Explain how class acts as an obstacle for characters that have ambitions in life?

The Victorian England that Dickens lived in was heavily regulated by class-structure. The industrial Revolution ushered in the factory system. The disparity between rich and poor became wider. Middle class and the working class became more defined and narrower. The poor and the working poor grew rapidly, endlessly toiling in dirty factories for little money and no rights. Workers or "the Hands" (often children) worked long hours and were abused by higher classes both in and out of the factory setting.