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Charles Dickens Research Paper

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Charles Dickens is considered one of the world’s most renowned nineteenth-century novelists and perhaps the greatest of the Victorian era. His work is in fact more popular today than it was in his lifetime and his writing continues to be widely studied. Throughout his life Dickens experienced perceived shortcomings, and these shortcomings, as well as his observant nature, enriched his literature. Charles Dickens’s childhood experiences fueled his familiarity and interest in criminality which is highlighted in his novel Great Expectations, where his views on, and opinion of, criminality is thoroughly expressed through the actions and experiences of characters such as Magwitch, Jaggers, Pip, and Orlick. Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, …show more content…

Lepore, a writer for The New Yorker, acknowledges that, “everyone in Dickens is either a jailer or a prisoner, and some, like Dickens himself, are both: the author, his own turnkey”. Vanderwall agrees when he contends, “Dickens's difficult childhood experiences at school and at home naturally entered his novels”. These claims are evident in Great Expectations where crime is an abundant theme. Magwitch is a prime example of these claims: “The theme of crime is introduced to the audience in the very beginning of the book when Pip first comes into contact with an escaped convict, Magwitch” (Arora). Pip meets Magwitch, an escaped convict, out in the marshes one night. He was “a fearful man…” (Dickens, Great 4). Magwitch threatens to kill Pip unless he aides in his further escape. After being informed that Pip lives with a blacksmith, he emasculates Pip by forcing him into getting him a file and food. “‘You bring me, to-morrow morning early, that file and them wittles… you do it, and you never dare to say a word or dare to make a sign concerning your having seen such a person as me, or any person sumever, and you shall be let to live. You fail, or you go from my words in any particular, no matter how small it is, and your heart and your liver shall be tore out, roasted and ate’” (Dickens, Great 6). Pip returns home and steals the file and food from his sister for fear of his life. Even though Pip is not a criminal he is influenced into committing a criminal act. This highlights Dicken’s opinion on crime and its effect on those surrounded by it. This part of the novel also implies that Dickens may have struggled with his father’s imprisonment, and it shines a light on the effect the experience had on

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