Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Victorian Society
The reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). A period of great contrasts:
immense economic progress, industrialisation, growth of British Empire, improvement of transport and communication systems, raising standard of living, urbanisation, prosperity, religiousness, dogmatism
mass poverty, long work hours, child labour, unemployment, urban slums, hypocrisy, materialism, disbelief, scepticism
Reform Bill (1832). Secured the political rights of the middle class, the bourgeoisie becomes the leading class beside aristocracy.
Poor Law (1834): establishment of work houses (virtually prisons) for the poor, where they lived in miserable circumstances, and their families were also split up. The workhouse becomes a symbol of inhumanity in Dickens.
People’s Charter (1837): a major working class movement, demanding voting rights irrespective of wealth and annual secret elections.
Keywords:
snobbery: the middle classes wanted to imitate the aristocracy
moralising attitude: they wanted to shape the lower classes in their own image, through teaching and propaganda
hypocrisy: they often mixed morality with business spirit, which, however, they wanted to conceal. The material interest of the middle classes provoked protests from various artists (e.g. Aesthetic Movement, Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood)
utilitarianism: the principle of usefulness. Man is simply an economic entity. A person’s existence is useful as long as he or she is useful to society
Victorian fiction
The Victorian age is known as the great age of realism in fiction. The first great representatives: Thackeray and Dickens; they drew considerably on the 18th c tradition of the novel. But realism is mixed with other effects: romantic, sentimental, melodramatic, sceptical, poetic. Great age of women novelists: the Brontë sisters, George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), etc.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Life. When he was 12, his father was sent to a debtors’ prison and he was forced to leave school and work in a factory. During his work at the factory he developed a sympathy for the poor. On the release of his father he was able to return to school. At the age of 15 he completed his studies and first became a law clerk then a legal reporter. Later he worked as a journalist, writing sketches and anecdotes about life in London. 1836-37: Pickwick Papers, his first novel is published in serialised form. 1836: marriage; he had nine children; devoted much of his time to his family. George Bernard Shaw, introduction to a 1937 edition of Great Expectations: Dickens ‘killed himself prematurely to pile up money for that excessive family of his’ (reprinted by Norton, 1999, p. 631). 1837-39: Oliver Twist, 1838-39: Nicholas Nickleby, 1843: A Christmas Carol. Returns to journalism: founds and edits the Daily News. 1869: gives a reading and lecturing tour in America. He dies in 1870 and leaves his last novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood unfinished.
Influences:
Romanticism: grew up as a contemporary of the great Romantic poets, which explains his mix of romanticism and realism. David Masson: Thackeray was the leading novelist of the ‘RealSchool’, Dickens led the ‘Ideal or RomanticSchool’ (1859)
Sentimentalism: 18th c fiction, Fielding, Sterne. Difference: 18th c writers followed Classical ideals of rationalism but Dickens preferred metaphorical and symbolic ways of expression like the Romantics.
Bildungsroman: the hero progresses from childhood to adulthood, the hero changes and develops (David Cooperfield, Oliver Twist, Pip)
Popular taste: Dickens identified him with and was ready to answer the requirements of public taste. His own lower middle class origin made him identify with the suffering of the poor and sensitive to social and moral injustices. Also worked as a reporter and journalist (like Defoe), and quickly learned what public taste was like. His novels were published in series, were a major source of entertainment. Touched the emotions of the readers, had humour, made them cry and made them laugh. Trollope parodied Dickens as ‘Mr Popular Sentiment’ (The Warden, 1855)
Victorian inheritance: twofold purpose: entertainment and moral education. Had a belief in the moral betterment of society.
