Charles Dickens Research Paper

1. INTRODUCTION With the present essay, I just to want to explain how Charles Dickens used language to catch the reader’s attention. Normally when we study the language that the characters of any work use, it is just to understand much better what the author meant by his literary style. The use of characters and their different social ranks and different usage of languages, help to understand better the times in which the author wrote the book.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” (Dickens 1). Dickens’ opens A Tale of Two Cities, with this legendary phrase to show a comparison in the superlative degree. As the story progresses the author shows how some concepts such as, sacrifice in the name of love, can have extreme sides to them. Through his wondrous moments of foreshadowing, dramatic irony, the use of parallels, and his ways of playing with suspense, Dickens shows the importance of sacrifice and the selflessness behind it.

Throughout the novel of A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens presents numerous examples of contrast. One example are the motifs. He also uses contrast through his anaphoras. The use of setting changes also adds to the differentiation. Dickens’ use of contrast adds to the story and makes it more interesting for the reader.

Many aspects of Victorian life made Charles Dickens, the author of A Christmas Carol, protest against the things he felt wrong with the world. Treatment of the poor was one feature that Dickens protested in Victorian England. For instance, “The room became

At the end of the day, when I took Pip to the gate, I let him kiss my cheek before he left. I didn’t love him, but I suddenly realized that he was not the man that I would like to torment. In the next few months, Pip did still come to the Satis. He sometimes walks Miss Havisham, chat with her, or play in front of

During the novel Pip goes through many changes in his personality, as he is influenced by various people. As a very young child he is a innocent young boy who does not mind the fact he is relatively low ranking in society. At around the age of eight, he meets a beautiful girl named Estella who is of the upper class, Pip falls in love with her, and becomes ashamed of his background and his relatives because he has such a different life to her. When he is old enough he is bound apprentice to Joe. But he longs to be a gentleman, in a social class very different from a village blacksmith.

Throughout his afflicted life, Charles Dickens withdrew agonizing pain, distress, and wonder that rested in himself and the world around him and adeptly weaved them into novels that are still applicable to readers today. One of Dickens’s greatest accomplishments in the literary world was Great Expectations, which was almost an autobiography of Charles.

“If they would rather,... they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.” From the words of Ebenezer Scrooge one can see that he does not he does not care for people. He is a very cruel man. Charles Dickens was a good writer that cared a lot about the poor. When he was a boy, his parents sent him to a union workhouse because his father got put in debtors prison.

John Dickens was a naval clerk and his mother had always dreamed of being a teacher so she helped as much as she could for her children to succeed. In 1824 his father was sent to prison for debt. Charles decided to leave school and try to help the family as much as he could. Later on, his father would be released from prison, and Charles would go back to school only to be pulled back out at the age of 15 to once again help with the family income (Biography). The Victorian Era was a time that the government was not seen as much because of the changing laws as well as no longer being able to sentence people to cruel and unusual punishments.

Although Pip does not know the identity of his benefactor, he keeps in his mind that Miss Havisham is his benefactor. Pip thinks that she is there to raise him to become a gentleman so he can marry Estella. Pip's thoughts as to who he wants his secret benefactor to be shows a sign of immaturity. Additionally, when Pip starts learning to become a gentleman, he becomes mean to Joe and Biddy because they are much different to his new lifestyle. When Joe visits, Pip is snobbish to him because he is not behaving properly.

I will be focusing my attention on various types of normality different characters in this novel pursue. Since normality is a polysemic word which assumes different connotations depending on the views and opinions of each person; it is without a doubt “a mere context dependent social construct (Freud, 333)” . In essence, what is normal for someone may not be normal for someone else. For this reason, it is easier to define what is not normal than what is. Not-normal means different and although being different is not always a bad thing, it usually has negative connotations, as we will see happening in Cloisterham; the town in which Dickens situated his story.

Pip begins the story living as a low class citizen in a "marsh country" (Dickens I). He is treated poorly by most of his family, such as being repeatedly beaten or being told demeaning lies such as that the "young are never grateful" (IV) and "naterally wicious" (IV). Statements and actions such as these give him what he believes his identity is at the young age without even considering the lower quality of his surroundings or what social rank he belongs to. A chain of events occur shortly after the story starts that leads the setting to a large estate where Pip is to spend time with Estella, a high class girl who has an innate grudge against males. While he took into account these new surroundings compared to his own residence, Estella 's harsh words and demeaning attitude make Pip question his personal identity more than the setting could have.

Unlike Pip, Estella has grown up with wealth but she has received little to no kindness and has endured a cold world of decay and dust with Ms. Havisham. On first meeting Pip, Estella scolds him for being “coarse and thick”, this leads to Pip becoming ashamed of his social background. Alfred Adler claims that this interaction gives Pip a feeling of inferiority thus allowing him to adopt a submissive role towards Estella (Adler), their conversation also fuels Pip’s desire to establish social class even greater. It is after

CHARLES DICKENS THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR Charles Dickens is known for creating real and believable characters and regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. To the point the term Dickensian was invented because of him and is used to describe something that is reminiscent of his writings such as social hierarchy and etc. His novels and short stories has left an everlasting impression and till this day, he has immense popularity. His face is on the British ten pound note. Charles is the second of eight children to his father and his mother.

Charles Dickens’ novels are usually set in the backdrop of the industrial age and Hard Times is no exception. Dickens presents “a criticism of the ‘Hard Facts’ philosophy and of the society which he believed increasingly to be operating on the principles of that philosophy” (Arneson 60). He puts forward the fictional setting of Coketown as a living factory that epithomises the “satanic industrialism […] derive[d] from an inhuman application of geo-metrically abstract principles in society, education, and religion” (Bornstein 159). Such society is thus in itself a regulated machine and unwilling to accept social change. Considering Dickens’ criticism of utilitarianism, it is therefore unusual that the narrative in Hard Times remains ambiguous in its opinion for the downtrodden workers concerning their