Charles

Dickens

Victorian Literature

&

Born February 7, 1812

Parents: John and Elizabeth Dickens

Second child of 10 (1st son born)

Dickens’ father was a clerk at the Naval Pay Office.

His father was poor at handling finances and ended up in Marshalsea’s Debtor’s Prison in 1824.

Marshalsea Prison

Charles’ mother and siblings joined his father at the prison.

Charles was forced to work at the Warren’s Blacking Factory to help his father repay his depts.

Warren’s Blacking Factory

Children in a workhouse

Early Years, con’t.

Dickens’ was 12 when his father was released from Debtor’s Prison. (he would return to Debtor’s Prison throughout Charles’ life – his siblings, mother, and father would seek financial aid from him on several different occasions)

His mother wanted him to continue working in the factory after his father’s release.

His father saved him from the factory and from 1824-1827 he was a day pupil at a school in London.

Charles’ time spent working at Warren’s Blacking Factory, scarred him psychologically.

His experience with alienation and betrayal there became themes he revisited in his literary works, most specifically in David Copperfield and Great Expectations.

Dickens’ grandfather was a domestic servant and his other grandfather was an embezzler.

He was embarrassed when his father went to Debtor’s Prison and he was forced into manual labor.

His experience helped him gain a sympathetic knowledge of the working class life. This is shown in many of his writings.

His education ended at age 15. He became an office boy for an attorney’s office and studied shorthand at night.

1829: became a free-lance reporter at Doctor’s Commons Court

1830: met and fell in love with Maria Beadnell (relationship ended in 1833 because her parents did not think him a good match for her)

1832: became a very successful shorthand reporter of Parliamentary debates and began to work as a reporter for a newspaper

1834: adopted the pseudonym “Boz”

1835: met and became engaged to Catherine Hogarth

1836: first series of Sketches by Boz was published and was hired to write short texts for humorous sporting illustrations

April 2, 1836, he married Catherine Hogarth.

Traveled extensively

Was a doting, proud father while his children were young, but became disappointed in his sons when they grew up.

1855-58 he became unhappy in his marriage.

Separated from his wife in May of 1858.

Dickens fell in love with Ellen Ternan (she was 27 years younger than him)

Dickens and Ternan acted together in The Frozen Deep in 1857

It is assumed that this is why he separated from his wife

Ternan, supposedly, became his mistress in the 1860’s

CatherineDickens

Ellen Ternan

His occupations in the legal field gave him the legal background for which he used in his novels.

The artist whom he was writing for committed suicide, so Dickens used his text and began writing The Pickwick Papers (it ran in monthly installments until November of 1837)

He toyed with the idea of becoming a paid reader beginning in 1853.

His paid reading career began in April 1853.

He gave occasional reading for charity aid.

Public reading helped him escape from his marital unhappiness.

He toured America (he was even an advocate for international copy write laws because the American publishers were pirating his works).

He was considered one of the best after-dinner speakers of his age.

1837: The Pickwick Papers1837-April 1839: Oliver Twist1838-October 1839: Nicholas Nickleby1840:- February 1841 Master Humphrey’s

& The Old Curiosity Shop1843-July 1844 :Martin ChuzzlewitDecember 1844: A Christmas CarolDecember 1844: The Chimes1846: The Cricket and the Hearth &

Pictures from Italy1847-April 1848: Dombey and Son

December 1848: The Hunted Man (the last Christmas book)

1849-November 1850: David Copperfield1852-September 1853: Bleak House1854: Hard Times1855-June 1857: Little Dorrit1856: The Frozen Deep (a play)1859-November 1860: Tale of Two Cities1860-August 1861: Great Expectations1864-November 1865: Our Mutual Friend1869-his death: The Mystery of Edwin

Drood

His writing appealed to every class level.

Sometimes 20 London theaters were producing adaptations of his latest work all at the same time.

His works focused largely on Pathos and social criticism.

He directed a reformatory home for young female delinquents.

He had a benevolent spirit, he participated in fund raising activities and private acts of charity.

He took long walks through the streets at night to help him in his creative process.

He was very proud of his drawings.

Dickens was working on The Mystery of Edwin Drood and performing public speaking.

He died with only half of the Drood series completed.

He suffered a second stroke on June 8th, 1870, after he worked a full day on Edwin Drood, and died the next day.

He was buried in Westminster Abbey on June 14th.

Victorian novels tend to be idealized portraits of difficult lives in which hard work, perseverance, love and luck win out in the end; virtue would be rewarded and wrongdoers are suitably punished.

was expected to be devoted and submissive to her husband. The Angel was passive and powerless, meek, charming, graceful, sympathetic, self-sacrificing, pious, and above all--pure. The phrase "Angel in the House" comes from the title of an immensely popular poem by Coventry Patmore, in which he holds his angel-wife up as a model for all women.

