Dickens's View of Children Exposed in David Copperfield and Great Expectations
Of all Dickens' works, David Copperfield and Great Expectations are considered to be his most autobiographical. Philip Collins writes, "Great Expectations, indeed, though overtly less autobiographical than David Copperfield, is a more searching and self-critical account of Dickens' own inner impulses" (178). It is also true that both of these novels have children as main characters. Dickens had a real talent for creating child characters in his works. In some cases, Dickens' own life history is so closely linked with his fiction, that in order to understand Dickens' interest in the child character, it is critical to be familiar with the major events of his life, as well as how he viewed childhood in general.
Charles Dickens was born February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, to middle class parents. He was the second child, and the first son, of eight children. His father, John Dickens, was an Admiralty clerk. He made a reasonable amount of money but was poor in handling his financial endeavors. In 1824, when the family plunged into debt, John was sent to debtors' prison at Marshalsea Prison. Charles, at age twelve, was sent to a Warren's Blacking House, to manufacture shoe polish. In The Man Charles Dickens, Edward Wagenknect looks at how Charles' experience with the blacking house had a deep impact on him:
Charles seems to have been at this time, abnormally sensitive with some dim prescience of what was in store for him, and he suffered terribly, not only from his uncomfortable surroundings, but even more from the consciousness that he was getting no opportunity to develop his capacities and -...
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...t drawn to portraying children beset by suffering and evil" (117). Dickens also created these characters to testify to the mistreatment of children in Victorian society. Due to his success as an author, Dickens, in many ways, successfully took up the plight of children by creating characters that dew attention and sympathy from his readers. In his works he gave children a voice that they desperately needed, yet never had before.
Works Cited
Andrews, Malcolm. Dickens and the Grown-up Child. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1994.
Collins, Philip. Dickens and Education. New York: St. Martin's P, 1964.
Rawlins, Jack P. "Great Expectations: Dickens and the Betrayal of the Child." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. 23 (1983): 667-683.
Tomlin, R.W.F., ed. Charles Dickens 1812-1870. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1969.
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Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, England. He was the second of eight children, and his father, John drove them into poverty. John was sent to prison for debt in 1824 when Dickens was twelve years of age. Dickens worked in an unsanitary boot-blacking factory to provide money to his family, leaving school entirely. Although he started earning a fair amount of money at his factory job, he strived for educational
The up-to-date medical advancement has come a long way, including making it possible for donating one’s major organs, blood, and tissues to desperate individuals needing them to sustain life. Organ donation still has problems even with the modern technology and breakthroughs. The majority of individuals need to comprehend to have a successful organ transplant it is essential to have active individuals that are willing to donate their organs. Typically, most individuals or family that consent to donate their precious organ 's desire life to continue. Their intentions are when one life is gone there is hope for another life to continue. Health care is experiencing a shortage in organ donation and the people that desperately need these organs
Charles Dickens is one of the most popular and ingenious writers of the XIX century. He is the author of many novels. Due to reach personal experience Dickens managed to create vivid images of all kinds of people: kind and cruel ones, of the oppressed and the oppressors. Deep, wise psychoanalysis, irony, perhaps some of the sentimentalism place the reader not only in the position of spectator but also of the participant of situations that happen to Dickens’ heroes. Dickens makes the reader to think, to laugh and to cry together with his heroes throughout his books.
It can be seen through Dickens’s highly successful novel Great Expectations, that his early life events are reflected into the novel. Firstly the reader can relate to Dickens’s early experiences, as the novel’s protagonist Pip, lives in the marsh country, and hates his job. Pip also considers himself, to be too good for his ...
When you go to get your drivers licence, be sure to mark that you will donate. Put yourself in the shoes of someone waiting for a donation. They hear of people dying and yet nothing will happen for their benefit if these people don?t choose to donate. Picture you husband or wife, on their death bed unless someone will donate their organs. Make the right decision to bring happiness out of death. Do not put your organs to waste, help those in need, and choose to donate.
Charles Dickens utilizes his life for inspiration for the protagonist Pip in his novel Great Expectations. They both struggle with their social standing. Dickens loved plays and theatre and therefore incorporated them into Pip’s life. Dickens died happy in the middle class and Pip died happy in the middle class. The connection Dickens makes with his life to Pip’s life is undeniable. If readers understand Dickens and his upbringing then readers can understand how and why he created Pip’s upbringing. Charles Dickens’ life, full of highs and lows, mirrors that of Pip’s life. Their lives began the same and ended the same. To understand the difficulty of Dickens’ childhood is to understand why his writing focuses on the English social structure. Dickens’ life revolved around social standing. He was born in the lower class but wasn’t miserable. After his father fell into tremendous debt he was forced into work at a young age. He had to work his way to a higher social standing. Because of Dicken’s constant fighting of class the English social structure is buried beneath the surface in nearly all of his writings. In Great Expectations Pip’s life mirrors Dickens’ in the start of low class and the rise to a comfortable life. Fortunately for Dickens, he does not fall again as Pip does. However, Pip and Dickens both end up in a stable social standing.
Charles Dickens is well known for his distinctive writing style. Few authors before or since are as adept at bringing a character to life for the reader as he was. His novels are populated with characters who seem real to his readers, perhaps even reminding them of someone they know. What readers may not know, however, is that Dickens often based some of his most famous characters, those both beloved or reviled, on people in his own life. It is possible to see the important people, places, and events of Dickens' life thinly disguised in his fiction. Stylistically, evidence of this can be seen in Great Expectations. For instance, semblances of his mother, father, past loves, and even Dickens himself are visible in the novel. However, Dickens' past influenced not only character and plot devices in Great Expectations, but also the very syntax he used to create his fiction. Parallels can be seen between his musings on his personal life and his portrayal of people and places in Great Expectations.