique of Industrial Capitalism

Where it surfaces

• IV: A Market by the Way

  The absence of poor or rough people and the joyful, well-dressed populace implicitly critique the poverty and inequality of 19th-century industrial society.

• VI: A Little Shopping

  The transformed Piccadilly market, with its absence of buying and selling and the casual provision of goods, directly contrasts with 19th-century capitalist commerce.

• VII: Trafalgar Square

  The narrator contrasts the peaceful, cooperative labor of the banded-workshops with the violent suppression of workers in the past, as recalled in the Trafalgar Square protest.

• X: Question and Answers

  Hammond condemns the old manufacturing districts as places of 'dirt, confusion, and the distressing of quiet people's lives,' and describes the slums as 'places of torture for innocent men and women.'

• XI: Concerning Government

  Old Hammond argues that the old government existed to protect property rights and the rich, leading to the destruction of wealth and unutterable poverty for the poor.

• XV: On the Lack of Incentive to Labour in a Communist Society

  The chapter heavily criticizes the nineteenth-century capitalist system where goods were made to sell rather than to use, and machines were perfect but their products worthless.

• How the Change Came

  Old Hammond critiques the capitalist system, describing it as a 'system of slavery' and detailing the exploitation and misery of the working classes.

• XXII: Hampton Court and a Praiser of Past Times

  Ellen criticizes past literature for depicting heroes and heroines living happily on 'other people's troubles,' implicitly condemning the competitive, exploitative society that produced such works.

• XXIII: An Early Morning by the Runnymede

  Ellen's speech directly contrasts the freedom and dignity of the present with the poverty, overwork, and ugliness of the past, embodying Morris's critique of capitalism.

• XXV: The Third Day on the Thames

  The rejection of elaborate inventions and the emphasis on contentment with simple, functional designs critiques the relentless innovation of the industrial era.

• XXVII: The Upper Waters

  The discussion critiques the former reliance on machines and the mistaken belief that machinery would free humans for higher arts, revealing the flaws of industrial capitalism.

• A Resting-Place on the Upper Thames

  Ellen and the guest discuss how inequality forced the poor into sordid lives, which in turn made the rich men's dwellings ugly and art die out.

• The Journey's End

  The narrator and Ellen discuss how railways and profit-driven entities ruined rivers and exploited people, contrasting with the present cooperative management.