Life of Charles Dickens
7 Feb 1812 to 9 Jun 1870
Charles Dickens was an incredibly influential author of the nineteenth century. His works include A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and Great Expectations. His accurate portrayals of Victorian society garnered him popularity unheard of by most authors of his time. HIs works were both sophisticated and straightforward, allowing people of all social levels to appreciate the themes and lessons he portrayed. He confronted the issues of his time, partially because he lived through them himself, and his popularity has continued to modern times.
His most popular and lasting works mainly dealt with the class issues of his time: the poor treatment of the working class and children, the aloofness of the wealthy, and concerns of social and moral evil. Due to his own time spent as a child working in a factory, many of his works deal with children that are abandoned and abused. He used these figures many times to criticize the society around him. His novel Great Expectations comments on Victorian society's expectations, and he continued to explore these values in his final completed novel, Our Mutual Friend.
One of his most popular and long-lasting works explores these themes in a different way, and that is A Christmas Carol. Dickens created a timeless character in Ebenezer Scrooge, and the story demonstrates his fascination with Christmas and the idea of the Christmas spirit. He wanted the idea of giving and caring for your fellow man to extend past the holiday season. No other famous author has explored the holiday to his degree, and his association with Christmas is felt to this day.
Dickens toured both England and America giving public readings of his writings. He enjoyed these very much, and they greatly contributed to his fame. He was known all over the world and continued to write for his entire life. His works took on a variety of forms, but he constantly explored the same themes concerning class issues in Victorian-Era England, leaving lasting impacts on his readers. Owing to both old age and the stress placed on his body by his public readings, he passed away in June of 1870, leaving behind a legacy of great literature and social commentary.
Works Cited:
Charles Dickens Info. “Charles Dickens Biography.” Charles Dickens Info, 25 Jan. 2020, www.charlesdickensinfo.com/life/biography/.
Collins, Philip. “Charles Dickens.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 10 Sept. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Dickens-British-novelist.