Charles Dickens was a British novelist of substantial merit and influence who lived and wrote in the 19th century Victorian era. Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England (Britannica ..). Dickens moved around quite often during his life from Chatham to London to the countryside (Britannica). His family was characterized as middle class and his father was payed a handsome salary working as a clerk in the navy pay office (Britannica). Despite this, the Dickens’ family was often in severe financial jeopardy as a result of their father’s extravagant spending and financial inexperience (Brittanica).
As a result of his financial problems, Dickens’ father was sent to prison and he himself was taken out of school and began working at a squalid factory job for money to support them (Brittanica). Dickens was deeply impacted by his descent into the working class and the life that it entailed, and it is relived as a theme in many of his novels (Brittanica). However, the families fortunes began to improve and after the release of his father from prison, Dickens was able to continue his schooling (Brittanica). Despite this glimmer of good fortune, the education Dicken’s received was sub par at best, and was soon disrupted when Dickens turned 15 and he took a job as a clerk in the office of a solicitor (Brittanica).
After, Dickens became a reporter in the law courts which provided him with the knowledge of the legal system that is present in many of his works of literature (Brittanica). Then, following suit with many members of his family, Dickens became a newspaper reporter and developed a love of journalism and distaste for the law and parliament and their treatment of the working class (Brittanica). His literary career took off when he started to contribute stories and essays to local newspapers, magazines, and publications (Brittanica). Dicken’s went on to become the most influential author of the Victorian era, and his work has shaped and inspired the literary world even to date.
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Charles Dickens’ work was heavily influenced by his experiences in life. Moving around at such a young age, the imprisonments of his father, and his many diverse occupations allowed him to gain many different perspectives on the world. For instance, the financial failings of his father are exemplified in the character of Mr. Micawber in Dickens’s partly autobiographical novel David Copperfield (Brittanica). Another theme present in many of dickens’ novels are “images of the prison and of the lost, oppressed, or bewildered child” (Brittanica). This constant theme results from Dicken’s life in the working class after the arrest of his father, and his view of the world and those in it from that lens (Britannica).
In addition to his diverse life experiences, Dickens was heavily influenced by several notable literary figures. One such figure was a Scottish author and poet named Tobias Smollet who wrote works such as The Adventures of Roderick Random and The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (sites.google.com). Smollet inspired Dickens to incorporate more description and imagery in his writing (sites.google.com). Dickens alludes to Smollet in his work David Copperfield, and as the novel is semi-autobiographical it truly shows his admiration of Smollet and his literary achievements (sites.google.com). Another author who has a significant influence on Dickens was Henry Fielding. Fielding’s work was characterized by witty satire. While Dickens did draw inspiration from others, he was a unique and creative individual skilled in his use of imagery and rhythmic language throughout his novels (sites.google.com).
Dickens had a unique writing style. He was both a magnificent storyteller and developed his own style of world choice known as “Dickens style” (sites.google.com). His writing was packed with detail, and he frequently incorporated elements of metaphor, simile, and repetition in his works (sites.google.com). This simplicity in his writing made Dickens much easier to understand than other authors of his time, and as a result, he soon grew in popularity (sites.google.com). This simplicity is illustrated in dickens’ opening lines of a A Tale of Two Cities when he writes that “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair” (Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities).
This use of repetition and description is why this line along with many others is so memorable today (sites.google.com). In addition, Dickens was able to create realistic characters who others could relate to, and who he was able to create spirited conversations between each other (sites.google.com). He also used dialect to demonstrate class and accents amongst his characters (sites.google.com). Dicken’s also experimented with many different genres, most of which were critical of the industrial revolution and life during the Victorian Era (sites.google.com). Regardless of the genre, a large portion of Dicken’s works depicted what life was like in 19th century England and as a laboring factory worker (sites.google.com).
The work of Charles Dicken’s have been some of the finest contributions to literature, and revolutionized 19th century literature. Even more than literary influence, Dickens’ characters, phrases, and stories have had a profound impact on the modern world (bbc.com). One of these contributions includes Dickens’ influence on the Christmas holiday especially as a result of his writing A Christmas Carol. Dickens’ is often described “as “the man who invented Christmas”. Not obviously the religious festival, but the wider popular culture phenomenon that surrounds it” (bbc.com). In his biography of Dicken’s Peter Ackroyd wrote that ‘In view of the fact that Dickens can be said to have almost singlehandedly created the modern idea of Christmas” (bbc.com). During the early 19th Century, author Leigh Hunt described Christmas as “scarcely worth a mention’ (bbc.com).
Dickens’ literary work served as the spark which helped to revitalize Christmas into the cultural phenomena is today. Dickens’ influence on Christmas can best be summed up by a quote from G.K. Chesterton who stated that “Whether the Christmas visions would or would not convert Scrooge, they convert us” (bbc.com). Dickens’ also provided literature with detailed descriptions of the squalid and poverty ridden areas of Victorian England, and the life of all those who lived there (bbc.com). This as mentioned before, is a common theme in much of Dickens’ work. There is even a term to describe an abundant level of poverty known as “Dickensian” (bbc.com). Another thing that Dickens’ contributed to the literary world was a portrayal of the law and the judicial system (bbc.com). Dicken’s was not an avid supporter of the legal system, and often criticized it in his novels for treating the poor unfairly (bbc.com). This stemmed from his fathers troubles with finances when he was a child. This mistrust is demonstrated in such works as The Pipwick Papers, and still remains a staple of the legal system today (bbc.com).