Characters:
diverse characters: innocent souls, criminals, hypocrites, bureaucrats, people from all walks of life
most of them flat characters, has been criticised for drawing one-sided characters, describes them from one perspective, but: some of Dickens’s flat characters are more accomplished artistically than the round characters of certain other writers; the type of characters should not necessarily be the basis of critical evaluation
most characters are like caricatures (strange names) or cartoons (takes one feature and exaggerates it until the character will be identified with that single feature (e.g. Uriah Heep’s ugliness, Mr Murdstone’s cruelty, Mr Peggoty’s honest singe-mindedness)
mainly lower and middleclass characters
a lot of characters, populates a whole world (Dickensian)
black-and-white characters (either absolutely good or absolutely evil) as in folk tales
moral purpose: show evil in society but also give positive examples of good
mature novels: more realistic characterisation, deeper psychological insight, comedy is replaced by irony and elegy
Realism:
lively and varied descriptions of settings, the background comes to life
close attention to details, familiar objects, even commonplace objects
creates an atmosphere with the help of small details, esp. the atmosphere of London in the 19th c: the streets, houses, interiors, family life beside the warm fireplace, the bleak world of work houses, schools, factories, lives of criminals, prisons
his close descriptions sometimes acquire a symbolic quality, e.g. prison and work house as symbols of oppression and personal isolation, fog as the impenetrability and chaos of existence.
Novels: Pickwick Papers (1836-37), Oliver Twist (1837-39), Nicholas Nickleby (1838-39), The OldCuriosity Shop (1840-41), Martin Chuzzlewit (1842-44), A Christmas Carol (1843), Dombey andSon (1846-48), David Copperfield (1849-50), Bleak House (1852-53), Hard Times (1854), LittleDorrit (1855-57), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1860-61), Our Mutual Friend (1864-65), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870, unfinished)
David Copperfield
PLOT:David Copperfield tells the story of his youth. His father had died before his birth. He lives with his mother and Peggotty, his nurse. His mother marries Mr Murdstone, who brings her sister to the house. David and his mother are treated violently by the Murdstones. David is sent to a boarding school called Salem House. He meets Peggotty’s family in Yarmouth: Mr Peggoty, and his adopted children, Ham and Little Em’ly. At school he makes friends with James Steerforth and Tommy Traddles. David’s mother dies soon and he starts working at Mr Murdstone’s wine bottling factory. He moves in with the Micawbers. Finally he decides to escape and find Miss Betsey Trotwood, his only relative, who lives with a mentally ill friend, Mr Dick. Miss Betsey sends David to a school run by a Doctor Strong. He moves in with Mr. Wickfield and his daughter, Agnes, and meets Uriah Heep, Doctor Strong’s lodger. Agnes and David become friends. On his graduation, David visits Peggotty, and encounters James Steerforth, who also meets the Peggotty family. Miss Betsey persuades David to become a lawyer. David takes up a position at theLondon firm of Spenlow and Jorkins. David meets Spenlow's daughter, Dora, and falls in love with her.In London, David meets Tommy Traddles and Mr. Micawber again. Little Em'ly and Ham, are to be married. But she runs off with Steerforth. Miss Betsey visits David and informs him that her financial security has been ruined because Mr. Wickfield joined into a partnership with Uriah Heep, now a lawyer. Mr. Spenlow forbids Dora from marrying David. Mr. Spenlow dies in an accident, and Dora goes to live with her aunts. Uriah Heep informs Doctor Strong that he suspects Doctor Strong's wife, Annie, of having an affair with her young cousin, Jack Maldon. Dora and David marry, and Dora proves a terrible housewife. David loves her anyway and is generally happy. Mr. Dick facilitates reconciliation between Doctor Strong and Annie, who was not, in fact, cheating on her husband. David is informed him that Steerforth has left Little Em'ly. Little Em'ly and Mr. Peggotty decide to move to Australia, as do the Micawbers, who first save the day for Agnes and Miss Betsey by exposing Uriah Heep's fraud against Mr. Wickfield.A storm hits Yarmouth and kills Ham while he attempts to rescue a shipwrecked sailor. The sailor turns out to be Steerforth. Meanwhile, Dora falls ill and dies. David leaves the country to travel abroad. His love for Agnes grows. When David returns, he and Agnes, who has long harboured a secret love for him, get married and have several children. David pursues his writing career with increasing commercial success.
