The World of Charles Dickens

1. The World of Charles Dickens

2. We’re on the move… • We’ve been in the Renaissance (1500 – 1650) • Next is the Neo-Classical Period (1660 – 1798) • Dryden • Defoe • Pope • Johnson • Boswell

3. On to • The Romantic Period (1798 – 1837) • Burns • Blake • Wordsworth • Coleridge • Byron

4. And then into • The Victorian Period (1837 – 1901) • Dickens Housman • Hardy • Thackery • Tennyson • Browning (both) • Brontes (both)

5. Dickens’ Biography • Born February 7, 1812 • 1824 -- Dickens worked at Warren’s Blacking Warehouse • 1824 -- Mr. Dickens (Charles’ father) taken to debtors’ prison; family joins him • Imprisoned from February - May

6. More Bio • 1827 - Dickens family evicted from home for not paying rent • Charles is pulled out of private school • Charles, now 15, becomes law clerk and free-lance writer • 1834 - Charles takes Boz as pen name • 1834 - Charles’ Dad re-arrested for debts

7. Dickens starts Publishing! • 1836 -- Sketches by Boz • 1837 -- ThePickwick Papers • and on a personal note...

8. “Here Comes the Bride…” • 1836 (Dickens is 24) he and Catherine Hogarth get married • and..one year later, the first “little Dickens” is born • and one year after that, baby # 2 is born...

9. but, back to business! • 1837-- Oliver Twist is serially published

10. What was happening in 1837? • King William IV of England dies • Victoria becomes queen of England • Benjamin Disraeli delivers his first speech in the House of Commons

11. And in the arts? • Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes Twice ToldTales – it becomes a best seller • William H. Prescott publishes The History of the Reign of Isabella and Ferdinand • John Constable died (English landscape painter) • Berlioz completes “Grande Messe des Morts,” Opus 5

12. Two Constables • “Flatford Lock and Mill” 1812 • “The White Horse” – 1819

15. In the sciences • Industrialist August Borsig opens iron foundry and engine-building factory in Berlin • Wheatstone and Cooke patent electric telegraph • Samuel Morse exhibits his electric telegraph • Dutchman Johannes Diderik born (Nobel Prize in physics in 1910)

16. And then • 1838 -- Nicholas Nickleby • 1840 -- The Old Curiosity Shop • 1841 -- Barnaby Rudge • 1842 -- American Notes

17. Back to Dickens“And the beat goes on” • 1843 -- A Christmas Carol • 1844 -- Martin Chuzzlewit • 1844 -- The Chimes • 1845 -- The Cricket on the Hearth • 1846 -- The Battle of Life • 1846 -- Dombey and Son

18. And so it goes... • 1850 -- David Copperfield • 1853 -- Bleak House • 1853 -- A Child’s History of England and... a near nervous breakdown • 1854 -- Hard Times • 1857 -- Little Dorrit

19. Is he done yet? • 1859 -- A Tale of Two Cities • 1861 -- Great Expectations • 1865 -- Our Mutual Friends • 1869 -- The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished)

20. What’s the Point? • Dickens wrote 15 major novels in a career spanning 33 years. • His peak of creativity and literary prowess was in mid - late career from 1848 - 1865.

21. Dickens’ Best • Bleak House • Little Dorrit • Great Expectations • Our Mutual Friend

22. And in the meantime • He fathered 10 children. • His wife left him (in 1856). • He gave numerous talks across Europe and in America. • He developed heart trouble.

23. He exercised his social conscience • He crusaded for children’s rights. • He was an advocate of child labor laws to protect children. • He opposed cruelty, deprivation, and corporal punishment of children. • He believed in and lobbied for just treatment of criminals.

24. In addition, • He protested a greedy, uncaring, materialistic society through such works as A Christmas Carol, which Dickens called “a sledgehammer” he used figuratively to wake up the reading public • He repeatedly used satire to highlight problems in his society

25. More good works • He gave 16 public readings in 1858 to raise money for the Hospital for Sick Children

26. And in 1865… a key year He published a novel (Our MutualFriends), got frostbite, and survived a terrible train crash

27. A sad ending • 1870 -- Dickens, who had been in declining health since 1866, died of a cerebral hemorrhage. • He is buried in the Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey in London

28. Westminster Abbey

29. Poets’ Corner • Dickens’ epitaph: “He was a sympathizer to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England’s greatest writers is lost to the world.”

30. What about Oliver Twist? • Dickens wrote, “I wished to show in little Oliver, the principle of Good surviving through every adverse circumstance and triumphing at last.”

31. Themes • The powerlessness of children • Good’s ability to triumph over evil • Man’s humanity to man • Man’s inhumanity to man • The outcast’s search for status and identity • The heinous nature of crime and criminals

32. What to watch (out) for... • Use of irony • Use of coincidence • Use of humor

33. Definitions, please • Situational irony = a discrepancy between what the reader expects and what actually happens

34. Dickens’ Belief: “To be thoroughly earnest is everything, and to be anything short of it is nothing.”