Untitled Essay Research Paper Something about Charles

Untitled Essay, Research Paper

Something about Charles Dickens and his ability to take his reader to

unbelievable places with his imaginative powers allows him the honor of being

the most popular English novelist of the 19th century. Dickens has thrilled

his readers for many years with his down-to-earth stories about real people

forced into real situations. Charles Dickens has the ability to tell his

stories from personal experiences. He fine-tuned his ability to tell his

own story through the life of another character or cast of characters.

Born on the evening of February 7, 1812, Charles Dickens was the second child

of his parents, John and Elizabeth Dickens. His parents lived in Portsmouth,

which is located on England’s southern coast. The family was in the lower

division of the middle class. Charles Dickens’ father, John, was a clerk

at the Navy Pay Office in Portsmouth. Dickens’s mother was very affectionate

and rather foolish in practical matters. John was a vivacious and generous

man, but often lived outside the boundaries of his tight pocketbook. Later

in life Dickens used his father as the basis for his fictional character,

Mr. Micawber and his mother as Mrs. Nickleby in the Brothers Cheeryble (Constable

25).

In 1814 John Dickens was transferred from the post in Portsworth to one in

London. Three years later the family moved to Chatham to be closer to their

father who was working steadily at the post. Charles Dickens’s mother taught

him to read when he was barely five and for the next few years Dickens lived

wonderfully, reading every book he could get his hands on. He quickly read

through his father’s collection of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Defoe, Smollett,

Fielding, and Goldsmith. Every one of these authors left a mark on the young

mind of Charles Dickens which is easy to see in his style and attitude throughout

writings (Carey 6).

During this time Dickens started attending school where he excelled and pleased

his father greatly. Although he was a solitary child, Dickens was observant

and good natured and often participated in different comical routines for

the class. Looking back on this period of his life, Dickens thought of it

as the golden age (Carey 6). In the first novel that he wrote, The Pickwick

Papers, Dickens tries to bring back the good old times as he remembers them

with their picturesque nature. Gary Carey believes that this novel displays

the happiness of innocence and the playful spirit of the youth during the

time of Dickens’s youthful days (7).

Overtaken by financial difficulties, the Dickens family was forced to move

into a shabby suburb of Camden Town. This move must have shown the family

how good they had it back in Chatham. There Dickens was removed from school

and forced to work degrading menial jobs in an effort to help his struggling

father put food on the table. Dickens was put to work in a blackening factory

among many rough and cruel employees, probably the worst job in town. Shortly

after Dickens started working in the factory his father was thrown into jail

for failure to pay his debts, only to be released three months later. This

period of time affected Dickens greatly as he went into a period of depression.

He felt abandoned and destroyed by this evil roller-coaster ride of life

he was on. From this time period come many of the major themes of his more

popular novels. Perhaps the most popular of these novels is David Copperfield.

In this novel Dickens depicts a young man who grows up in a very similar

way to that of his own (Al

len 28).

Dickens’ sympathy for the victimized, his fascination with prisons and money,

the desire to vindicate his heroes’ status as gentlemen, and the idea of

London as an awesome, lively, and rather threatening environment all reflect

the experiences he had during his time on his own. On his own at the age

of twelve, Dickens learned many necessary life skills which also developed

in him a driving ambition and a boundless energy that transferred into every

thing that he did (28).

It would be a mistake to think of Charles Dickens as an uneducated man just

because he had little formal schooling. Dickens did what everyone should

do, learn from life. His entire writing career was a continuing process of

development and experimentation. Many of his themes keep repeating themselves

throughout his pieces and those themes most certainly stem from his early

life. From his early Pickwick Papers to his one of his last pieces The Mystery

of Edwin Drood Dickens never ceased to develop his writing abilities and

skill, establishing himself as the major and primary Victorian novelist (Bloom

189).

The journey from boyhood into manhood is a momentous one, and definitely

something that has a lasting effect on one’s person. Charles Dickens in his

novel David Copperfield de

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