Victorian Period
(Critical Realism)
Charles Dickens
(1812-1870)
Background
the greatest representative of English Critical Realism of the Victorian Age
1. Born into a poor family; at age of ten, forced to leave school to work because his father had been taken into prison for debt.
education and destroy young minds)
➢ A Tale of Two Cities (1859)(criticism of social
institutions and morals of the Victorian England)
➢ Great Expectation(1860-1861)(moral degeneration)
Writing Style
He is a master story -teller
➢ Language:compared to Shakespeare— vernacular/large vocabulary/humor and wit
➢ Character-portrayal:a.innocent, virtuous, persecuted, helpless child characters(bestdepicted); b.horrible and grotesque characters; c.humorous and comical characters
Works
➢ The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club(1837)
➢ Oliver Twist (1838) ➢ The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) ➢ American Notes (1842) ➢ Dombey and Son (1848)(money-worship that
Analysis of famous works
1. Oliver Twist(1838)
Characters: Oliver twist, the hero, an orphan boy Bumble, the tyrant, the parish beadle Fagie, an old Jew, head of the gang of thieves in london Bill Sikes, the burglar Nancy, mistress of Sikes Mr. Brownlow, a benevolent and rich person Monks, a bad person, half-brother of Oliver Mrs. Maylie, kind, rich Rose, protegee of mrs. Maylie---aunt of Oliver
2. He hates the state apparatus,esp.the Parliament, but as a bourgeois writer, he can not find a fundamental solution to the social plights..
3. The best he can do seems to retain an optimism with wishful thinking, as in his early works, or to express a helpless indignant protest, as an his later novels.
2. In 1827, entered a lawyer’s office; in 1829, became a Parliamentary reporter for newspaper; the journalistic experience enabled him to know both some inside knowledge of the British legal and political system and gave him a chance to meet people of all kinds, which laid a good foundation for his coming literary career
dominates people’s life, corrupts the young and brings tragedy)
➢ David Copperfield (1850)(debtor’s prison) ➢ Hard Times (1854)(Utilitarian principle that rule over
4. He hopes to call people’s attention to the social problems, thus effecting some reform or amelioration.
5. He has a heart which is ready to love and sympathize.
(true to life, also larger than life; embodiment of human beings)
➢ Humor and pathos(life is mixture of joy and grief): his works are unforgeBiblioteka table for readers
David Copperfield
Literary Ideas
1. As a critical realist, Dickens exposes and criticizes in his works all the poverty, injustice, hypocrisy and corruptness in the society in his time.
3. In 1833, Dickens began to write novels
altogether 17 novels published; also editor or owner of several newspapers and magazines
4. In 1870, died of overwork, leaving his last novel unfinished.