Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens has left his mark on the world through his books and his characters. He has influenced many people through his works.
Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, at Landport, England. His father was John Dickens. John was a clerk for the Navy Pay Office and the son of butler and housekeeper, Crewe Hall. Charles’ mother was Elizabeth Barrow. She was the daughter of a senior clerk of the Navy Pay Office. Charles had seven brothers and sisters, two of which died in infancy. The Dickens family moved a tremendous amount. In 1814, John transferred to London, then to Chatham in 1817 (Nelson Chronology). In 1821, Charles began his education at William Giles’s school in Chatham (Hardwick 300). In early December 1822, John transfers back to London, family moves to Camden Town, leaving Charles at school until late December (301). Around 1824, the Dickens’ faced increasing financial difficulty. Because of this, Charles was put to work at (Nelson Chronology) Warren’s Blacking Warehouse (Hardwick 302) from February to June. Around spring, John was put into prison for his debt. The rest of the family, excluding Charles, joined John in the Marshalsea Prison Lodgings (Nelson Chronology). In June Charles was removed from the warehouse and sent to Wellington House Academy (Hardwick 302).
In March of 1827, the Dickens were evicted for not paying the rent. Charles was removed from Wellington and received a job at Gray’s Inn as a solicitor’s clerk (Hardwick 303). By 1829 Charles had learned shorthand and became a freelance reporter at Doctors’ Commons (304). In 1833 his first story was published, “A Dinner at Poplar Walk” (Nelson Chronology). In less than a year Charles had eight more stories published, he met Catherine Hogarth, and John was arrested again for debt (Hardwick 306).
In May of 1835, Charles became engaged with Catherine and he moved to Brompton (Hardwick 306). On April 2, 1836 he and Catherine were married. Their first child, Charles Culliford Boz, was born on January 6, 1837. Oliver Twist began to be published in monthly segments in “Bentley’s Miscellany” from February 1837 to April 1839. Charles traveled throughout Yorkshire in February 1838. Their second child, Mary, was born on March 6, 1838. Kate Macready, their third child, was born on October 29,1839. Their fourth child, Walter Landor was born February 8, 1941. In 1842, Charles and Catherine travel in the United States and Canada from January to June (Nelson Chronology). In February, they meet Washington Irving in New York. Charles arrives back in England on July 1 (Hardwick 314). In December of 1843, A Christmas Carol was published. Their fifth child, Francis Jeffrey, was born January 15, 1844. Charles and his family moved to Genoa, Italy in July (Nelson Chronology). On November 6, Charles leaves for England. Along the way, he visits Parma, Modena, Bologna, Ferrava, Venice, Verona, Mantua, The Simplon Pass, Fribourg, Strasbourg and Paris. He leaves Paris on December 13, and returns to Genoa by the 22nd. On January 20, 1845, Charles and his family leave Genoa for Rome traveling through Carrara, Pisa and Siena. They arrive in Rome on January 30. The Dickens visits Naples, where Catherine’s sister joins them. They return to Rome, then visit Florence in March, and then leave for Genoa on April 4 (Hardwick 317). Their sixth child, Alfred D’Orsay Tennyson, was born on October 28 (318).
On May 31, 1846, Charles goes with his family to Switzerland and settles at the Villa Rosemont, Lausanne. While he is there, he becomes interested in prison reformation and Haldimand’s work for the blind. On November 20, they arrive in Paris to stay for 3 months before moving back to England. The Dickens return to London early because Charlie had scarlet fever. Their seventh child, Sydney Smith Haldimand, was born on April 18, 1847 (Hardwick 319). In December, the Dickens go to Scotland where Charles opens Glasgow Athenaeum. Catherine becomes sick while the Dickens were visiting Edinburgh so they stay through the New Year (320).
In April 1848, Charles and his company perform eight plays in London to aid the purchase and preservation of William Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon (Hardwick 320). From April to July Charles tours with company, visiting Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and Glasgow. During the summer, the Dickens took a vacation at Broadstairs (321). In August, Charles’ sister, Fanny, died of tuberculosis. Henry Fielding, the Dickens eighth child, was born on January 15, 1849 (Nelson Chronology). In April 1850 Charles, Catherine, and Georgina, Catherine’s sister, spend a week at Knebworth to discuss with Bulwer-Lytton his scheme for creating a Guild of Literature and Art to assist needy writers and artists. In June Charles visits Maclise in France to see plays (Hardwick 322). On August 16 the Dickens’ ninth child Dora Annie was born. Charles joined his wife for the birth then went back to stay with Georgina and his children. By October, Charles had finished writing David Copperfield. In March 1851, Charles suffered a nervous collapse and went to Malvern to rest, but he had to leave early because his father died on March 31. Less than a month later, on April 14, his daughter, Dora, died only four months before her first birthday (323). Edward Bulwer Lytton, the Dickens’ tenth and last child, was born on March 13,1852. In 1854, Charles’ story “Hard Times” began weekly publication in “Household Words” on April 1, and continues through August 12. In 1855, Charles began to write Little Dorrit in May. The Dickens family moved to Paris in October. On April 29, 1858, Charles began his first series of public readings from his own works. Charles and Catherine separate, this caused an uproar of publicity and bitterness. A Tale of Two Cities began to be published in monthly parts, starting on November 15, 1859. In 1860, Charles sells the Tavistock House and moved to Gad’s Hill. He burned all his personal letters and began writing Great Expectations. He began to publish Great Expectations in monthly installments beginning on December 1, 1860. It continued through August 3 while public readings began in London from March to April. On September 13, 1863, Charles’ mother died. Charles was in a train wreck on June 9, 1865, he was shaken badly from this experience. In the fall of 1867, Charles sailed to America for a tour starting in December at Boston. During this time, his health worsens. His works continue to be read in America through April 1868. Charles’ health at this time is very bad. On June 8, 1870, Charles suffered a stroke after a full day’s work. The next day he died at the age of 58 (Nelson Chronology).
