Introduction
Dickens had two great talents – the ability to write funny and, of course, the ability to portray the terrible. Dickens has attracted readers of all countries for more than a hundred and fifty centuries precisely by his ability to touch on universal values. The writer portrays kind, decent people endowed with values. The secret of his popularity is that Dickens keenly felt the changes in the life of England, and was an expression of the hopes and aspirations of thousands of people. After the death of the writer, Dickens’ works were subjected to sharp criticism for a long time, and only at the beginning of the XX century did society appreciate the importance of Dickens’ work.
One of the eternal topics of world literature is the theme of childhood, which in different periods of historical development received a new interpretation, but always remained relevant. The emergence of close attention to the life and problems of the child arose in the Age of Enlightenment. During this period, children’s literature began to be created for the child, as the main object of education, aimed at turning them into a person endowed with moral virtue. The topic of childhood plays an important role in the work and worldview of the English classic of the XIX century Charles Dickens. The themes explored by Dicken in his books are all based on his personal experiences.
Main Body
Charles Dickens was born in the city of Portsmouth, in its suburb of Landport, located on the island of Portsea. The boy knew those times when his family lived well, they had enough money for everything, and there were only two children. However, then, one by one, new babies were born, the family became dramatically impoverished, and little Charles blamed his mother for everything (Imansari et al. 175). He did not understand where the children came from, but he considered the mother to be responsible for their plight. Charles’ parents were kind and honest people, but they were very careless. They themselves lived easily and thoughtlessly, which made the lives of their numerous children complicated by increasing needs and everyday adversities.
As a child, Dickens was often ill, so he called books his constant consolation. They often replaced the noisy games that his peers indulged in and opened up new and unexplored worlds. And yet it was not so much the books as the real reality surrounding Charles’s life that shaped his consciousness, imprinted in his memory, and influenced his imagination. The surroundings of Chatham, picturesque corners, and free spaces of Kent County remained forever in his memory (McKnight 98). On the roads of Kent, on the streets of Chatham and Rochester, on the banks of the Medway River, there were a variety of people – merchants, beggars, gypsies, soldiers who had seen the sights. Many of them will forever remain in the writer’s memory, becoming prototypes of the heroes of his short stories.
For Charles Dickens, a difficult period came when he was not yet eleven. The happy time of life in Chatham was over, and the school was left without hopes for further education. Acquaintance with London began for little Charles with slums and backyards, which is also reflected in his work (Karo-Karo 45). A distant relative of his mother, James Lemert, got him a job at a wax factory, for six shillings a week. With this money, he had to support himself and help his family. For a boy of twelve, it was not easy at all; so, the writer’s childhood ended very early – with the start of work at the factory.
Analysis
The theme of childhood Dickens has a unique view of life, this is the view of a child who learned too early what the adult world is, what adversity and hardship, deprivation, and pain are. Often the characters of Dickens are orphans (Imansari et al. 176). For example, Esther Summerson, the heroine of Bleak House, was raised by her godmother; David Copperfield was born after his father’s death.
The little heroes of Dickens, like the writer himself, are not ordinary children brought up in the usual conditions of parental care and affection, they are victims of the injustice of life, the danger of life. Moreover, these can be both children from the grassroots and children from seemingly quite prosperous families, but their fate is no less dramatic and tragic (Imansari et al. 178). Dickens accurately and fairly shows how Paul Dombey, the most beloved son, who did not know any hardships or loneliness of an orphan in life, is killed by the immeasurable arrogance of a loving father.
Similarly, Dickens’ own early childhood, which did not pass in need, is abruptly replaced by poverty. David Copperfield’s carefree childhood ends when his stepfather appears in the house. Here Dickens shows the severity and severity of the misunderstanding that falls on the severely punished David, sitting alone in a room and trying to somehow understand why such a seemingly stable and blessed world has turned upside down (Bell 7). Dickens believed that the relationship between an adult and a child is a reflection of the struggle of good and evil in him.
The novel “The Adventures of Oliver Twist” is the first parenting novel written in the genre to which Dickens repeatedly referred. The structure of these works is similar: a child who has been abandoned to the mercy of fate by his parents is persecuted by relatives, who want to take advantage of the child’s defenselessness, hunting for inheritance. Thanks to a strange coincidence, the hero breaks out of the networks of bad people and receives an inheritance, and recognition in society with it (Imansari et al. 179). Dickens portrays Oliver as perfect; his character does not change throughout the novel: he does not fall under the influence of circumstances, even being among scammers.
This novel can be considered as a biographical one. Depicting the development of the hero, the author depicts the paths that he walked himself. Here the border between evil and good is not so clear: it is difficult to divide the heroes into purely positive and purely negative, for the author it is important, first of all, how the hero is spiritually enriched (McKnight 97). In many of his novels, Dickens uses this technique: the death of characters, which helps to solve many conflicts.
In contrast to children, Dickens portrays adults; these are proud, self-confident people whom he encountered as a child. But the writer most of all likes to portray adults who have retained all the qualities of children. One of the most famous directly naive adults is Mr. Pickwick, whose credulity sometimes borders on idiocy and whose purely childish, stubborn, impulsive kindness is commonly called eccentricity (McKnight 98). But Pickwick, as a real good kid, feels sorry for everyone, even the rascal Jingle, who cheated him so many times. This character can also be considered biographical, as it resembles the character of the writer’s parents.
Conclusion
The images of children that the reader meets in Dickens’ stories largely continue the realistic tradition already rooted in the writer’s work in the depiction of children. The novelist did not write children’s stories, but stories about children who remained children. This is closely related to the biography of the writer himself, who did not have the opportunity to be a child for a long time and enjoy childhood. Just like Charles himself was forced to grow up quickly, his characters are adults beyond their years. Therefore, the genius of Dickens is expressed in the fact that children immerse the reader in their unusual and strange atmosphere of poverty and hardships of life, with which the writer himself struggled all his childhood.
Reflections
In my opinion, kindness, candor, the ability to believe, and regret are the most essential features of childhood, as Dickens sees it. The level of the historical construction of childhood in Dickens’ fiction actualizes the change of paradigms of understanding childhood depending on the ontological project of the epoch. Through the works, one can see childhood and the child as a cultural and historical reality of Dickens, equally determined by the context of history and the context of the writer’s work. In general, the concept of historical understanding of Dickens’ childhood is part of the answer to the question of the values that his work carries. The writer’s child is ontologically significant because it is the period of childhood that is decisive in the social construction of Dickens’ life.
Works Cited
Bell, Emily. “Writing the Death of Dickens.” Victoriographies, vol. 10, 2022, pp. 1-12.
Imansari, Nurul, et al. “Children with Childhood: Shaping Personality in Dickens’ Oliver Twist and Brontë’s Jane Eyre.” English Language, Linguistics, and Culture International Journal, vol. 1, 2021, pp. 170-180.
Karo-Karo, Indah. “Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations as the Representation of Human Guilt and Shame.” Muse: Journal of Art, vol. 1, 2022, pp. 45-52.
McKnight, Natalie. “The Mystery of Charles Dickens.” Dickens Quarterly, vol. 38, 2021, pp. 97-99.