Characters (Wheeler)
Trollope: Dickens has ‘invested his puppets with a charm that has enabled him to dispense with human nature’ (Autobiography, 1883).
Dickens uses habits of speech, physical oddities, mannerisms.
The key to his technique often lies in the collective rather than the individual functionof his characters. E.g. Heep and Micawber represent various extremes to which DC is exposed, Agnes represents an ideal perfection to which he aspires.
Variations on the similar ideas, e.g. marriage:
Mrs Micawber: she will never desert Mr Micawber
Miss Betsey Trotwood: never marries, ‘You were not equally matched, if any two people can be equally matched.’ (18)
Or speech:
Barkis: when wooing Peggotty just stares and says nothing, or brings Spanish onions,
Mr Peggotty, who is also tongue tied, and produces a large quantity of seafood to break the embarrassed silence when he visits DC in Salem House.
Or character:
Mr Micawber: expansive, irresponsible, always on the run from creditors, who works for -
Heep, the humble example of self-help, foresight, even a control freak
Change: the novel works through dramatic interaction between characters who are essentially fixed, unless and until they undergo some sudden change of character, rather than through the exploration of individual development.
Narration
David Copperfield / Tristram Shandy1st person S (I)
Limited perspective
Gradually expanding (past self > present self)
Naïve > wise
Fusion of viewpoints (CD – CD)
Sub-genre
Autobiography / Confession / Fictitious biography / Bildungsroman / picaresque novel / sentimental novel
“An autobiographical novel, the ‘favourite child’ of his imagination. Writes out some of his most painful memories: unhappy childhood, the factory, his father’s imprisonment for debt, the continuing disappointment of unhappy marriage.”
“It owes its unity to the development of the main character, a novel of education. David observes the world and learns from his own faults, which is a new feature in Dickens’s novels.”
Themes / Motifs
Exploitation: orphans, women, the mentally disabled, child labour, debtors’ prison, deprivation (of parents, material means, guardians, good-willed adults. Pairs of characters: Mr Murdstone – Miss Betsey
Marriage: contrasts and comparisons between his own life and the lives of other people. Charlotte Bronte’s heroine in Shirley (1849) says: men’s idea of a good woman is a ‘queer thing, half doll, half angel’. DC marries first a doll, Dora (adorable), too fragile to survive in the natural world. His mother too was a ‘wax doll’, unable to survive in a cruel world. At the end of the novel, he marries an angel, Agnes (named after the saint whose symbol is the lamb, agnus dei). Agnes is a stable point in an unstable world, ‘she is ever pointing upward’. He calls her his ‘sister’ even at the moment of proposal. She is an angel who can restore him the the peace he experienced as a child in his mother’s household. In the process of learning through marriage, both Dora and Agnes are static, and DC moves. (Wheeler)
Women: as mothers (Clara, Peggotty – nurse), wives (Dora, Annie, Agnes), sisters (Little Em’ly, Agnes). Love + hint of inferiority. Superior to men in their sentiments, morals and innocence. (Women are similar to children - innocent.) But they are often exploited by men. Except Miss Betsey: a masculine figure. Child-wives: Clara, Annie, Dora, Em’ly.
Father figures: dead father, Mr Copperfield (absent); Mr Murdstone (step-father); Mr Micawber (potential surrogate father, but is in need himself); Miss Betsey (she is the only reliable adult, a surrogate father and mother in one).
Innocence:
innocence of children (child’s perspective; Daisy; Dora – ‘child-wife’);
innocence of saints (Agnes, Annie);
innocence of the mentally disturbed (Mr Dick, a ‘holy fool’).
Good characters remain children (childish, childlike). Adults: enemies or can take care of you (see above). Looking back on childhood with nostalgia. Growing up is fall from grace.
Writing:
DC’s autobiography / Mr Dick’s memoir / Mr Micawber’s letters
Perception:
Child’s perspective – naïve or more authentic (because innocent)?
Reliability of memory and observation / Association of ideas
Symbols
Flowers: represent innocence and simplicity. Steerforth calls David “Daisy” because he is so naïve. David bring Dora flowers on her birthday. Dora keeps painting flowers.
