Light on Life of Charles Dickens - Case Study Example

Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7th February 1812 in Landport, Portsmouth and was born to John Dickens who was a clerk in the Navy and Elizabeth Dickens. Charles Dickens relocated to London in the year 1814 and after two years they again moved to Chatham, Kent. This was the place where Dickens spent of his childhood years. However, due to financial instabilities, the family shifted back to Camden Town, London in 1822 which is considered as a poor locality of London. The turning point in Charles Dickens life was when he was 12 years old and his father got arrested and to support his family he had to leave school and work in a warehouse that dealt with shoe polishing. This was the defining moment of Charles Dickens life because this event exposed him to the harsh realities of life and poverty and left great sociological and psychological effects on him. Charles Dickens father was released in a few months and he resumed his studies. He completed his education at the age of 15 and then he started working as an office boy for an attorney, meanwhile he continued to study shorthand during the night. After the year 1830, he got employed as a shorthand reporter and then as a parliamentary newspaper reporter. It was in 1833 that Charles dickens started his literary career by writing short stories and essays. A dinner at Popular Walk is the first work published by Charles Dickens. In 1836, he published a collection of stories named Sketches by Boz. He also got married in the same year to Catherine Hogarth who was the daughter of the Evening Chronicle. Together they had 10 off springs before their divorce in 1858. Charles Dickens was a professional novelist but he continued to do journalistic work, providing his services to The Daily News, Household Words and All the Year Round. It was the affiliation with these magazines and newspapers that allowed him to publish his very own fiction novel at the start of his career. He published the Posthumous papers for the Pickwick club in 1836 to 1837. After the prosperity of Pickwick, Charles Dickens commenced his career as a novelist and wrote books like Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge. He moved with his wife to America and then Canada where he wrote American Notes (1842) and a series of five Christmas books; A Christmas Carol (1843), The Chime (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), The Battle of Lie (1846) and The Haunted Man (1848). He also went to live in Italy and Switzerland. He achieved his dreams in 1856 when he got a chance to buy Gad’s Hill Place, a place that he had admired since childhood. He started paid reading in 1858, the same year that he separated from his wife. He died on 9th June 1870; after his health started to decline and he suffered from a stroke in 1869. His dying wish was to be buried in Rochester Cathedral but instead he was put to rest in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey. The inscription that is on his grave states that he was a sympathizer of the poor, the suffering and those who were oppresses and it is by his death that England lost one the greatest writers of the world (A Short Biography of Charles Dickens 2015). Charles Dickens was particularly fond of the 18th Century Gothic romance theme. All of his novels had one thing in common; they all had a mention of London in them. The writing style of Dickens is poetic and ornate with a strong touch of comedy. The name that he gives to his characters usually provides an insight at the character itself. Because of the hardships that he faced during his adolescence, his work usually voice outs the opinion of the working class. His novels usually portray the stories of a common man and his characters have clear personality descriptions. He also usually incorporates autobiographical elements in his work. Many of his novels involve some stories from his real life experiences. Charles Dickens wrote most of his pieces in several episodes which were released weekly or monthly. This allowed build up of anticipation among his readers and also this allowed Dickens to get reviews from his followers so that he could write his next installment based on those reviews. He wrote on social issues and served as critic to the issues of poverty and discrimination within society (Dickens’ Literary style 2015). The novel ‘Great Expectations’ is an autobiographical literature, a piece of literature in which the author indirectly state the stories of his life and the various incidents that he went through. The novel utilizes the theme of guilt and punishment. The story revolves around pip who serves as the central character for the novel. Pip lives with his sister and brother in law. In the novel, pip wants to come out of his miserable life and have all the facilities of life, but he still feels incomplete after he achieves what he dreams about. There are various incidents throughout the novel such as when pip is roaming outside his house, the dominating role of his sister, the death of his sister and the marriage of Joe and Biddy, the inability of pip to marry Estella and the separation of Estella with her better half and pip and Estella eventually getting back together at the end of the novel, all of these scenes shed light on life of Charles Dickens. Furthermore, the novel also sketches the Victorian society and the social differences that come along with it. The novel starts with Pip wandering around helplessly recalling the memories of his dead parents, Charles Dickens also spend a great amount of time loitering around outside the house. The novel also shows the authoritative role of Pip’s sister and how she dominated her husband and brother. She was so controlling that nobody dared to go against her wishes. In the same manner, Dickens mother maintained an authoritative figure, controlling her husband and children. John Dickens who was the Father of Charles Dickens resembled Mr. Joe. Like Charles Dickens, pip also worked as a blacksmith. When Charles Dickens was 12 years old he worked as a laborer in a local factory, as a result of which he was separated from his family. This was when Charles Dickens developed a feeling of orphaning. Pip also falls in love with an arrogant and wealthy girl Estella who marries someone else, separates and then again reunites with pip at the end of the novel. Again, the life Charles Dickens holds similarity to this. Dickens also developed a love affair with Maria who did not marry Charles Dickens but after a few years she again ended up