One of dicken’s literary masterpieces is Great Expectations (Connell Guide). The novel was originally published in All the Year Round, a weekly newspaper which Dickens owned and wrote for (Connell Guide). Early reviews of the novel were mixed. The Blackwoods magazine originally commented on the novel calling it “feeble, fatigued, colourless” and the Atlantic Monthly stated that “some of the old hilarity and play of fancy has gone” (Connell Guide). However, in 1937, George Bernard Shaw asserted that the novel was Dickens’s “most compactly perfect book” (Connell Guide). Great Expectations has a little bit of everything from witty moments to sad misfortunes, which takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of emotions.
In addition to the popularity that these elements of Dicken’s writing brought Great Expectations, the novel also “raises profound questions not just about the nature of Victorian society but about the way human relationships work and the extent to which people are shaped by their childhoods” (Connell guide). The protagonist in Great Expectations is a boy named Pip, an orphan who is being raised by his older sister and her husband, Joe Gargery” (Connell guide). Joe is a blacksmith who is fond of Pip and treats him kindly (Connell guide). Pip’s older sister however is an abusive woman who beats him with a cane (Connell Guide). While he is visiting his family’s grave on Christmas Eve, Pip is jumped by a convict named Abel Magwitch who is attempting to escape from prison-ships which rest in a nearby harbor known as the “hulks” (Connell Guide).
Magwitch demands that Pip bring him food and a file to remove his shackles (Connell Guide). He then threatens Pip saying that if “You fail, or you go from my words in any partickler, no matter how small it is, and your heart and your liver shall be tore out, roasted, and ate (Gutenberg.org). Although Magwitch is caught again, he does not turn Pip in and remembers his kindness to him (Connell Guide). Later on as Pip is working as Joe’s apprentice, he is summoned to appear at the mysterious Miss Havisham’s Satis House (Connell Guide). Miss Havisham was stood up at the alter twenty years prior to the story, and she has kept every thing the same way in her household since including her decorations, her dress, and her wedding feast which now lays infested and rotten undisturbed (Connell Guide). At Satis House, Pip meets Estella, Miss Havisham’s ward, who torments him mercilessly (Connell Guide).
Despite this tormenting, Pip falls madly in love with her (Connell Guide). Pip visits Satis House several times before a London lawyer named Jaggers contacts him (Connell Guide ). Jaggers informs Pip that he has “expectations” now since a sizable amount of money has been bequeathed to him (Connell Guide). While Jagger’s was instructed not to reveal the identity of this strange benefactor, Pip believes it to be Miss Havisham as she is to inherit a sizable fortune (Connell Guide ). This money is to be used to make Pip a “gentleman” (Connell Guide). This allows him to make a better life for himself, and he pursues this goal in London (Connell Guide). While Joe and his housekeeper Biddy are distraught and the news of Pip leaving, he sets off on his new adventure (Connell Guide).
When Pip arrives in London, he takes up residence with a clerk named Herbert Pocket, a relative of Miss Havisham, and they quickly strike up a friendship (Connell Guide). Pip then befriends Jagger’s head clerk named Wemmick, one of the more honest and friendly characters in the novel (Connell Guide). Pip quickly is raised to the upper echelons of society, and he makes plans to marry Estela, though Miss Havisham as a result of her lovers desertion, has taught her to love no man (Connell Guide ). Estela acts cold to Pip but not out of malice but rather kindness and compassion (Connell Guide). She tells him that she does have romantic feelings towards him, but that she does not wish to break his heart as she must respect Miss Havisham’s wishes for her (Connell Guide).
Pip later receives news that his sister was attacked and left for dead by a disgruntled blacksmith named Dolge Orlick (Connell GOne night as he is on the verge of receiving his fortune, a twenty three year old Pip receives a visit from Magwitch (Connell Guide). Pip discovers to his dismay that Magwitch’s alias Provis is his true benefactor, and not Miss Havisham (Connell Guide). Pip agrees to hide Magwitch who will be hanged if caught, but he refuses to take any more of his money (Connell Guide). Pip then visits Miss Havisham to confront her about her deception, and learns that Estela is to marry Bentley Drummle, an aristocratic gentleman (Connell Guide). Miss Havisham later asks for Pip’s forgiveness, but dies as a result of a raging fire which decimates Satis House which Pip is also badly injured in (Connell Guide).
It is later discovered that Estella is Magwitch’s daughter, and that his foe, Compeyson, is the one who abandoned Miss Havisham at the alter (Connell Guide). After Pip is nearly killed in a conflict with Orlick, he attempts to help Magwitch escape (Connell Guide). However, Compeyson discovers his plan and informs the police of Pip’s intentions (Connell Guide). A fight ensues on the river Thames, and Compeyson is drowned and Magwitch is gravely injured (Connell Guide). Magwitch later dies in a cell of Newgate prison (Connell Guide). Pip picks up a fever from his trips to the jail, and Joes lovingly cares for him and pays off his outstanding debts as Magwitch’s enormous wealth was confiscated by the government (Connell Guide).
This keeps Pip out of of debtors prison (Connell guide). This concept of debt and prison is drawn from Dicken’s own experiences with his fathers debt as a child (Connell Guide). Left without any money or prospects, Pip becomes a clerk and foes to work abroad with Herbert (Connell Guide). Years later Pip come back to visit Joe and Biddy who are now married, and goes to visit the remnants of Satis House (Connell guide). Here he finds Estella and finds out that her husband Drummle was killed by a horse that he was abusing (Connell Guide). The novel ends with the implication that they will get married, but Dickens purposely leaves it up to the readers imaginations (Connell guide).
