Dickens, Charles - Life and literary works

Childhood and Career of Dickens

Charles Dickens was raised in a rural, blissful environment in Kent, but his life upset in 1822 when he moved to London and his father was arrested for debt. Charles was ripped from his family to work in a boat blacking warehouse, he alter settles down and started working as a journalist under the nickname of "Boz" and he even married the daughter of a newspaper editor. He was a successful writer and hypnotized readers with his serialised novels. He used his novels to discredit the hypocrisy and flaws of the Victorian period, as he has a refined skill of blending criticism with vibrant descriptions of characters:

1. Nicholas Nickleby, he slates boarding schools;


2. Hard times, he criticised utiliritarism;


3. David Copperfield, mirrors his pre-teen years;

But he never suggested solutions, only fosteres intelligence to limit the pain, the philosopher Spencer applied Darwin's theories to social life, comparing natural selection economic competition.

Oliver Twist and the Struggle Between Good and Evil

He is a poor orphan born in a workhouse, the reader gazes at the transition form the exploitation by selfish men to the adoption of Oliver, as the good always successfully faces the evil. Oliver's misfortune begins when he trains with an undertaker, he later runs off to London, only to innocently join a gang and being arrested as a cult purse, this obviously gives a definite portray of a shoddy and filthy London. At the end, Oliver lives his happy ending when he finds out about his middle class origin and gets adopted.

Themes of Hard Times

This novel is divided into three parts: sowing, reaping and garnering, that refer to the biblical passages. It takes place in the fictive industrial town of Coketown and it revolves around three main characters:

• Thomas Gradgrind, a staunch rationalist who runs a school and tries to instil in the pupils, the principles of utilitarism, hence imagination and fancy are regarded as enemies. Thomas is a stubborn, adamant man who disrespects anyone with a different opinion than him;


• Josiah Bounderby, he embodies the worst aspects of middle class: haughtiness, lack of compassion and conceit;


• Sissy June, the daughter of a circus permer, who abandons her, her imagination and friendship with Louisa and Tom represent her sole salvation and escape form reality. She demonstrates the failure of the utilitarian system, as she will return to the circus;

Negative Effects of the Victorian Era

Dickens stresses the negative effects of the Victorian period, traditionally depicted as a flourishing era, and of industrialization.