Charles Dickens as a Novelist II Dickens as a Victorian Novelist II Dickens as a Social Reformer

 

CHARLES DICKENS:

A VICTORIAN NOVELIST

A SOCIAL REFORMER

Introduction:

Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870) was undoubtedly the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. David Cecil rightly extolled his genius:

“He is the one novelist of his school whose books have not grown dusty on the shelves, where popularity has suffered no sensible decline. He is not only the most famous of Victorian novelist; he is also the most typical.”

In his country, he has heartily loved by the people, all classes -reach or poor. There was a national mourning when he breathed his last. Dickens was popular not only in England but in all countries across Europe.

Major Novels of Dickens:

Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, Hard Times, Great Expectations

Realism in Dickens’ Novels:

Instead of turning his eyes to Middle Ages and romanticism, Dickens tried his pen to deal with the life of London as he actually witnessed. He was a realist in his art. He personally visited the circuses, gardens, prisons, boarding houses, slums etc. and presented them realistically in all his novels. The slums of ‘Oliver Twist’, the law courts of ‘Bleak House’ the boarding school of ‘Great expectations’ - all these give realistic touch to his novels.

Though Dickens is a novelist of realism he makes the realistic life of London pleasing by his power of imagination. Hugh Walker rightly observes:

“What Dickens gives us is not the bear hard fact but the fact suffused with the glow of rich imagination.”

Moralism in Dickens Novels:

Dickens was a moralist and an idealist at heart. Though he presents sinful life in his novels, he has no sympathy for the sinful people. He had faith in the triumph of virtue.When he presents the social evils of London like child labour, bad education system, corruption in prison etc. he actually condemns and criticizes these social evils and leaves some moral messages in order to reform the society

Dickens as a Social Reformer:

Among the Victorian novelists, Charles Dickens was the greatest social reformer who directed his pen to root out the social evils of Victorian society. In all his novels - whether sad or humorous - he pointed out at the social drawbacks of London. He criticizes tyrannical schoolmasters and corrupt government officers. He sympathizes the poor factory workers, children exploited in boarding schools, prisoners beaten up by the jail authority, people running here and there around law courts in order to get justice etc. Dickens was not the only social reforming novelist. Before him, Daniel Defoe Henry fielding Oliver Goldsmith and others also had this reformative zeal W. L. Cross hailed Dickens as “the greatest social reformer for full thirty years”.

Humour in Dickens’ Novels:

As as a humorist, Dickens stands supreme among the English novelists and his place is next to Shakespeare. No doubt, he could not create the humorous characters like Shakespeare's Falstaff, Puck or Bottom, but still there are a number of characters in his novels which make us laugh. In his novel,‘Pickwick Papers’, there are about hundred characters and nearly all of them are comic. It is impossible to forget his comic figures like Mr. Micawber, Mrs. Gamp,Sam Weller, Mr. Guppy,Mr. Pumblechook etc. Dickens’ humour is satirical as well as sympathetic. He criticized and laughed at the hypocrisy,vanity, greed and insolence (insulting behavior of men and women.

Characterization:

Dickens was a master in the art of characterization and presented a wide variety of characters in his novels. In all his novels, we come across four different types of characters.

1.   Innocent little children like Oliver, Jaw, Paul, Pip etc.

2.   Horrible characters like Squeers, Fagin, Uriah Heep, Bill Sykes.

3.   Humorous characters like Micowber, Sam Weller, Guppy etc.

4.   Powerfully drawn characters like Lady Dedlock, Sydney Carton etc.

Loose Plot Construction:

The plots of Dickens’ novels are incoherent and have no unity. His stories are often like shapeless bags in which different objects of varying shapes and sizes have been put together. There are a number of divergence and unnecessary descriptions which take the readers miles away from the main plot. This is so because most of his novels were published in the serial system in magazines and periodicals. However, David Cecil admires Dickens as a good story teller and says:

“He may not construct the story well but he tells it admirably.”

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