The Impact of Charles Dickens on Literature and Society

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens wrote thirteen novels published in the year of his death. His first great success was The Pickwick Papers (1836-1837). Dickens soon moved forward from this old-fashioned view of England. In Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby, he writes of the social problems faced by young boys like Oliver and Nicholas. The sufferings of children were a main theme of Dickens's writing. He advocated for education for all children and showed his readers the kind of problems children faced in the cities, where poor people had no chance to share in the success of the nation. Dickens went on to write novels that criticized society in a more general way. David Copperfield is his most positive novel about growing up. This novel was based in part on Dickens's own childhood and his success. The irony marks a change of tone in all of Dickens's writing during the 1850s. Hard Times shows the worst sides of the new industrial society of the Midlands of England. Industry is contrasted with the freedom of the individual, and the whole novel presents a very pessimistic picture of the nation. Sybil, a novel by Benjamin Disraeli, later the Prime Minister, described the country as two nations: the rich and the poor. Hard Times is the novel by Dickens that most clearly shows how the poor lived. Our Mutual Friend, in particular, shows the author’s dislike for London society and the people in it, and is very different from the light comedy of The Pickwick Papers. A Tale of Two Cities, about the French Revolution, and A Christmas Carol, give the traditional picture of Victorian family values and helped to create the image of Christmas as the most important family festival. They show the range of Dickens's writing: from comedy to social criticism and from history to journalism. Dickens was a famous writer during his lifetime, and he is now one of the best-known and most widely read English writers. People know his name as they know the name of Shakespeare. Like Shakespeare, the names of his characters have entered the English language. One of the most important authors encouraged by Dickens was Elizabeth Gaskell.