CHARLES DICKENS

Introduction

The greatest novelist of the Victorian era, Charles John Huffam Dickens, widely
referenced as Charles Dickens, was born on 7 th of February 1812 in Portsmouth, Britain
and impacted the world of literature in such a fashion that, in a contradistinctive
perspective, equals to his innate literary genius is of an utter rarity. However after 52
years of age, Dickens, said farewell to the world on 9 th of June 1870, though outliving the
mere physicality through his ever-remembered works of genuine grace. He is best
known for writing Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist and A Tale of
Two Cities. Among his other famous work, shine, Bleak House, Hard Times and the
Pickwick Papers etc. Though wasn’t given a formal education, Dickens had a vast
knowledge of people and of the society in general and had an ability to read into the
lives of those that were around him. Thus, he was never out of plots for the fifteen
novels, five novellas, and great number of non-fiction articles and short stories he
completed. He was also an editor in a weekly journal for 20 years.

Part One: Works In General

Dickens’s fame was of a sudden pop into existence after the publication of Pickwick
Papers. Though he found fame in the age of 25, still a novice, Dickens’s initial works
were largely running in an equal fashion as his favourite novelist, Smolett’s were;
bundles of adventures knitted together into one story. Later however, beginning in
Martin Chuzzlewit and David Copperfield, they metamorphosised into more of a unified
story and can be seen mastered in later works such as Great expectations.

Dickens’s works, or to be more particular, the settings of Dickens’s works were

His characters, more often than not, seem caricatures of the virtues and weaknesses of
his time, however engaging they are. Often all of these characters seem to suffer so

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much that, based on their condition, later an adjective arose, called ‘Dickensian’,
meaning harsh and rough conditions to live in.

Part Two: Literary Analysis

Turning the pages of a Dickensian piece of work, and merely skimming a bit of it is
sufficient to register the unique sense in them. To understand this Dickensian signature,
its existence and its purpose of existence, first, a glance at the audience these works
were directed would be of use.

Dickens was not named the greatest and most famous writer of the Victorian era, just
because he wrote good novels. Like any most-famous thing, Dickens’s triumph was with
the populous form it took, the approval and the demand the general public had towards
them. Dickens’s career begins with him being a young writer, working for a serialized
story magazine, as a profession; which infers that his job to continue people had to read
his work, and that they must be kept wanting more.

Dickens’s time was, as described in his works, bleak, dark, dusty, full of; social disorder,
poverty, crimes, economic depravity and all in all was an enigmatic, strange unjust
society. Further it must be remembered hither, the majority of readers that time was
the working class, of whose members were the sufferers of the harshness of that time, it
was them, to whom Dickens’s works were serialized for an affordable price, so it is
understandable dickens wrote of Pip whose little brothers ‘who gave up trying to get a
living, … in that universal struggle’ and it is understandable why Dickens in A Tale of
Two Cities, talks of the leaders rather unflatteringly, saying that, ‘In England, there was
scarcely an amount of order and protection to justify much national boasting.’

So, writing for the greatest portion of his audience, and writing about them, Dickens
shapes his themes and settings of his works accordingly, the boy who begs for food, or
the boy who dreams to match the high society, and to be a gentlemen and be rid of his
poor and pathetic lifestyle.

A second thing about the initial pace at which Dickensian works met its audience, brings
explanations to another famous Dickensian literary technique, the cliff-hangers. A today
reader, reading a book by Dickens might wonder, why so many works, have their
chapter ends or an occasion after every few chapters, rising such a high spirit of
curiosity and suspense or a mysterious twist. Some chapters end with a feeling that,

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they their ends are occasioning a story even better; like when little pip stole the utensils
the convict demanded and “(he) put the fastenings as (he) found them, opened the door at
which (he) had entered when (he) ran home last night, shut it, and ran for the misty
marshes.” When Dickens speaks of the misty marshes he there not only places a
metaphor about pips gloomy, mystical and enigmatic future, but also, axiomatically
leaves the reader demanding the rest of it. A child running to such a gloomy place to
meet a convict who few pages ago, exhibited such violence, that the child was so shaken
to his very core, is that salty bit of the chip that makes your tongue crave for more.

Dickens’s narrative, though is distinguished from each work –moreover– has a way of
fixing a mood that, engaging and is, in its unique way, appropriate for the work to feel
better. A Tale of Two Cities begin begins with setting a tone so confusing, the reader
settles to pay more attention to it, with every line that is read. Dickens describing the
time the story is settled as, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the
age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch
of
incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the
spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had
nothing before us…” is enough to feel that it’s a strange time that we are about to settle
into. The description of the background and the setting, in so many cases was another
way of Dickens’s in constructing the appropriate mood. The mud-ridden tale of two
cities first chapters, full of mists that “had roamed in its forlornness up the hill, like an evil
spirit, seeking rest and finding none”; the decaying wine-yards, misty marshes, moth-
eaten wedding cakes of Great Expectations; are examples of such creations.

These bleak symbols that constantly pop up, on the other hand, have another purpose,
while being a candle sent, setting moods, it also draw a feeble candle light, on things the
reader himself has to understand and interpret. The evil-spirit like mist that seeking
rest and finding none, was the omen Dickens drew to emblem the French men and
women readying for a bloody course, seeking rest from horrendous oppression; the
decaying-everything at Miss Havisham’s is her yearning to have what she cannot keep
from decay, the rust and cobwebs upon her wedding cake and the wedding dress are the
hatred that has rusted her spirit with malice that once was bright. These symbols give
Dickens his identity and the uniqueness of his works.

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Part Three: Meaningful Quotations

A Dickensian tale, on a different note can be called as a story with a happy ending, with
a moral message. This leads the vast majority of them being called bildungsromans.
They show the moral and psychological growth of the lead, pawing way even the reader
to offer the lead with some-constructive criticism that would ultimately the reader will
tell himself to listen to. Further, creating a story upon the mist of his age Dickens
fabricates a land at which we have so much to think of. Saying “there are dark shadows
on the earth, but its lights are stronger in contrast” in Pickwick Papers, Dickens infers
that it should be good that requires searching, however dark may the shadows be. What
is annunciates is that, it’s a fact the world to have evil in it but, even though rare is the
correctness and justice, we should up hold them, as they are strong when put in
contradistinction with evils.

In A Christmas Carol, through the voice of a ghost, by saying, “I war the chain I forged in
life”, Dickens means, many yearnings to earthly things, those thoughts that will make us
misers, will be one day our own burden, and ultimately he appeals to the entire human
kind, to be kind and generous and to love each other.

Also, Dickens admired the sacrifices one made on behalf of another. Carton, who one
may find to be throwing away his life, uttering, “it is a far, far better thing that I do, than
I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known,” tells the
great philosophy that, even at the ultimate loss of ours, that pain should be
circumvented by looking at the others’ happiness that our sacrifices create.

Part Four: Influence of His Work

In essence, Dickens was a social critique, and as expressed above, he sought relief to the
issues of his time. He pointed them out in his novels through various characters and,
ultimately, Dickens’s characters, particularly, though not exclusively, Dickens’s villains
embody the evils of the Victorian era. Ergo, it must be noted that, Dickens’s works were
vastly influenced by his times.

Yet this never allowed his tales to decay with the passage of it. The admirable talent of
Dickens’s was that, in writing about his times, he wrote about all the times, making his

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stories, alive for today too. This renders them being told and retold so famously,
Dickensian morals shape our times too. Projects such as BBC’s limited series,
DICKENSIAN, is an ode to the undying values Dickens penned, and they certainly will
continue to do so, till the English language is alive.

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