Dickens, Charles - Oliver Twist and David Copperfield

What was Charles Dickens' Early Life like?

He was born in Portsmouth in 1812 and went to work as a clerk in a lawyer's office where learnt shorthand: so becaming a parliamentary reporter. He wrote sketches which were caricatures of the life and between 1836 and 1837 wrote 'The Pickwick papers' in instalments. Other works are: 'Oliver Twist', 'Nicholas Nickleby' (which shows the negative things of private schools), 'A Christmas Carol' (a series of short Christma stories written after the contact with Italian culture) and 'David Copperfield'.

Social Criticism in Dickens' Novels

Most of his novels present a third person omniscient narrator, but there are examples of first person narrator to emphasize the feeling of intimacy with the reader abd to bring a personal note to the narration. The structure of the novel tend to be episodic, the style is simple and the characters are full of movement because they are stereotypes and caricatures. In his novels there is psychological analysis and the novels were important to the middle-class. Dickens didn't like the social system of his time and social criticism is an important component in his novels. This author is recorded for his writings versus social injustices. He died in the United Kingdom in the 1870.

Plot of Oliver Twist

It is a novel set in a small town of London and tells the story of Oliver, a boy who is put on a orphanage until the age of nine; after he began to steal but is taken to Mr Brownlow's house, where is treated with compassion. The gang of thieves kudnap him and oblige him to burge a house where live Mrs Maylie who adopt him. But a mysterious man named Monks wanted to discredit Oliver's reputation for exclude him from their deceased father's rich inheritance. It is also discovered that Oliver's dead mother and Rose Maylie (the adopted daughter of Mrs maylie) were sisters. Oliver is finally adopted by Mr Brownlow while Monks goes to America and becomes bankrupt.

Themes in Oliver Twist

This novel shows the Dickens' attack to the cruelty of workhouses and the squalor of London underworld.
It is a novel which tells the story of David born after the father's death and he lived with a nasty sister, Miss Jane Murdstone (the daughter of the Edward Murstone, the man of David's mother), who changes David's life. So he sent to work a London at the age of ten-after the mother's death-and here he attended the school of Canterbury, where he begin to write poetry and where he learns shorthand. So he became a parliamentary reporter and married a nice and superficial girl, Dora Spenlow, who dead after few time. David so married Agnes Wickfield and becomes a famous writer.

Themes in David Copperfield

This novel is a Bildungsroman because there is the change of David and in where dickens shows the hardships of poverty and child labour.