Sea: unknown and powerful force. Always connected with death. The sea takes Em’ly’s father, Steerforth and Ham. It also takes away Mr Peggotty, Em’ly and the Micawbers in the sense that they move overseas (Australia).
Kite: freedom from social responsibility (imbecility), looking at the world with a child’s innocence. Mr Dick.
Names:
telling names: Daisy, Dora, Agnes, Clara, Murdstone, Steerforth, Dr Strong, etc.
reflect human relationships: diffusion or refraction of self – identity and meta-identity
David Copperfield
Preface
I remarked in the original Preface to this Book, that I did not find it easy to get sufficiently far away from it, in the first sensations of having finished it, to refer to it with the composure which this formal heading would seem to require. My interest in it was so recent and strong, and my mind was so divided between pleasure and regret—pleasure in the achievement of a long design, regret in the separation from many companions—that I was in danger of wearying the reader with personal confidences and private emotions.
Besides which, all that I could have said of the Story to any purpose, I had endeavoured to say in it.
It would concern the reader little, perhaps, to know how sorrowfully the pen is laid down at the close of a two-years’ imaginativetask; or how an Author feels as if he were dismissing some portion of himself into the shadowy world, when a crowd of the creatures of his brain are going from him for ever. Yet, I have nothing else to tell; unless, indeed, I were to confess (which might be of less moment still), that no one can ever believethis Narrative, in the reading, more than I believed it in the writing.
So true are these avowals at the present day, that I can now only take the reader into one confidence more. Of all my books, I like this the best. It will be easily believed that I am a fond parent to every child of my fancy, and that no one can ever love that family as dearly as I love them. But, like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is David Copperfield.
I am Born
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.
In consideration of the day and hour of my birth, it was declared by the nurse, and by some sage women in the neighbourhood who had taken a lively interest in me several months before there was any possibility of our becoming personally acquainted, first, that I was destined to be unlucky in life; and secondly, that I was privileged to see ghosts and spirits; both these gifts inevitably attaching, as they believed, to all unlucky infants of either gender, born towards the small hours on a Friday night.
Ineed say nothing here, on the first head, because nothing can show better than my history whether that prediction was verified or falsified by the result. On the second branch of the question, I will only remark, that unless I ran through that part of my inheritance while I was still a baby, I have not come into it yet. But I do not at all complain of having been kept out of this property; and if anybody else should be in the present enjoyment of it, he is heartily welcome to keep it.
I was born with a caul, which was advertised for sale, in the newspapers, at the low price of fifteen guineas. Whether sea-going people were short of money about that time, or were short of faith and preferred cork jackets, I don’t know; all I know is, that there was but one solitary bidding, and that was from an attorney connected with the bill-broking business, who offered two pounds in cash, and the balance in sherry, but declined to be guaranteed from drowning on any higher bargain. Consequently the advertisement was withdrawn at a dead loss—for as to sherry, my poor dear mother’s own sherry was in the market then—and ten years afterwards the caul was put up in a raffle down in our part of the country, to fifty members at half-a-crown a head, the winner to spend five shillings. I was present myself, and I remember to have felt quite uncomfortable and confused at a part of myself being disposed of in that way. The caul was won, I recollect, by an old lady with a hand-basket, who, very reluctantly, produced from it the stipulated five shillings, all in halfpence, and twopence halfpenny short—as it took an immense time and a great waste of arithmetic to endeavour without any effect to prove to her. It is a fact which will be long remembered as remarkable down there, that she was never drowned, but died triumphantly in bed, at ninety-two. I have understood that it was, to the last, her proudest boast, that she never had been on the water in her life, except upon a bridge; and that over her tea (to which she was extremely partial) she, to the last, expressed her indignation at the impiety of mariners and others, who had the presumption to go “meandering” about the world. It was in vain to represent to her that some conveniences, tea perhaps included, resulted from this objectionable practice. She always returned, with greater emphasis and with an instinctive knowledge of the strength of her objection, “Let us have no meandering.”