Charles Dickens

CHARLES DICKENS CHARLES DICKENS LIFE Charles Dickens bellowed to a lower middle class family in 1812. He had many money problems as his father went to prison for debts, so he started working at 12 years old in a factory. He experienced personally the children exploitation/he had a direct experience of the exploitement of children: he was ill treated and paid little money. And moreover he had to leave his home to go to work, and he lacked/missed the affection of his parents. He was taught by his mother (he did not go to school) and later he became a self-taught man, and finally a journalist. His profession determined some features of his works: in fact he published his novels in magazines, he became very successful. Thanks to his experiences (he had to grow up quickly) he become mature and a keen-observer. Finally, he had unhappy relationship with women (he did not have a very happy marriage). He spent his last years travelling, and then he died in 1870 and was buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. He is one of the most popular English novelists of all time. POLITICALLY ? Was he a revolutionary author or did he only want to condemn the bad conditions of his society? Dickens shared the same values of/as the middle class (he was a Victorian). He condemned the evils of the society as he felt it his own moral duty. His position may seem radical, but in reality he didn't suggest any political or economic solution, he was not interested in politics, he was not a politician; anyway he gave/offered his own idea to solve the social situation, but his solution was above all a moral or a paternalistic one. A paternalistic solution because Dickens stated/believed that the rich people had to help the poor and moral solution because he stated that only with good values it was possible to get improvements. He thought the poor were poor as/because it was their destiny. Of course he wanted to comply with the taste of the society and so of his readers (he was successful, he couldn't go against the society - he gave a superficial judgement). A DIDACTIC AIM Dickens wanted to illustrate the reversing in fiction of the natural order of things: wise children so were opposed to worthless parents, as children represented the moral teachers, the examples to follow. Dickens' characters are in contrast with the circumstances in which they are set: good children, with noble qualities and judicious management were born in harsh families, by wicked parents. The didactic purpose of Dickens is to make people love their children, and to make them put children forward as models. Anyway Dickens' aim was not to stimulate the poor to rebel, and he did not want to encourage discontent among the most suffering, but he tried to alleviate the sufferings of the society by getting the common intelligence of the country. MAIN WORKS He adopted the pen name of "Boz" and wrote for various papers and magazines, like "Monthly Magazine" on which a collection of articles describing London