Dickens, Charles - Early and Late Novels

Early novels and their characteristics

His early novels consisted on random events and were characterized by the lack of unity: this was due to the fact that they were published in installments and to the fact that the writer had to follow the readers’ expectations and their taste.
The setting of most of this novels was London. Dickens can be defined as the “painter” of British life: his knowledge of the city came from his curiosity as a journalist and also from his wondering in the town during his childhood. He described very well the cold, dirty and polluted environment of the factories and the life that workers led inside them. He also gave a detailed description of the domestic life of lower and middle class people, describing their appearance, manners etc.

Characterization in Dickens' stories

Dickens’ stories are populated by a wide range of characters, in fact he gave voices to the different social classes of a complex town as Town. The characters can be divided into “evil” and “good”, but each one of them is unique and different from others ( they are individuals).
In describing each character, the author stressed the dominant traits of their personalities and he also made them talk freely, reproducing different patterns of speech and mixing proper and improper use of language (especially when he described poor people). His favorite characters were children who were described as wise and good and opposed to their worthless parents. They were a sort of moral guide for adults, examples of behavior rather than imitators.

Themes in late novels

Although Dickens never was a revolutionary writer, in these novels he wanted to denounce the evils of his time and sensitize middle and upper classes to social issues.
He didn't want to stimulate the conflict between social classes: on the contrary, his aim was didactic because he wanted people in charge of the country to be aware of social problems and make reforms to alleviate the poor’s suffering.
After all, it could be said that Dickens explored the effects and the implications in England of the Realism movement which had started in France with Zola's Naturalism and continued in Italy through Verga' Verism.

Dickens’ writing style according to the critics

Vladimir Nabokov claimed that Dickens’ most peculiar trait and skill was to create and evoke vivid imagines that will be stuck for a long time in the reader’s mind.
Nevertheless, his dialogues and his scenes seem distant, crystalized in that past time where they can be expressed and lived entirely, at least in the material and bodily part (although we are still talking about fictional characters).
As a matter of fact, Dickens used the story to let readers understand the complexity and the fatigue of the history itself and that is why the meticulous descriptions are so relevant as well as metaphors.
Metaphors and descriptions are used to enrich the setting of the story, but Dickens communicates truly with the readers through the dialogues and character’s worlds and thoughts in order to create a sense of realism and deep emotional connection.