Charles Dickens Biography

Charles Dickens Biography

Charles John Huffman Dickens was born in 1812 in England, Hampshire, and died fifty-eight years later at Gad’s Hill. He was the second born out of eight children to John and Elizabeth Dickens. The earliest critical moment of Charles Dickens’s life occurred at a tender age of twelve years. Charles Dicken’s father was facing financial issues at the time and, due to bankruptcy, had been imprisoned at Marshalsea prison. Charles was consequently withdrawn from school and had to work at a shoe polish warehouse to help the family. His experience at the warehouse left profound implications for both his psychological and social life. It was at this stage that he had firsthand experience with poverty, and he, as a result, grew to become one of the most influential voices in his age. He, however, went back to school a few months later after his father was released from prison.

Charles Dickens began writing essays and short stories with his first short story being, A Dinner at Poplar Walk. This publishing also featured in a December edition of a monthly edition magazine in December 1833. 1836 was among the most significant years in Charles Dicken’s life, during which his first book, Sketches by Boz, was published. It was also in 1836 that Dickens mar4ried Catherine Hogarth with whom he had ten children before their separation twenty four years later. Dickens toured the United States and Canada with Catherine in 1842, and it was at this time that he wrote the controversial American Notes. It was afterward that he composed a succession of Christmas books, among them A Christmas Carol and The Chimes. By 1856, Dicken’s popularity had grown dramatically, and through his accumulating wealth, he had purchased an estate, Gad’s Hill, which he had admired for a while. He divorced his wife two years later and got into a relationship with Ellen Ternan, an actress. His health deteriorated towards the late sixties, and he was forced to retreat to Gad’s Hill, where he died working on Edwin Drood, which was never completed.

Literary Criticism

A Tale of Two Cities is a novel set in England and France in the era of the French Revolution. The plot of the novel revolves around Doctor Manette, a French doctor, who is imprisoned for eighteen years in Bastille France and his eventual release to stay with his daughter Lucie. The book is considered in history as Dicken’s best historical fiction work, and over two hundred million sold copies, considered the highest-selling novel in history. The novel is characterized by several universal themes that are also timeless: resurrection, sacrifice, and oppression.

According to Christine Krueger, Sydney Carton comes out in a Tale of Two Cities as one of the most heroic lawyers in the entire English rivaled only by Shakespeare’s Portia. It was his love for Lucie Manette that motivates him to go the guillotine and take the ultimate sacrifice that, according to Krueger, is an extraordinary sacrifice in Victorian fiction. The Carton can be described as a queer character as he affects the plot of the novel. He also directly affects other significant aspects of the plot, such as the characters, the law, and heterosexual desire. According to Kruger, Charles Dickens develops more questions for the character than the novel is able is to solve. Through Carton, Dickens is able to demonstrate the thought that Victorian masculinities are characterized by tensions and sometimes contradictions that strain them the more important they grow. Carton, therefore, is a representation of the Victorian’s anxious acknowledgment of the dependence on sexual offenders by patriarchy. Also, in a fashion to exploit while at the same time containing these laws, Charles Dickens demonstrates what can be described as a narrative of queer heroism. The sacrifice made by the queer character, Carton, is brought out as noble and as a form of revolution against a culture that is established and organized on patriarchal rules.

Oliver Twist was Dicken’s second book published in 1837. The plot of the novel revolves around an orphan, Oliver Twist, who was born at a workhouse but later taken under apprenticeship by an undertaker. He later escapes from the undertaker’s custody and goes to London, where he meets a member of a group of young pickpockets that was run by an older adult called Fagin. The novel is characterized by several themes: society and class, poverty, and crime. Charles Dickens stands out as one of the best novelists of the Victorian error because of his originality and morality. Charles Dickens, through Oliver Twist, identifies various forms of injustices, particularly in England’s workhouses, and attempts to make the social of child abuse though he does this at a time when workhouses were too established in England that they were fated to become part of the British narrative.

Poor legislations in the 1830s focused less on the less fortunate in the society; hence vulnerable groups such as children suffered.  Through the use of what can be described as a satire, stock characters, and pathos, Dickens demonstrates the relationship between the poor and the masters at the workhouse in the novel. He employs the use of satire to demonstrate injustice and cruelty at the workhouse through characters such as Bumble and Corney, both who play a big role in child abuse at the workhouses. The novel also attempts to address crime at the city though characters like Fagin and Artful Dodger, who are affiliated with a gang of pickpockets at the city.

A Christmas Carol was published in 1843 in London. The plot of the novel revolves around Ebenezer Scrooge, an old miser who is paid a visit by the ghost of John Leech: his dead business partner. These visits have a significant impact on the life of Scrooge, who eventually becomes gentler and more generous than before. Charles Dickens composed this book during an era when people in Britain were reevaluating the historical traditions of Christmas, including songs and Christmas trees.

According to Michel Faber, it was typical of Dickens to opt to celebrate Christmas with the least of Christian things, a ghost narrative. The novel is characterized by both a self-conscious side on how Christians should venerate the origin and sacred name of Christmas because it made the day when the founder of the religion was a child. After this, Dickens barely mentions Jesus again and wanders off in his imagination, demonstrating such themes as an indignity, death, poverty, and grotesquery. According to Faber, the line “Marley was dead, to begin with” is used by Dickens to evade what he describes as the grandiloquent rhetoric that is typical of most opening paragraphs of Victorian works.

