Charles Dickens (1812 – 70)
When he was 12, his father was imprisoned for debt, so he was sent to work in a
factory, an experience which influenced his works.
Later, he went back to school and then began his career first as a parliamentary
reporter and then as a journalist.
Between 1837 and 1857 he published 14 novels, all in installments.
His early novels are of different kinds: adventure stories (Oliver Twist), historical
novels (Barnaby Rudge), sentimental novels and autobiographical novels (David
Copperfield).
His late novels become more critical of Victorian society (Great Expectations,
Bleak House, hard times, Little Dorrit).
He also wrote short stories, such as A Christmas Carol.
• Setting: most of his novels are set in London. He knew well the social
scene of London, and was critical against the impact of industrialism to
society (corruption, public abuses, crimes). He described the urban slums
using Gothic colours, and emphasized their cruelty.
• Characters: he created caricatures (stereotypes), mainly of the middle and
lower classes. He was on the side of the poor, the outcast (differently from
the XVIIIth cent. Novel: he didn’t decsribe the world of the upper-middle
class but that of the working class).
• Didactic Aim: children were very often the moral teachers of the adults.
They were good, despite the difficult circumstances in which they lived.
With his novels Dickens made the wealthier classes aware of the condition
of the working classes.
Hard Times (1854)
•
•
It is set in Coketown (coke = coal +town), an imaginary industrial town in the
north of England.
The protagonist, Mr. Gradgrind ( grade = measure + grind = to break into small
pieces), is a teacher and he is a factual man who represses all imagination. He
considers education very important but he will end up spoiling the lives of his
two children.
Main features:
•
Dickens criticizes industrial society, with its dehumanising effects, and
utilitarian philosophy, based on material gain and efficiency. According to
Utilitarianism , the value of things was based on their utility, that is, on the
material happiness of the greatest number of people.
•
Also education was influenced by this doctrine, and became mechanical and
arid, encouraging memory rather than intelligence.
• In the description of his characters Dickens often uses comic
exaggeration: his characters come from direct observation of reality but
often become stereotypes.
• Dicken’s style is also characterized by a sense of humour on one hand and
by pathos and sentimentality on the other.
• In his descriptions he gave us a good picture of Victorian society and in the
characters’ speech he recreates the different ways of talking of different
social classes.
• Text on page 241-242:
•
•
•
•
Briefly summarize what happens in the passage.
How does Dickens criticize Victorian education?
Explain the choice of the names “Coketown” and “Gradgrind”.
Dickens uses some metaphors to describe the students (line 14) and to
describe Mr Gradgrind (lines 16-20). Explain them.
• Why doesn’t Gradgrind like nicknames? How does she call the girl?
• Why does Gradgrind like Bitzer’s answer?
• Find examples of irony in the text.
Oliver Twist (1837)
• It is set in London
• Three different social levels are explored:
1. The world of the workhouse: lower-middle classes, insensible to the
feelings of the poor.
2. The criminal world: Dickens shows how poverty drives many people to
crime and violence.
3. Victorian middle-class: respectable pople who believe in moral values.
• Dickens criticized the social evils of his times, he described the appalling
living conditions in workhouses. They were run by parishes to relieve the
suffering of the poor, but the whole social system didn’t really allow the
poors to change their situation and climb up the social ladder.
• Dickens also described the terrible situation of poor children and orphans
living in workhouses.
• The innocence of childhood is a critique to the oppressions and corruption
of the adult world.
Text: “Oliver wants some more”
•
•
•
•
•
Where does the scene take place? What happens? Why?
What are the consequences of Oliver’s request?
What kind of narrator is used? What point of view is adopted?
Why does Dickens make a detailed description?
The narration emphasizes some contrasts between different worlds: talk
about them.
Comparison between Dickens and Verga
• Both Oliver and Rosso Malpelo are children exploited by adults.
• Compare setting, protagonists and ending of the two passages (see
handout).
• Both Dickens and Verga attacked the social evils of their time. Verga, in
particular, denounces children’s exploitation and the denial of childhood.
He also points out how the main social values (family, friendship) are
destroyed by a utilitarian concept of life.