meeting him. During the mid of the novel, pip sister dies in a similar way that Dickens did, both of their sisters passed away after suffering from chronic illness. When the novel is about to finish Joe marries Biddy, a second marriage with a younger woman. Charles Dickens also married a girl who was 18years younger than him. Separation between Estella and Dr. Dumble shows the separation of Charles Dickens and his first wife. Pips mother name Georgina dies during the novel, Dickens also had a relative of the same name who passed away. The numerous similarities between Charles Dickens and Pip are enough to point out that Great Expectations is an autobiographical novel (Gul, 2013). The dissimilarity between Pip and Dickens is that when Pip suffers the harsh realities of life, he learns to become contended and awakens from the illusion of expectations that he has developed which is why he is able to live a happy life Whereas Dickens is complete opposite of Pip because he never got this satisfaction as he never realized and accepted the realities. Charles wrote in his biography that even though he is happy and being cared for he often tends to forget that he has a dear wife and children and that he is a grown man and often wanders back to the time when he was a child laborer (About the Book Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 2010). Oliver Twist is the second novel written by Charles Dickens which was published in the form of a series from 1837 to 1839. Dickens has utilized the theme of industrialism of the 19th century in England. He has criticized on the poor laws and regulations that were being followed at that time (Hillis 35). A character named Bob Fagin in reality was the person who showed Dickens how to work in a shoe polish factory but contradictory to the reality Bob Fagin of the novel is a villain. In 1837, Charles Dickens suffered a major loss in the form of death of a loved one who he considered like a little sister. Hence the character Rose Marie is inspired by the actual Mary Hogarth herself (Oliver Twist, 2015). But while Rose had survived a chronic illness, Nancy could not survive. Dickens felt insecure that Mary would leave him and in a similar way Oliver thought that Rose would leave him alone in this world. Dickens was haunted by memories of Mary in his dream, in a similar way as Sikes is haunted by the look in Nancy’s eyes when he killed her. The criminal underworld of Nancy, Fagin and Sikes that is described in the novel relates to the workhouse and the prison that Dickens had known (Dickens, Tillotson and Gill, 1999). Another impressive work by Charles Dickens titled; A Christmas Carol was published in 1843, an era when the Christmas traditions were faltering from society (A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 2015). The main character is portrayed possessing dual personality which shows his childhood experiences regarding his father. Due to his father’s arrest when he had to work in the factory he had become psychologically disturbed and hence he loved and hated his father both at the same time which is reflected on the character used in this novel; scrooge the cold and greedy character which is more like a negative person and the other scrooge who is considerate and is a kind and humble person. Dickens had seen a lot of children who lived life below average, therefore he raised his voice against it and conducted a fundraising to help those in need and it was during this time that he realized that in order to receive a large number of supporters, he needed to write what he felt in the form of a Christmas narrative (A Christmas Carol, 2015). Another autobiography written by Charles Dickens was published in 1849 and was titled David Copperfield; this novel is based on the early life experiences of the writer himself (Spark Note on David Copperfield, 2015). This autobiography contains many elements that are similar to the actual life incidents of Charles Dickens; the first and foremost being the title itself. The name, David Copperfield is the inverted initial of Charles Dickens. David was employed at Murdstone and Grinby’s whereas Dickens was employed at Warren’s Blackign factory. Both David and Charles Dickens had similar careers. Dora Spenlow was the love of David’s life whereas Maria Beadnell was the object of interest for Charles Dickens. Their parents also had many similarities; Both their fathers were arrested for cases of debt and David’s mother was also inspired from Charles’s mother because both attended a ball on the night they gave birth to their sons. The death of David’s mother signifies what Charles felt when she asked him to work at the shoe polishing factory (David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, 2015). Charles Dickens wrote fifteen novels and numerous short stories throughout his life; many of which contained pieces of his life in writing. The readers can see the poor boy he was through Oliver Twist and then can see a writer who inspired to achieve great things through David Copperfield and then they can see a misguided child in the form of pip which is the central character of the great expectations. Although Charles Dickens is not with us anymore, he still remains in the memory of many incredible writers who got inspired to write their own best-selling novels all because of Dickens’s stories. Works Cited A Short Biography of Charles Dickens. Web. 2 Apr 2015. Accessed from < Dickens-online.info> ‘Dickens’ Literary style’. Web. 2 Apr 2015. Assessed from Gul, Fatima. ‘Great Expectation’ By Charles Dickens Is An Auto Biographical Novel. Slideshare.net. N.p., 2013. Web. 3 Apr. 2015. About The Book: Great Expectations By Charles Dickens. N.p., 2010. Web. 2 Apr. 2015. Accessed from < Oprah.com> Hillis, Miller J. The Dark World Of Oliver Twist. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. Print. ‘Oliver Twist’. Web. 3 April 2015. Acessed from Dickens, Charles, Kathleen Tillotson, and Stephen Gill. Oliver Twist. Oxford [England]: Oxford University Press, 1999. Print. ‘A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens’. Web. 3 April 2015. Acessed from < http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/Charles-Dickens/A-Christmas-Carol.html> ‘A Christmas Carol’. Web. 3 april 2015. Accessed from < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol> SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on David Copperfield.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2003. Web. 31 Mar. 2015. ‘David Copperfield by Charles Dickens’. Web. 3 April 2015. Acessed from Read More