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CHARLES DICKENS
(1812 – 1870)










LITERATURE
I. CHARLES DICKENS
Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth in 1812 into a middle-class family.
His father was a clerk. But then he was thrown into the prison because of debt.
At the age of 10, he went to work at the factory for a few pennies. Then he was sent to go to school for 3 years.
At the age of 15, he worked in a lawyer’s office. Then, he mainly study himself by reading.
At the age of 18, he became a reporter in Parliament.
His first Literary achievement were the first stories about London “ Sketches by Boz “ (1834). Then the “ Pickwick Paper” which was begun to write in 1836.
From then to his death, Dickens was one of the best known and loved writer of the day.
Dickens was the greatest English realist. He was considered the father of the social realist. Through he shoe a wider view of man and his problems, and a broader and more human outlook.
His love of humanity is everywhere apparent. He hates oppression and injustice, fraudulent misrepresentation and hypocrisy, man’s cruelty to man.
Dickens loves those who suffer and still do not lose their heart. Specially, he love children very much.
He calls on kind-hearted people to help needy children.
Though most of his works, Dickens showed the great contrasts between the “have” and the “have-nots”, and consider it tobe abnormal in a civilized world.
He never call for a return to the past and patriarchal life. He laid all his hopes in the good qualities of human nature.
He grew indignant at all the social evils and vices. He looked at life through the eyes of common people and stood beside them and their struggle against ruling classes.
He severely criticized child labour, and the negative sides of the capitalist society where white could be turned into black, good into bad, and right into wrong.
When she became so famous, Dickens travelled to many countries and give many public reading in English, Scotland, Franch.
He died in June 1870 and was buried in W Abbey.
II. DICKENS’ WORK
It is advisable to divide Dickens’ literary career into 4 periods:
First Period (1833-1841):
Sketches by Boz (1833-1836) was his first book, a collection of stories and descriptive pieces written for various papers.
The Pickwick Papers (1836) was immensely successful. Oliver Twist followed in 1836 and some other novels : Life and Adventures of Nicolas Nickleby (1839), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840)….
In these works, Dickens Developed his characteristic comedy and melodrama.

Second Period (1842-1848)
American Noets (1842), Martin Chuzzlewit (1843), Dombey and Son (1845-1848)
At this time Dicken began to describe the crimes arising from the bourgeois system itself.
During the time of Chartist movement, though greatly sympathizing with the poor, Dickens still believe education and reform might better the society and make the rich share wealth with the poor.
Third Period (1850-1859)
David Copperfield (1850), Bleak House (1853), Hard Time(1854), Little Dorirt (1857), A Table of Two Cities (1859).
The novels of this time might be the height of Dickens’ social criticism. He descried in detail the social institution of the day and drew a vivid picture of English people’s life.
Fourth Period (1860- 1865)
Great Expectations (1861), Old Mutual Friend (1865).
During this period, the labour movement was sinking and the English Critical Realism declined. These books were written in the spirit of disillusionment and were overcast by pessimism.
III. DAVID COPPERFIELD
David Copperfield is one of Charles Dickens’s best-known novels, featuring the distinct blend of drama, satire, and emotion (all within a particularly brutal environment) that has come to characterize Dickens’s work. David Copperfield was published as a 19-part monthly serial from May 1849 to November 1850. Dickens’s eight novel was perhaps his most autobiographical work, and his favourite: “ Of all my books, I like this the best”. The serialization earned Dickens 7,000 pounds and the novel was published as a single volume in 1850.
DISCUSSION:
1.These characters remaind his fancy and his hope. He considered him as good characters and putted Mr and Mss Mudstone into all the bad ones. Through that, he wanted to express expectation of better future in which cruel people will be punished and honest people will be enjoyed happy life.

2.Mr Mudstone asked him learn better.
3.He twisted his head under his aim although he prayed him : “don’t beat me”. Mr Mudstone didn’t notice what he said or explained. He began to feel hopeless as if there no any opportunity for him to escape Mr Mudstone.
4. At first, he prayed but Mr Mudstone didn’t stop beating him. Thus he reacted by biting his hand.
5. Mr Mudstone beat David as if he would have beaten him to death. As the result, he was fevered and hot and torn and sore and raging in his puny way, upon the floor. The door was locked outside and he felt lonely and fear. He lied upon the floor while his body had a lot of injuries. The boy was imprisoned for five days .
6. She told David that he would be send to a school near London.
7. The kisses through the keyhole is symbol of sympathy between
8. Pegotty is a poor woman of little education. She is in low position, but she had a gold heart which is full of love, kindness, compassion, sympathy and honesty in comparison. She was David’s angle as she herself consoled him in his sorrow.
9. The tone is emotional and ironical.
It makes the reader laugh and sympathy with the poor child and the servant. It also makes us hate the Murdstones.
10. He was frightened of his stepfather, but he was brave enough to defend himself. Above all, he was a polite a good boy.