One Dickens of a Time

Charles Dickens is recognized as one of the greatest writers of the Victorian period, but he didn't have a wonderful life. His experience in the Blacking Factory as a boy, his family's imprisonment in Marshalsea Prison, and his experience as a journalist -- nicknamed "Boz" -- provided him with a wealth of material for his creative imagination.

Critics have discounted his work as sensational. Some critics didn't believe that his "popular," serialized literature would survive. Despite criticism and predictions, though, his literature is recognized as representative of the Victorian period, dramatically calling into question the social practices and institutions of that time period.

In Bleak House (1853), Dickens attacks the abuses of the Court of Chancery and satirizes government red tape. In Hard Times (1854), he attacks the deadly ugliness of the industrial society. In "Little Dorrit" (1857), we read an unforgettable depiction of old Marshalsea prison and begin to understand the degradation of imprisonment for debt. In Oliver Twist, Dickens calls into question the Poor Law of 1833 and dramatizes the plight of children who are forced into the poor house, or into the hands of men like Fagin and Bill Sykes.

Throughout the period from 1849-1865, Dickens became increasingly bitter and radical. He was convinced that "it is in the lower ranks of life that the really interesting and worthwhile people are to be found." Of course, his experience of the upper class was a decidedly negative one. He wasn't raised in a life of leisure. Instead, he was forced into the terrible working conditions of the Blacking Factory when his family was put into Marshalsea prison for outstanding debt. What a series of experiences for a young boy to go through... all before he was even 12 years old.

So, his literature depicts a very unromantic place in London, England. It's not a place of hope or rejuvenation. Even in his most optimistic works, the city comes in as a cold, dark place, full of evil with a few good characters to balance it all out. Here's a description of London, from Bleak House:

"Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping, and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city."

In the darkest reaches of London, and in his darkest depictions of human nature, we are left with some characters who are unforgettable. In Great Expectations, Dickens writes:

"That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day."

He must have had one Dickens of a life, filled with such literary imagination and the unforgettable experiences and people that add color and vitality to his works. His books are filled with great lines and I'll end with this one from A Tale of Two Cities:

"A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing, and leaves the sleeper where he lay down, but I wish you to know that you inspired it."