Charles Dickens(1812-1870) is one of the most popular and prolific novelist in England; he came
from middle class, he had a normal life but he went to jail because of the generosity of his father
that that went in bankrupt. When he became free, he had to leave the school and started
working in a factory, where he was called the little gentleman. His childhood poverty influenced
his works giving him an acute sensitivity towards his environment and making him know the
darker face of the Victorian Age; so he produced unforgettable charachters and harsht
descpriptions of the inhumanities of his day, such as children exploitation in factories and
poverty. Then he became a parliament reporter and thanks to this job he had experience of
politics. After he knew the English injustice, he started writing novels. His first work is the
Pickwick Papers; the pickwick was a club and a meeting point of different characters. Full of
humorism, wit and brilliant dialogue, it was published in instalments into a magazine and was
read by mid and lower middle class. In all his novels he combines humors with social
denunciation. . He gave up his job as reporter and became a professional novelist and became a
wealthy person. David Copperfield is autobiographical, it is an example of bildungsroman, it tells
the story of a child that will become a man, during his growning he makes changes. Also A
Christmas Carol(Scrugge) and Great Expectations (Pipp) are bildungsroman, these works have
round characters. In the other novels the protagonists are flat characters; they are caricatures
that deliberately accentuate one specific human feature. He makes caricature of the exponents
of the middle class and his characters are grotesque. He usually uses a third person narrator in
his works, the only first person narrator is in Great Expectations. He believed in progress, but to
realize it he didn't propose revolutionary changes. He was optimistic and he thought that the
problems could be solved thanks to the better behaviour of each person. In his opinion middle
class mustn't blind their eyes, but they had to confront the problems.
Oliver Twist focuses on a child protagonist. This novel is set in the slums of London and exposes
the situation of the workhouses. He represents the extreme poverty, hunger, murder and
blackmail that surround Oliver and the fear that accompanies him right to the end. Oliver was an
orphan born in a workhouse, where his mother dies to give birth to him. At the age of nine he
returns into the workhouse, a place where he can live and eat but where he have to work very
hard. At the beginning the workhouses had been created by the Church, then the state started
managing them. People that lived in this place were divided in three categories: those unable to
work, those able to work and children. The family were segregated on arrival, everyone had to
wear a uniform and they received only one meal a day that consisted in a portion of gruel. In the
workhouse Oliver schocks everyone by asking more food, so he is sold for 5£ to an undertaker.
He decides to run away to London, where he makes friend with Dodger, a talented pick pocket,
that gives hospitality to him from his house, Fagin's den, in the slums. Fagin keeps a gang of
homeless boys, forced to steal for him and he is helped by Bill Sikes, a burglar, and his girlfriend
Nancy, a prostitute. Oliver is forced to work as a thief and one night, while he is steling in a rich
house, he is shot. Mrs Maylie the lady of the house decides to take care of him. Nancy and Mr
Brownlow wanted to befriend Oliver, and the man adopted the child. Nancy is murdered by Sikes
