Charles Dickens and the Victorian Era

Oliver Twist

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=oliver+twist+consider+yourself

Victorian Era 1837-1901• Period of peace, prosperity, and expansion

for Britain in terms of their colonies and industry. Shift towards romanticism of religion, social values, and the arts.

Reform Bill of 1832• Extended right to vote

to all males who owned property.

• 2nd bill in 1867 extended the right to vote to working class.

• Transformed the English class structure.

Prosperity of Mid-Victorian Period• British Empire Expanded• Increased immigration to British Colonies.• The first World’s Fair showcased great innovations,

such as photography. • Industrialization created the middle class.

Victorian Social Problems• Poor working

conditions, especially for women and children.

• Slums in large cities

• Unemployment and poverty

Victorian Literature• Tried to represent a

wide range of social classes.

• They are realistic.• Women were major

writers: Brontes and Eliot.

Life of Charles Dickens 1812-1870• Born in Portsmouth.• Started as a Journalist.• Married Catherine

Hogarth and had 10 children.

• Wrote 15 novels.

Dickens’ Childhood• At age 9, Dickens went to

private school. • At age 11, he worked at

Warren’s Blacking Factory where he tied labels to boot-blacking bottles.

• His father was imprisoned at Marshelsea Debtors’ Prison in Southwark.

His Works• The Pickwick Papers

1836• Oliver Twist 1837• Nicholas Nickleby 1838• David Copperfield 1849• A Tale of Two Cities

1859• Great Expectations

1860• The Mystery of Edwin

Drood 1870• A Christmas Carol

His Legacy• “He was a sympathizer to the poor, the

suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England’s greatest writers is lost to the world”

Poverty in Dickens’ Novelshttp://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/dickens/poverty/wealth.html

Literary Analysis in your Book Presentations• Formal: Explain how a literary term is used in the book and why

you thing the author uses it. Ex: Use of realism.• Biographical: Draw a parallel between something that happened

in the writer’s life and something that happens in the literary work. Ex. Dickens Childhood

• Historical: Draw a parallel between something that happened in the writer’s life and something that happens in the literary work. Ex: Social issues of Poverty in Dicken’s Time