The book is set up into 3 “books”

Book the First is 5 chapters

Book the Second is 24 chapters

Book the Third is 15 chapters

the book begins in 1775

social ills plague both France and England

Jarvis Lorry is an employee of Tellson’s Bank receives a note stating “Recalled to Life”

Lorry is to escort Lucy Manette to Paris

The French Revolution breaks out during Book the Second

Storming of the Bastille

The Ever-Present Possibility of Resurrection belief in the possibility of resurrection and transformation, both on a personal level and on a societal level

The Necessity of Sacrifice the notion that sacrifice is necessary to achieve happiness

The Tendency Toward Violence and Oppression in Revolutionaries the evil of the revolutionaries themselves

The Broken Wine Cask a symbol for the desperate quality of the

people’s hunger. This hunger is both the literal hunger for food—the French peasants were starving in their poverty—and the metaphorical hunger for political freedoms.

Madame Defarge’s Knitting Into her needlework she stitches a registry, or list of names, of all those condemned to die in the name of a new republic. But on a metaphoric level, the knitting constitutes a symbol

in itself, representing the stealthy, cold-blooded

vengefulness of the revolutionaries.

The Marquis the ruthless

aristocratic cruelty that the French Revolution seeks to overcome

Charles Darnay A French

aristocrat by birth, Darnay chooses to live in England because he

cannot bear to be associated with the

cruel injustices of the French social system. His uncle is the Marquis Evrémonde .

An insolent, indifferent, and alcoholic attorney who works with Stryver. Carton has no real prospects in life and doesn’t seem to be in pursuit of any. He does, however, love Lucie, and his feelings for her eventually transform him into a man of profound merit. At first the polar opposite of Darnay, in the end Carton morally surpasses the man to whom he bears a striking physical resemblance. Known as the “jackal.”

Lucie’s father and a brilliant physician, Doctor Manette spent eighteen years as a prisoner in the Bastille. At the start of the novel, Manette does nothing but make shoes, a hobby that he adopted to distract himself from the tortures of prison. As he overcomes his past as a prisoner, however, he proves to be a kind, loving father who prizes his daughter’s happiness above all things.

A young French woman who grew up in England, Lucie was raised as a ward of Tellson’s Bank because her parents were assumed dead. Her love has the power to bind her family together—the text often refers to her as the “golden thread.”

A wine shop owner and revolutionary in the poor Saint Antoine section of Paris, Monsieur Defarge formerly worked as a servant for Doctor Manette. He is an intelligent and committed revolutionary, a natural leader. Although he remains dedicated to bringing about a better society at any cost, he does demonstrate a kindness toward Manette.

A cruel revolutionary whose hatred of the aristocracy fuels her tireless crusade, Madame Defarge spends a good deal of the novel knitting a register of everyone who must die for the revolutionary cause. Unlike her husband, she proves unrelentingly blood-thirsty, and her lust for vengeance knows no bounds.

An elderly businessman who works for Tellson’s Bank, Mr. Lorry is a very business-oriented bachelor with a strong moral sense and a good, honest heart. He proves trustworthy and loyal, and Doctor Manette and Lucie come to value him as a personal friend

An odd-job man for Tellson’s Bank, Cruncher is gruff, short-tempered, superstitious, and uneducated. He supplements his income by working as a “Resurrection-Man,” one who digs up dead bodies and sells them to scientists.

The servant who raised Lucie, Miss Pross is brusque, tough, and fiercely loyal to her mistress. Because she personifies order and loyalty, she provides the perfect foil to Madame Defarge, who epitomizes the violent chaos of the revolution.

Charles Darnay’s uncle, the Marquis Evrémonde is a French aristocrat who embodies an inhumanly cruel caste system. He shows absolutely no regard for human life and wishes that the peasants of the world would be exterminated.

An ambitious lawyer, Stryver dreams of climbing the social ladder. Unlike his associate, Sydney Carton, Stryver is bombastic, proud, and foolish. Known to Carton as “the lion.”

John Barsad  a British spy who swears

that patriotism is his only motive. Barsad falsely claims to be a virtuous man of upstanding reputation.

Roger Cly a British spy who swears

that patriotism alone inspires all of his actions. Cly feigns honesty but in fact constantly participates in conniving schemes.

The man charged with keeping up the Evrémonde estate after the Marquis’ death, Gabelle is imprisoned by the revolutionaries. News of his internment prompts Darnay to travel to France to save him.

Viva la Revolution!