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2.2 Charles Dickens’s works in Literary Context
Bleak House This work boils with discontents sometimes expressed in fiery abuse, discontents that are also prominent in other Dickens novels of the 1850s and 1860s. What is strange about the chronology is that the 1850s and 1860s, economically and in other areas, were not a dark period, but rather decades when the English seemed at last to have solved some of the big problems that had looked to be insoluble in the 1830s and 1840s.Works In Critical ContextDickens preferred to write as an angry outsider, critical of the shortcomings of mid-Victorian values. Predictably, his “dark period” novels cost him some readers who felt that the attacks on institutions were misguided, unfair, and finally, tiresome. Obviously, not all of Dickens's contemporaries felt the same, for among the reading public, from Bleak House onward, his novels fared well, as they have continued to do. In fact, these are the novels that have been chiefly responsible for the remarkable “Dickens boom,” as author Hillis Miller called it, of the 1960s and after.Dickens's famous contemporaries include:Florence NightingaleBorn in Italy, this Englishwoman was a nursing pioneer who headed a volunteer nursing staff during the Crimean War and worked for more sanitary living conditions. She was awarded the Order of Merit in 1907.Mark Twain American writer, humorist, and satirist.Louis Daguerre French artist who invented an early form of photography, the daugerrotype.Honoré de Balzac French novelist and playwright. He is regarded as one of the founders of the realist school of literature.Leo TolstoyRussian novelist and philosopher. He is one of the masters of realist fiction.Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898): Prime minister of Prussia and later chancellor of the German empire. As chancellor, von Bismarck promoted anti-Catholic and anti-Polish sentiment but also pushed through a federal old-age pension and an accident insurance plan.The English critic and writer Angus Wilson noted that “perhaps more than any other,” Oliver Twist “has a combination of sensationalism and sentiment that fixes it as one of the masterpieces of pop art.” Critics of the day, such as that at the Quarterly Review, were quick to point out that Dickens dealt in hyperbole: “Oliver Twist is directed against the poor-law and workhouse system, and in our opinion with much unfairness. The abuses which Dickens ridicules are not only exaggerated, but in nineteen cases out of twenty do not exist at all.” Jack Lindsay in Charles Dickens: A Biographical and Critical Study wrote that “the last word … must be given to Dickens's power to draw characters in a method of intense poetic simplification, which makes them simultaneously social emblems, emotional symbols, and visually precise individuals.” The book is also one of the more enduring classics of the Dickens canon, immortalized both by its 1948 film adaptation and the 1968 musical comedy Oliver!Great ExpectationsMany Victorian readers welcomed this novel for its humor after the “dark period” novels. But most critical discussions since 1950 argue that the Victorians were misled by some of its great comic scenes and also by Pip's career. Unlike the Victorians, modern critics see Great Expectations as a brilliant study of guilt, another very sad book—another “dark period” novel, that is. Dickens, author Philip Hobsbaum noted, “warns us to put no trust in the surface of illusions or class and caste. Our basic personality is shaped in youth and can never change. … Every hope of altering his condition that Pip, the central character, ever entertained is smashed over his head.”Responses To LiteratureThe idea of childhood as a formative period is relatively modern. In the Victorian era and before, children were thought of as mini versions of adults and were expected to behave as such. Do you think that the relative freedom you have as a teenager helps you develop your strengths and sense of self, or does it encourage irresponsible behavior?Using the Internet and library sources, research utilitarianism. On what basis do you think actions should be judged? Is the good of society more important than the happiness of specific individuals?Dickens was deeply ashamed of his father's time in debtor's prison, but transformed it through his art. Using your library's resources and the Internet, research the concept of “psychological resilience,” the ability to recover from difficult experiences. Write an essay outlining how a person can become more resilient, using specific examples of situations that you may have experienced yourself.The Victorians believed that owing money and being unable to pay it was a moral failing. Research the current mortgage crisis in the United States, and write an essay examining modern-day attitudes toward owing money. Is owing money still seen as a moral issue, or just bad luck? Where do you think personal responsibility lies?
Nike was one of several companies whose manufacturers were exposed as using child labor in 2001. Nike has since changed their labor practices. Research what changes they have made, and write an essay analyzing whether they have done enough to ensure that their products do not result from exploitative labor practices. Where should a company's standards lie—with the countries that produce its products, which might have laxer regulations, or with the country it is based in, which might result in more expensive products? Themes of social injustice usually result from the author's own experiences or observations and most often reflect the author's dissatisfaction with the way a certain class or group is treated. Here are some works that deal with issues of social injustice.His success as a novelist continued. The young Queen Victoria read both Oliver Twist and The Pickwick Papers, staying up until midnight to discuss them.Nicholas Nickleby (1838–39), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840–41) and, finally, his first historical novel, Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty, as part of the Master Humphrey's Clock series (1840–41), were all published in monthly instalments before being made into books.In the midst of all his activity during this period, there was discontent with his publishers and John Macrone was bought off, while Richard Bentley signed over all his rights in Oliver Twist. Other signs of a certain restlessness and discontent emerged; in Broadstairs he flirted with Eleanor Picken, the young fiancée of his solicitor's best friend and one night grabbed her and ran with her down to the sea. He declared they were both to drown there in the "sad sea waves". She finally got free, and afterwards kept her distance. In June 1841, he precipitously set out on a two-month tour of Scotland and then, in September 1841, telegraphed Forster that he had decided to go to America.[62] Master Humphrey's Clock was shut down, though Dickens was still keen on the idea of the weekly magazine, a form he liked, an appreciation that had begun with his childhood reading of the 18th-century magazines Tatler and The Spectator.Dickens was perturbed by the return to power of the Tories, whom he described as"people whom, politically, I despise and abhor."[63] He had been tempted to stand for the Liberals in Reading, but decided against it due to financial straits.[63] He wrote three anti-Tory verse satires ("The Fine Old English Gentleman", "The Quack Doctor's Proclamation", and "Subjects for Painters") which were published in The Examiner