During Charles Dickens lifetime, he traveled through several countries including Italy, England, and the United States. Charles wrote well over forty novels, articles, and short stories (Hardwick 18). Many critics have enjoyed Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. They believe their love of the novel comes from the characters and the relationships formed between them.
Relationships play an important role in Great Expectations. They are found every and formed between all of the characters in the story. All relationships are injured by their own misuse as a tool of making themselves look better. The belief that you can get something out of relationships is the main source of evil found in Great Expectations (Axton 65). Strangely enough, relationships seem to want to remain hidden until the character gradually stumbles clumsily upon them. Take, for example, the relationship between Magwitch and Estella, which readers learn that he is actually Estella’s father. Others are not hidden from the reader but from other characters, like the engagement between Herbert Pocket and Clara. Herbert does not want his mother to know about it because of noble ancestry. Nevertheless, some inevitably prolong the want to find the link between the relationships of the characters. Such as the liaison between Pip and the mysterious benefactor of which Pip can ask no questions about (Selby 37).
As the story plods along the characters build relationships and through relationships comes character. This is only a means to say that the characteristics of people help to develop any story.
Characters disclose life and vitality to a novel and in Great Expectations, Charles Dickens depicts a set of extraordinary characters opening new fields of fruition to his readers (Wilden 30). Charles Dickens is notorious among his work in Great Expectations for its confining and the stabilized dimensions of its characters. Typically, Charles Dickens’s characters are influenced by external means. In David Copperfield, the main character turns out to be the same person as was introduced from page one but this is not true of Pip. The External forces formed by Magwitch forever alter his life (Connolly 102).
This transformation of character shows Pip’s changed expectations. Pip is naturally decent, but aspiration leads him into excessive self-indulgence, ethical cravenness, and all outward trappings of contempt (Wilden 30). He is uncovered to be converted into a gentleman by taking on the style of wealth (Morris 108). The entire reality as a gentleman is represented in the text as a fabrication and a counterfeiting of self. It is represented in the text as a fabrication and a counterfeiting of self. It is representative of the fairytale form of metamorphosis, pauper to prince, reverses over into the blight of stolen individuality (109). Magwitch is the embodiment of everything Pip has tried to free himself from. He is also a sadistic criminal, and for all Pip knows a man with blood on his hands (Gilmour 86). Magwitch is the eventual cause of all Pip’s expectations. With his energy, inventiveness, potent will, and irregular sense of justice, his touching respect for the sophistication of life is expressed in his admiration for his ‘dear boy’s’ incredulous accomplishments (87). He is a grotesque parody of the uncouth but successful man, determined that his son shall be a gentleman. Pip has to learn that Magwitch is not a tyrant but a civilized human being (82). Pip’s self-conscious distaste from the cruelty of life on the marshes sets him apart from his home and decides he should become a gentleman. It is this injustice, in the form of Magwitch, which provides the decisive standard for the values and social position he has embraced (84-85).
In Great Expectations, place has a managing utility beyond that of mere setting. There are two paramount strands of action: one concerned with Pip’s relation to Miss Havisham, Estella, and their idiosyncratic place of residence; and the other centered around the transported felon Able Magwitch and his idiosyncratic place, Newgate prison. These new strains, percolate through Pip’s consciousness, not only give us the composition of his life, but also reverberate in their fervent tone the inner strife if his character, which is the central dilemma of the novel. A third set of characters, Joe and Biddy, and their idiosyncratic place, the Forge, seems at the beginning to provide the superior discretion to the world of Miss Havisham’s house. Through the first third of the novel, the strife seems to be between these two worlds alone. Only after Pip’s egression for London does the Forge vanish out of the picture, and Newgate take its place in contention to Miss Havisham’s place (Stoehr 72-73).
The strife between the worlds of Newgate and Miss Havisham’s house is an opposition in Pip’s soul. Thus it is given in the organization of the novel as the working out of his conflicting exposition if the things that happen to him, which are the marvels of the novel itself. His expectations may derive, as he first supposes, from Miss Havisham, because she has taken an inclination to him. Another source may be, as he finally ascertains, the convict Magwitch, appreciative for Pip’s childhood benevolence to him in the marshes (Stoehr 73).
