Born in Landport, Portsmouth on February 7th, 1812, Charles Dickens is known as one of the most influential writers of the 19th century. However, Dickens’ fame did not come to him easily.  In fact, although not poor, Dickens' family suffered from poor financial management, which caused his father, John, a clerk in the Naval Pay Office, to be sent to Marshalsea prison due to his accumulated debt in 1824. Thus, John’s wife and children were sent to prison to live with him there, except for Charles Dickens himself. Instead, at the age of 12, Dickens was forced to seek employment at Warren’s Blacking Factory, (a re-infested warehouse) where he would label jars of boot polish. Although his time in the factory lasted less than a year, Dickens’ own writing illustrates how traumatizing his experience was at the factory. For example, he says, “[f]or many years, when I came near to Robert Warren’s, in the Strand, I crossed over to the opposite side of the way, to avoid a certain smell of the cement they put upon the blacking corks, which reminded me of what I once was. My old way home by the borough made me cry, after my oldest child could speak” (Dickens 141). Dickens’ experience as a child worker haunted him through adulthood, which illustrates his interest in raising awareness on the living conditions of the less fortunate, especially children, in A Christmas Carol.

Principal Sources:

Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Classical Comics, 2008, Print.