Life
Charles Dickens was born in 1812. Most of Dickens’ family were in prison, which is why he was forced to work 10 hours a day in a ‘blacking’ factory. This tragic experience marked his life and will influence the works he will write in the future. In 1833 Dickens became a journalist and published a series of articles under the pseudonym ‘Boz’. Shortly thereafter, in 1836 Dickens published his first ‘Pickwick papers’ novel. He also wrote plays and performed before Queen Victoria in 1851. Dickens died in 1870.
Themes
Major Works and Themes
In Dickens’ novels it is very evident: his sympathy for the oppressed and his indignation against social injustice. These two characteristics made him one of the most significant voices of the Victorian age. In his novels Dickens used to use and create characters with particular distinctive aspects of language, physical appearance and, which show us Dickens’ humor. Also, he used to create comic situations that these characters experienced. One of Dickens’ most famous novels is Oliver Twist (between 1837 and 1839), which talks about the exploitation of children and the cruelty of workhouses. Dickens is also the author of the famous novel ‘A Christmas Carol’ (1843), ‘David Copperfield’ (1849-50) and of the famous satirical novel ‘Hard Times’ (1854) in which instruction and difficulties related to the class are satirized worker during the industrial revolution.
Dickens’ Characters
In Dickens’s works we find many characters, climaxes and unlikely coincidences because due to the serial publication he had to keep the interest of the reader from one episode to another.
In Dickens’ novels it is possible to find a great many characters who are often caricatures of vices or virtues, rather than real-life people.
The Condition-of-England Novel
After Oliver Twist, Dickens writes novels focused on social criticism. He addresses issues such as the consequences of the industrial revolution on the lives of the poor, the living and working conditions of the working classes, education, child labor, the legal system and crime. Dickens talks about all these topics because he wants to denounce the social evils of the time. In fact, he believed in the ethical and political potential of literature and challenged the popular Victorian idea, which he believes that some people were more prone to vice than others.
An Urban Novelist
Within Dickens’ world we can find a great many people belonging to different social classes. Many of his novels were set in London, but we find exceptions such as Hard Times is set in Coketown. The London that is depicted in Oliver Twist is dark, dirty and full of criminals.
Dickens’s Legacy in the English Language
Charles Dickens had a great influence on English society and its language, so much so that an adjective was created for Dickens, ‘Dickensian’. In addition, he had a fundamental role in the diffusion of words that already existed, he used commonly used expressions and the most legendary proper names took on meanings, such as the term ‘Scrooge’.
The Best Screenwriter of all times
Dickens’ narrative style It is also used today to create films. Dickens’ novels are perfect for the screen due to the abundance of narrative details, for this reason they are described as cinematic. Moreover, they present a particular narrative structure, which anticipates the idea of transversal editing.
The work
Oliver Twist
Poor law and workhouses
During the Victorian age the aristocratic class did not have to work for a living while the middle class saw hard work as a moral virtue. Poverty at that time was a sin, even under the terms of the Poor Law. In fact, the poor could only get help if they worked in workhouses. In these houses the living conditions were the harshest, this is because the state tried to discourage the poor from using public services. The alternative was a life of delinquency or prostitution.
Victorian morality and a happy ending
The happy ending for Oliver comes only with the discovery of his true identity, this makes us understand that there is no transformation of a young criminal into a gentleman, because in Victorian society it is not possible to change one’s social condition, in fact one belongs to birth to a status. Despite Dickens’ description of Victorian England, we have no reform or change. Furthermore, in this novel, coincidence is pushed to the limits of credibility, this is because Dickens wants to offer a happy ending to this story of evil.
Hard Times
Two intertwining themes
Principal of the novel are the plight of the young characters who grow up in a hostile world, the difficulty of the working class and the contrasts between the lives of the rich and the poor. Dickens in this novel ferociously attacks utilitarianism applied in education. In the new schools, pupils were crammed into huge classrooms and were forced to conformism. This was in accordance with the ideologies of Victorian society.
Extract from Dickens’ novel
I want some more
This extract, from Chapter two, is one of the most famous passages of English literature.
This passage is taken from the II chapter of Oliver Twist written by Charles Dickens. The action takes place in a stone hall where the children have lunch or dinner. The children are ladled the gruel at mealtimes, but the portions of food is very small. For this reason, Oliver Twist and the other children suffer the tortures of starvation. By this particular we enter in the central point of the story.
Oliver Twist is forced by other boys to ask to the master some more food. After a draw. Oliver takes courage and with his eyes full of fear asks some food (boy’s request was exceptional and potentially dangerous). The master at this request remains astonished because nobody before asked for more food. Everybody after this moment thought that Oliver will be hanged. Instead, at the end of the story Oliver is given away along with 5 pounds to anyone who wants an apprentice for any trade, business or vocation. In this text we can find a third-person unobtrusive narrator.
Nothing but facts
This passage is taken from the novel Hard Times a satire novel on the English administration. This episode describes a speech of Mr. Gradgrind with his class of children. The action takes place in a monotonous vault of a schoolroom and Mr. Gradgrind explains to the class the importance of the facts. A big part of the passage describes the figures of Mr. Gradgrind as a square person, bald and with a big forehead. At the end the narrator compares the facts children will learn into vessels to be filled.