Charles Dickens
Life
Dickens was born in Portsmouth, on the south coast of England, in 1812. He had an unhappy childhood,
since his father went to prison for debt and he had to work in a factory at the age of twelve. When he
understood to have a talent, he taught himself shorthand and became a journalist at the parliament and
Law Courts. He adopted the pen name "Boz" and his Sketches by Boz (collection of articles describing
London people and scenes) was published in the "Monthly Magazine".
He also wrote novels: Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Little Dorrit, where he told about the difficult lives of
children in the slums and factories. Other novels are Bleak House, Hard Times and Great Expectations that
are set against the background of social problems, highlighting the conditions of the poor and the working
class. He was also the editor of magazines "Household Words" and later "All The Year Round". He spent his
last years traveling round giving theatrical readings of his own work.
The plot of Dickens’s novel
his novel were influenced by the Bible, the fairy tales, fables and nursery rhymes, by the 18th-century
novelists and by Gothic novels. London was the setting of most of his novels: he knew and described it in
realistic way. At the beginning, Dickens satirized middle-class characters. He was aware of the spiritual and
material corruption caused by the industry and he became more critical of society. In his mature works, he
succeeded in drawing popular attention to public abuses, evils and wrongs by terrible description of
London misery and crime.
Characters
Dickens created caricatures. He exaggerated and ridiculed the social characteristics of the middle classes,
using their own voices and dialogue. His female characters were weak, and black and white. He was always
on the side of the poor and the outcast.
A didactic aim
Children are often the most important characters in his novels. He reverses the natural order of things, by
making children the moral teachers instead of the taught. His ability lay both is making his readers love his
children, and putting theme forward as behaviour models. The didactic aim worked and wealthier classes
knew the true situation of their poorest neighbours. His task was to get the common intelligence of the
country, in all its different classes alike, to alleviate undeniable sufferings.
Style and reputation
In his novels he employed the most effective language and powerful descriptions of life and character by
means of a careful choice of adjectives, repetitions of word and structures.
NOVEL: Oliver Twist
Plot
this novel appeared in instalments in 1837. It illustrate the economic insecurity and humiliation Dickens
experienced when he was child. The name Twist is given to the protagonist by accident represents the
reversals of fortune that he will experience.
Oliver Twist is a poor boy of unknown parents, so he is brought up in a workhouse in an inhuman way. He is
later sold to an undertaker as an apprentice, but the master's cruelty and his unhappiness condition get
him to run away to London.
There he falls into the hands of a gang of young pickpockets and they want to make it one of them, but an
old gentleman helps Oliver. Oliver is eventually kidnapped by the gang and forced to commit burglary;
during the job, he is shot. A middle-class family adopts him and shows kindness and affection towards him.
Investigations are made about the boy is and it is discovered he has a noble origins. Oliver’s half-brother
paid the gang to ruin Oliver and have their father's property but, at the end, he was arrested.
