Charles Dickens Research Paper

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, England. Dickens’s childhood of neglect and lonesomeness influenced his writings as a Realist author. (A,M,J, L) Moving to London shortly after birth, Dickens grew up in a middle class family who desired to be part of the high class.(M) Being the second child of eight, Dickens was expected to make the sacrifices for the family, even at a very young age.(A) Dickens’s father John Dickens was a naval clerk whose greatest wish was to be wealthy, but despite all his efforts to become rich, John was sent to debtor’s prison.(A,K) After his father was sent to prison, Dickens at only twelve years old began working strenuous hours in a boot-blacking factory in order to provide for his family(A,M).

(L) Realists narrated their works in a detached, neutral way in order to add credible aspects of the issues of society.(L) They focused their writings to be detailed with descriptions of the settings and characters.(L) When writing about class, it was very common to differentiate the high and low classes, and Dickens captivates the subject of cIass in many of his works, but he focuses on forcing the lower class to expel the higher class because of what occurred to his father when he was younger(L,G) In his novella, A Christmas Carol, Dickens uses the servant Bob Cratchit's relationship with Scrooge, a wealthy man, to show the low and high class’s demanding relationship. The Cratchit’s are very poor, and with little money, they barely get by feeding their children.(M) Scrooge treats Bob unworthily especially around the Christmas season, which is supposed to be a gleeful time, and finally Scrooge can see the happiness in those who are poor when the Ghost of Christmas Present presents the Cratchit family to Scrooge on Christmas. (M) Scrooge learns that even with little fortune, they are content and happy with each other, while he with lots of fortune is cold and lonely. (M) By expressing both aspects of the class, Dickens reveals the hardening relationships between the poor and the rich. Not only was social status an important focus in the realism movement, but setting also played a large role.