Charles Dickens

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Data:	10.04.2001
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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
P 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 people appeared in 1836.
He published "The posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club" in instalments (1836): an example of Dickens' humoristic and satirical qualities. (The Pickwick Papers became very famous).
We have to remember two important autobiographical novels, Oliver Twist (1838) and David Copperfield (1849-1850). Their protagonists became the symbol of childhood exploitation.
Dickens also wrote novels about the French Revolution, the Chartist riots, a travel book.
We have to remember also works which deal with social issues (the conditions of the poor and working class problems caused by the Utilitarianism philosophy), as Bleak House (1853), Hard Times (1854) and Great Expectations (1860-61).
THEMES
• Exploitation of childhood/children
• Life in slums and in factories
• French Revolution
• Chartist riots
• Travel book
• Poor's condition / working class' condition
• Dickens attacked the Utilitarianism
In general Dickens wanted to deal with any social issue/problems and to show the bad aspect/conditions of the society. And he denounced them/the harm. All social classes are represented in his works/novels.
PLOTS
His plots are not always well-balanced, because there are some parts which are very long, very detailed and a bit exaggerated. On the contrary there are some parts which are too short and some situations/events finish abruptly. This is a consequence of the publication in instalments. Another consequence is the episodic structure of the novels. In fact each novel is divided into numerous chapters/episodes and each chapter is quite short. It follows a line of development with a beginning and an end.. it was important to create suspense or a feeling of expectation in the readers, so that they were willing to buy the next publication.
Plots are artificial and sentimental because Dickens wanted to conform/satisfied to the tastes of his readers and the Victorian society appreciated feelings with exaggeration of sentimentalism, sensational events, happy ending. (melodrama).
STYLE
His style/way of write was realistic. When we talk about realism we don't mean that the writer describes reality as it is. The writer can use a realistic style to express imaginary situations. When a style is defined realistic that implies a great number of details, for example description which give the illusion of reality. Careful choice of adjectives, repetition of words and structures, striking images and ideas, ironic and sarcastic remarks are typical features of Dicken’s style.
CHARACTERS
His characters are not considered realistic even if they are portrayed in a realistic way.
• Dickens characters are always divided into two categories/groups:
1. The wicked/bad
2. The good/virtuous
Each character belongs to one of these two categories and it never happens that a bad character becomes a good one and conversely that a virtuous character becomes a wicked one.
• As a consequence the characters never change their personality, they don't undergo any psychological development, so the actions/events that the reader finds in the novel reveal the characters’ personality but they do not change them (it is the same from the beginning to the end). This type of character is called/defined two-dimensional or flat (in contrast with round or three-dimensional characters).
Anyway we can't consider Dickens's characters as types (the layer,…), but as individuals.
• Characters and plots are not realistic (not put in comparison with reality). It means that they may become grotesque (with exaggerations) or they can become caricatures.
The difference between a caricature and a portrait are:
CARICATURE
PORTRAIT
Some traits are exaggerated.
There is a faithful representation of conventional reality.
It shows what is not considered appreciable by people.
It represents only what people/an observe can see of you/want to see.
Dickens wanted to show bad or hidden aspects of his own characters.
It hides something.
In conclusion what may seem unrealistic in the end is more realistic than a conventional portrait.
• In Dickens's novels there is almost always a happy ending, Dickens wanted to satisfy the desire of his readers, and his readers wanted a happy story where the good were awarded and the wicked were punished.
NOVELS
OLIVER TWIST - Oliver wants some more
The text is made up of 3 parts concerning:
1. the setting and the description of the boys' hunger
2. the main event
3. the consequence of Oliver's request.
The scene takes place in a workhouse and starts by denouncing the boys' greatest problem, hunger. One evening the boys decide that one of them, Oliver Twist, should ask for more food.
At his insisting demand for more food, the master hits Oliver and goes to look for Mr Bumble, the man in charge of the workhouse.
