Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) Charles Dickens (1812-1870) Life Family he was the son on a naval clerk, at 1st they had the money to send Charles to school, but after they had a bankrupt and Charles was obliged to leave school and to work. Occupations he was a worker in a blacking factory (were he was fascinated by orphans) when he was young, then after the school Dickens became a clerk in a lawyer's office, a journalist and a lecturer. Education he studied in a school in Chatham until 1823 when he began to work. He continued to study at Hampstead (a school for boys of the lower middle class) in 1825 when the condition of his family improved. Prison He was put in prison where he had known the condition of the prisoners and he fascinated by these persons. Love In 1836 he married Catherine Hogarth but the marriage wasn't happy and they separated in 1856. He fell in love with a girl of 18 years old Ellen Ternan and this relationship caused to Dickens a sort of depression because he was influenced by the Victorian moral principles. Charles probably fall in love with his sister in law whom he described in some of his work. Travels He went to America where he obtained enormous success. At 1st he was fascinated by America (he called it “treasure land”), but then he change his opinion because in America there where a lot of Pauperism. Features and Themes Realism Dickens included in his works a lot of details especially when he described London slums. He never mentioned repugnant objects but they were replaced by the generic term “dirt” or by a redundancy of adjectives. Dostoevsky: There were criminals in his books and their most frequent crime were a murder or a rape. Dickens: There are criminals in his books, but the crimes they committed were only murders, in fact rape was connected with sex and was avoided. Dualism Dickens created “specular characters” i.e. 2 characters symbolizing respectively good and evil. He at 1st used only flat characters, from 1850 he began to use round ones. Each characters of Dickens was drawn from the observation of real people and it was an individual (different from the other one). The author was not interest in the inner life of his character but in the external qualities. 2 Types of children Sentimental and idealized children: a product of the Romanticism, he is an uncorrupted child, he is responsible of his parents or relatives, they think about death as a kind of Eden. They are very religious (Oliver Twist and Little Dorrit) Realistic child: an accurate kind closer to Dickens's experiences (David Copperfield and Pip). They haven't comprehension of death at all, they get bored when they go to Church. Humour It was used by Dickens especially when he described some aspects of the lower-classes. It was now gentle and subtle, now paradoxical and sarcastic. Metaphorical style Dickens used a lot of metaphor: “Dombey and sons” the locomotive symbolized commercial progress. “L Continua »