Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870)

Charles Dickens

Life

He is considered the best representative of the Victorian Age, because of his great popularity.

He was born at Portsmouth where his father worked as clerk in the Navy Office. Charles's neglected the studies because of the financial difficulties. When his family transferred in London, his father was imprisoned for debt and Charles went to work in a blacking factory. 

Thanks to this important experience Charles know the life of the poor, that he will describe in his novels. When his father was released and their economic situation improved Charles continued his studies and he learnt shorthand. In 1835 he became a parliamentary reporter and began to write some sketches about London life, known as 'Sketches by Boz'. Later he also published  'Pickwick Papers'.

Dickens's became famous with Oliver Twist, about criminal life in London, David Copperfield, dealing with social problems and largely autobiographical, Great Expectations, Little Dorrit, etc.

During this period he went also to the U.S.A., writing in defence of the slaves.

Views and Themes

Dickens is considered as a social critic and a reformer. In his novels he put in evidence the problems of his society, as the exploitation of the poor social classes, in particular women and children, the criminal life of thieves. In particular, he described the working class,  but Dickens's objective was never to drive them to rebellion, because he was satisfied of the Victorian society, so he only asked reforms for establish equality among the social classes. Dickens's novels have some limitations, in fact even if they are animated by a sense of injustice, the solution of the author to all these evils is moral not politic. Dickens believed that if removing egoism, hypocrisy and avidity all the wrongs could be eliminated, but was not so easy.

Dickens's novels are realistic because the stories, the events, the problems are taken from the real life, but they are not always realistic because the stories always and well. There is a division between good and bad characters, and while the bad characters are punished, the good are rewarded. This not realistic, but Dickens wanted to give his readers the hope that it was possible to change the world and their conditions of life.

Other negative sides of is novels are the melodrama, sentimentalism, exaggerations, because the author wanted to satisfy his readers. The plots are confused and complicated, because Dickens didn't have the time to revise them.  

Dickens's great merit was to describe the conditions of poor people and the problems of the society, presenting comic episodes with great ability.       

Dickens, with W. M. Thackeray, who described above all the upper social classes, gave us a complete picture of the Victorian age.