Every member of the parish board is astonished and considers Oliver's request as a sign of his criminal nature. Therefore the boy is confined to his room and five pounds are offered to anyone who wants to take him away.
The story is developed through dialogues, descriptions and narration.
The features of the room of the workhouse, where the boys eat their meg and the boys' condition and their hunger are described with details. The room is large, made of stone and extremely cold, while the boys are on the brim of starvation. Such a detailed description arouses pity in the reader, who is led to side with the poor boys, and builds up a realistic picture of the scene.
The narration, which is mainly used in the central part of the passage, establishes an implicit comparison between the world of the boys and that of the institutions.
The dialogues have the function of increasing the reader's interest in the scene.
The passage shows Dickens' typical stylistic aspects. The author makes fun of the most distinguishing features of his characters by exaggerating a particular element or using absurd analogies or hypotheses. In the text there are exaggerations and absurd elements linked to the world of the boys, for instance when the writer says that they "suffered the tortures of slow starvation" or linked to the world of the staff members of the workhouse, for instance "the board were sitting in solemn conclave". The contrasting images of the passage underline the different feelings which characterise the two worlds: the boys' submission, fear and starvation are contrasted by the adults' power, fatness, and lack of humanity. Dickens does not express any open judgement of what he describes, but his opinion is evident through the use of irony. He satirises the workhouse board because he wants to criticise the upper middle-class of the Victorian age. He sides with the poor; in fact he feels pity for the boys and he caricatures exponents of the upper middle classes.
The narrator is an omniscient third person who adopts Oliver's point of view, thus making the reader feel sympathetic with the protagonist and critical with the adult characters.
Oliver is a boy. His life is seen from the eyes of the writer. He has a lot of strong experiences but he has anyway a happy ending.
HARD TIMES - Nothing but facts
The scene takes place in a classroom where Mr Gradgrind stands before a group of young students affirming his belief in facts, as the sole measure of reality.
The passage is made up of dialogues and descriptions.
Mr Gradgrind is speaking to his students about the importance of Facts being the principle of education. 'Me speaker's name reveals his idea of education, in fact Gradgrind is composed of the word "grade", which means a particular standard or level of quality of a product, plus the verb "to grind', meaning to crush into powder.
Mr Gradgrind is a rational, practical man who wants to crush his children with his rules, who wants them to repress their own imagination in favour of reason- The schoolchildren are expected to lose their personality and to become passive receivers of objective teachings. The speaker wants to destroy his students' personality applying his abstract and rigid educational principles which do not leave space for creativity or for the development of the personality.
The speaker's physical appearance is well described in the central part of the passage, using similes in order to create a humorous caricature and to make the reader dislikes him.
Dickens believed in a relationship between the person's appearance and his/her personality. NU Gradgrind's outer aspect is unattractive and he seems very rigid (the adjective "square" is repeated several times), extremely concrete, narrow-minded, conceited, and determined.
'Me repetition of words and, above all, of syntactic structures, creates an impression of geometrical order, suggesting that the speaker's ideas are as fixed and unchangeable as mathematics rules. His body has become similar to a geometrical figure and, similarly, his mind, his system of thought, has become closed, inflexible, and 'perfect'.
Coketown: la città del carbone. It is imaginary.
Gradgrind è il maestro (grind = macinare, rompere, distruggere.
According to Thomas' theory the children had to be taught to follow only their reason and not their fantasy/imagination. The education had to destroy imagination and fantasy and also to repress those feelings that could create a contrast with reason. The students were considered tabula rasa or like empty bowls to be filled with teachings. The children/students were not considered subjects of their educational projects but only objects.
This novel is an attack on the Utilitarianism and on the emphasis of reason.
Themes of Hard Times are dealt with:
• criticism to Utilitarianism
• education (criticism of that particular idea of education, it's a consequence of Utilitarianism)
• life in industrial towns (slums, factories)