This line also excites the readers who expected the book to begin in a festive mood. The line also helps Dickens to introduce the theme of death in an exciting fashion that best captures the readers. Faber, however, finds the claim that the wealthy in society don’t have friends while the poor have the favor of warm companionships, shaky. This, however, cannot be used to deduce that Dickens lacked insight on the effects of poverty, as he had a challenging childhood. It, however, shows that the dominant message in the novel, which is that a show of kindness can be enough to rescue the grieving souls.

Hard Times was Dicken’s tenth novel published in 1854. This work is considered Dicken’s shortest novels, and it follows what can be described as a classical structure with the title of each book in the novel directly or indirectly linked to a chapter in the Bible “for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap.” The first book, therefore, is called sowing, the second one reaping, and the third one garnering. The book attempts to evaluate the socio-political situation of the times in an imaginary city in England known as Coketown. The town, according to Dickens, is known for factories and mills. It attempts to demonstrate the lives of the laborers and the hard times they go through.

Dickens tries to illustrate utilitarianism, which was, at that time, a significant part of the English society where they held that the main goal of the society was to promote social welfare. Through the novel, Dickens attempts to stress on the thought that the Utopian state of Coketown could only be developed through the rationalizing of ethics from the family level. This, however, could only result in misery and the obscuring of the human sentiment. Throughout the novel, therefore, Dickens attempts to criticize the Utilitarian concepts of Jeremy Bentham and his followers at the time in history through the various characters and literary devices such as repetition.

Literary Analysis

Bleak House was published in 1852 and is characterized by more than one subplot. Part of the novel is told by the protagonist, Esther Summerson, while the other part is told by an omniscient narrator. The plot of the novel revolves around a prominent legal case at the Court of Chancery. The source of the court case is a series of conflicting wills by a testator. According to the preface from the first edition of the novel, Charles Dickens claims that his fictional case was inspired by cases such as Thellusson v Woodford that was also characterized by a contested will. In the development of the plot, Charles Dickens has employed the use of various literary devices such as symbolism, satire, imagery, and allegory. The most significant themes developed through the plot include law vs. justice, passion, and obsession, philanthropy, guilt, and fate.

Symbolism can be defined as the use of images to suggest a deeper and more profound meaning beyond the physical details of the image itself. One of the symbols used in Bleak House is the fog. Fog is often used in literary works as a symbol of mystery or gloom. In Bleak House, the fog is used as a symbol of the gloom that has engulfed the Court of the Chancery. It can also be described as a symbol of the obscurity of mystery that surrounds the unresolved case. Another symbol used in the novel is the “Roman” who is described as pointing down from the ceiling. This symbol is used to develop the theme of retribution or evil ruining itself. Charles Dickens has therefore employed the use of symbolism as a foreshadowing tool and add unity and impact to his literary work. Bleak House also comes out as a mockery of the English judicial system; hence it can also be argued that Dickens employed the use of satire.

One of the themes that stands out in the novel is law vs. justice. In the book, we can see several characters involved in lawsuits referred to as Jarndyce and Jarndyce. These lawsuits, according to the narrator, have been disputed from generation to generation. Dickens, in the book, attempts to bring to the reader’s attention that the English Chancery system at the time was not the best way to achieve justice. The fact that the court case had gone for long without being resolved is a clear demonstration of justice vs. law. Also, according to the narrator, the court was associated with infirmity and decay.

Another significant theme in the novel is passion and madness. The novel is characterized by characters who, in the pursuit of their passions, are driven towards doom. According to the book, when an honest calling is chosen and achieved, it becomes a useful way to contribute to the community. Dickens also tries to point out that the lack of ethical direction or purpose in life can have an adverse impact on the individual’s wellbeing. This theme is developed through characters such as George, a war veteran, who makes several bad investments and ends up saddling his closest friends. The lack of a sense of direction is also developed through Carstone, who fails to decide from which industry he should train and, as a result, ends up giving up.

Philanthropy and social responsibility was an integral aspect of the 19^th-century society and was also considered fashionable. The theme of philanthropy in the novel is developed through characters such as Mrs. Jellyby and her friends. Mr. Quale also stresses the relevance of philanthropy in the social organization, which, however, does nothing except talking about the measures taken by others. Mrs. Pardiggle is also portrayed in the novel as a fierce ethical and moral individual who visits the poor and reads the Bible to them to redeem their souls.

Lastly, the theme of guilt and fate is also developed through various characters in Bleak House. In the plot, for example, we can see several characters getting influenced by their past and strong emotions like shame and guilt. A good example is Esther, who develops a sense of guilt about her existence and ends up spending her entire life, hoping that the people around her will accept her. Esther’s father is also haunted by the previous mistakes that he resigns from public life, trying to reconcile with his past. The consistent message in Bleak House is that a person’s past remains with them and can adversely affect their choices in the future or their fate. The theme of guilt and fate is also developed through Lady Dedlock, whose previous shame compels her into running away, where she eventually faces her doom. Lady Dedlock is used by Charles Dickens to stress the suggestion that guilt can be a destructive emotion that, if not resolved, can lead one to their demise.