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In sum, Charles Dickens was a unique author whose ability to draw from his childhood, while discussing relevant social issues, left a lasting impact on English society. Dickens often drew literary inspiration from his childhood, giving his stories the additional impact of reality.
In Victorian England, society, wealth and lineage determined your future and Dickens shows that in Great Expectations. Dickens sends a message saying we are all connected in our humanity: wealthy gentleman, humble blacksmith, hardened criminal, all shares in human potential for good and evil, and none can cast the first stone or assume they are free from the faults of others; we share a common guilt.
Bleak House is for many readers, Dickens’ greatest novel. Dickens’ concern for “fallen women” led to his establishment of the Urania Cottage. Dickens wanted to provide an environment where these troubled women could learn to read and write, gain domestic skills, and work toward reintegrating into society.
Christmas was Dickens’ favorite holiday and he wanted to bring it back to life by writing A Christmas Carol. Christmas in England had not been widely celebrated since the Puritan band on any type of Christmas festivities during the Interregnum (1649-1660), when the monarchy was overthrown and a commonwealth was established under Oliver Cromwell. Dickens wanted to bring this celebration to his poor city readers through a writing of A Christmas Carol, and the book came along with other signs that by the 1880’s, Christmas was being widely celebrate because of Dickens’ work.
In the time of Charles Dickens, Christmas was ignored by most people, but that all changed due to his Christmas books. Christmas became an occasion for family and close friends to gather for food, singing, dancing, and games. Before the novels, turkey was uncommon on Christmas tables; it became the meat of choice for this holiday. Christmas became a time to be generous to the poor.
The Old Curiosity Shop was inspired by a personal tragedy in Dickens’ life. Nell Trent is based on the seventeen year old sister-in-law of Dickens who lived with him and whom he was fond of. She collapsed and died suddenly after the family came from the theater. The death of the child heroine, Little Nell, became one of the most famous and controversial scenes in literature. Little Nell’s death saddened Dickens’ readers. Her death came as a warning to all adults in society who could kill the spirit of a child through neglect, child labor, or just weak-mindedness.
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Dickens’ called his eighth novel, David Copperfield, his “favourite child.” The legitimacy of Dicken’s memories in the book strikes a chord with many readers who have no experience of the Poor Laws of 1834 but who remember all too vividly their own sometimes traumatic, often comic, growth from childhood to maturity.
Dickens’ classic story of Oliver Twist gains its power from the author’s own childhood experience with poverty and factory work. When Dickens was 12 years old his father could not afford to pay his families debts and was sent to Marshalsea prison. Charles was forced to leave school to support his family and took a job working long hours in a shoe polishing factory. He never forgot and made it his life’s mission to protect mistreated children. Before the novel, the Poor Law of 1834 which called poverty a crime had instituted the workhouses but it wasn’t until a few years later the plight of the hungry, working children could no longer be ignored. Oliver Twist attacked the exploitation of children in the workhouses. Dickens’ vivid portrayal of child labor led to the Child Labor Laws and changed the way society viewed poverty.
Dickens’ purpose for writing this novel is to show another source of child suffering, which is “cheap schools.” Dickens attended Wellington Academy in North London, but the school was abusive, impoverished, and awful. He explains how at the time, anyone could set up as a schoolmaster; no qualifications were required. For nearly one hundred years children had been farmed out and forgotten. He brings his readers into a world of poverty and disease in children and at the same time promotes the treatment of children.
Dickens' fiction not only influenced medicine, his commentary on social issues impacted society's view on childhood poverty.
Dickens introduces the reader to a character named Joe, the fat boy who is obese, sleepy, difficult to arouse, snores, and has peripheral edema in The Pickwick Papers. Dickens’ description described the symptoms of sleep disorder which led to a new field in medicine.
Charles Dickens strong imaginative links to his childhood continued throughout his life and heavily influenced his works by coloring his adult perception of the world and his moral outlook. Charles Dickens’ works impacted society in a way that no other author could. He wrote novels based on his perception of the world and the social issues of the everyday life.