Bedwin

Bedwin

Character Study: Mrs. Bedwin

Belinda Bedwin was born in a rural part of London, which was covered in thick, grey smoke caused by the Industrial Revolution, and was surrounded by the proletarian class with families that pushed their children into working in factories. While Belinda’s family was not of great means, they were in a relatively good state compared to the proletariat families around them. The Bedwins were a strong family, maintaining good values and attempting to fight against the poor values held during the Industrial Revolution such as child labor. In her youth, Belinda had always received attention from her devoted parents, who provided her with unconditional love and a decent upbringing, never forcing her to work in the factories. However, when Belinda was around the age of 15, Belinda’s father struggled to maintain his occupation, and resulted in large amounts of debt. Since then, Belinda’s family fell apart, as her father was forced to work in the industrial factories and succumb to the severe labor and long hours, and her mother had to work longer hours as well to slowly pay off their debt. Despite Belinda’s loss of authority figures, she transformed into a strong and independent adolescent, and acted as a motherly figure for her younger brother, Bill, forming a strong relationship with him and displaying her caring and nurturing qualities.
The drastic change in Belinda’s childhood inspired her to undertake the employment of a maid, who is in charge of household chores and serves for higher class families, but most importantly takes care of the family she is providing for and assumes the role of a motherly figure in the household. She first served as a maid for a middle-class family, who provided her with minimum wage. However, they often mistreated her and were unappreciative of her work, and began to decrease her wage as they looked down on her even more. Growing discontent with her social status, Belinda strived to elevate to wealth and...