The Childhood of Charles Dickens

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The Childhood of Charles Dickens

"I do not write resentfully or angrily: for I know

all these things have worked together to make me what I am" - Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens's tumultuous childhood did indeed shape the person he became, as

well as have a definite impact on his literary career. There are shades of

young Dickens in many of his most beloved characters, including David

Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and of course, Great Expectations' Pip. Like

Dickens, all three of these characters came from humble beginnings and were able

to rise above their respective circumstances to achieve success. Similarly,

Dickens' literary success is owed in large part to his unhappy childhood

experiences. He did not merely overcome his past, he triumphed over it by

incorporating it into best-selling works of art. Drawing on these events not

only provided a cathartic release from childhood traumas, it also modernized the

classic rags-to-riches success story. When comparing Dickens' childhood to

Great Expectations, it becomes apparent not only how these formative years

influenced his literary career by inspiring many of the characters and themes

predominant in the novel, but also how Dickens used his work as a form of

therapeutic release from childhood tensions.

Charles Dickens' childhood and young adulthood was definitely filled with enough

drama to base a novel upon. Born February 7, 1812, to John Dickens, a clerk in

the Navy Pay Office, and his wife Elizabeth, Charles spent his earliest years in

the English seaport town of Portsmouth. The first years of his life were

idyllic enough, alt...

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... safe way. He did not have to

confront the people and events that shaped him directly, he could do it through

characters such as Pip. He was well-acquainted with the themes that run

throughout the novel because he experienced them in his own life. His

first-hand knowledge of such feelings as guilt, betrayal and personal redemption

added an authenticity to his fiction that would be difficult for authors without

such a history to duplicate.

Works Cited

Allen, Michael. Charles Dickens' Childhood. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan,

1988.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. 1861. Ed. Janice Carlisle. Boston:

Bedford, 1996.

Forster, John. The Life of Charles Dickens. New York: Bigelow, 1876.

Kaplan, Fred. Dickens: A Biography. New York: Morrow, 1988.

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