Novelist, short story writer, dramatist, and poet, Charles Dickens is a great entertainer who has come to be known as the perfect example of the wounded artist (Hardy 41). The development of his personality is attributed to two different stages of his life: the happy, first phase and the sad, second phase (“Charles Dickens: A Biography” 12). Charles John Huffman Dickens, the second of eight children of John and Elizabeth Dickens, was born February 7, 1812 in the English town of Portsmouth. Although he was plagued with illness, Dickens’ early childhood is considered a happy one filled with stories told by his parents and his nurse; this is the time of his life when young Charles was first introduced to books and theater. Growing up, the Dickens