Dickens, Charles - Life and Works

Charles Dickens

He had an unhappy childhood caused by the financial difficult of his family: his father went to prison for debts and he had to work in a factory at the age of twelve.
The realty he sperimented in his life is presented in his novels. He became a journalist and, for this reason, he used a journalistic style.
His success in the field of novels is represented by Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Little Dorrit, in which he exposed the exploitation of children in the factories.
Other novels like Hard Times described the condition of the poor and the working class.
The setting of most of his novels are London and Manchester where he presented a variety of social groups: middle group, managers, poor.
• Dickens wasn’t a revolutionary thinker, he described society in an objective view, without comments, but he was attempt to the condition of poor who lived in miserable way.
He didn’t want to induce revolution, but to get a common intelligence of the country to alleviate sufferings.
• He used humour in the description of characters because he wanted to denounce society making the reader laugh; for this reason he used caricature and he exaggerated their characteristic using their own voice and dialogue.
• Children are often the most important character; they were seen as moral teachers and example for all people.