Clearly, the characters in Great Expectations are complex, diverse and to all appearances intertwined with each other.
Great Expectations is about a boy named Philip Pirrip. While he was still learning to talk all he could say of his name was Pip. So that is what all of his family calls him. The story begins with Pip in the marshes around midnight. He is astounded by a dark scary man who wants a file to break the chains on his feet. Pip returns and steals some food from the pantry and a file from his brother-in-law Joe’s forge. The next day officers come to Pip’s house asking Joe to fix some handcuffs. The officers mention that they are looking for two men who escaped from the prison the other day so Joe, Pip and the officers go looking for them. Later, Mrs. Gargery, Joe’s wife and Pip’s sister, tells Pip that an old woman who lives in the town wants him to come play for her. While he is there, Pip plays with a rude young woman named Estella. When Pip returns home he lies about the trip but later he tells Joe the truth. Joe tells him that he should not make up such lies. On the way back from his schooling with Mrs. Wopsle, he stops at the bar to get Joe. While he is there pip sees a man with the same file that the gave the man in the marshes.
A week after Pip’s initial visit to Miss Havisham’s house Pip returns. As he is walking around outside he meets a boy whom wants to fight with Pip. After Pip gives the boy a good beat down the boy leaves as cheerful as ever. When Pip returns home, he finds that Mrs. Gargery has been beaten with a metal chain. Pip believes it is Orlick, a man that Joe hired to work in the Forge, but, he later dismisses it because Mrs. Gargery starts to treat him nicely.
Many years later while Joe and Pip are in the bar a man presents himself to them and says that he has an urgent matter and needs to speak to them privately. Pip realizes that he first saw the man at Miss Havisham’s house. The man explains to Pip and Joe that someone has left Pip an abundance of money. The only condition is that Pip is not to inquire of the person who gave the money. Pip buys some clothes and goes to London. He stays at Bernard’s Inn where he meets Herbert Pocket who happens to be the same boy that Pip beat up so many years past. Some time later Pip receives a letter from home about his sister’s death. He returns home for a visit with Joe.
After about five years after Pip recived the money, he has still not heard anything from the person who gave him the money. Late one tumultuous, night an old man comes to Pip’s house. He greets the man with hospitality and lets him come inside. The man, Magwitch, reveils himself to be the person to which Pip is indebted. Magwitch tells Pip that he was the man that he met in the marshes so long ago. Shocked, Pip decides to not take any more of the man’s money. Magwitch has indangered himself to tell Pip. Therefore, with compassion Pip and Herbert create a plan to get Magwitch out of London. They decide to get him out after Pip comes back from Miss Havisham’s house.
While he is there, Miss Havisham catches on fire and Pip puts out the fire with his double caped great-coat. Later he realizes that he burned himself while putting her out. Pip goes back to London to help with the removal of Magwitch. As they try to escape, Magwitch is arrested and later dies in jail. With all of the recent events Pip is overwhelmed and becomes sick. Creditors try to bring Pip with them but he is too weak and cannot rise from his bed. When he awakes, he sees Joe who has been taking care of him. With his money gone and nothing left to risk Pip returns home once again to see if his childhood friend, Biddy, will marry his but to his dismay he finds her married to Joe. With nowhere else to turn, he finds Estella and the two end the novel hand in hand.
The plot of Great Expectations is very strange. There does not appear to be a distinctive plot from the beginning except just what Pip is doing at that very moment. He has no actual quest or task that he needs to accomplish. Only towards the end of the after he finds Magwitch does a plot emerge. Pip needs to help Magwitch escape form England without being apprehended. Unfortunately, this only turns out to be yet another mini-story along the way to the end.
The characters of Great Expectations are different than in most books they seem to be more lifelike. In other words, they are just as twisted and demented as people actually are. Miss Havisham from the start is a very weird woman. Caught up in love so much so that she torn when her fiancée leaves her to help her stepbrother in getting all of their families inheritance. Her stepbrother, Compyeson, is a money grubbing fanatic that will do anything to get a dollar. Magwitch, abandoned, grows up living the hard life going in and out of jail. Orlick is a strange man with an unknown background, who ends up being the person who beat Mrs. Gargery with a metal chain. Joe is a simple, hard working man that was always by Pip’s side to support him and to be a friend. Mrs. Gargery, a hard, stressed woman, is always complaining about something. Pip is a follower of sorts. He just goes with the flow and does not actually try to do anything for himself.
Relationships also play an important role in Great Expectations. It is imposible not to read the book and not be found wondering how Dickens created such relationships between the characters. The best example is the family of Magwitch. Nowhere in the novel do any of the infamous family come together but they all are found twisted inbetween the other relationships. Magwitch, the father/husband, is found in the marshes at the begginning of the story. The mother/wife is found as Jaggers maid. Then, Estella, the daughter, has been put up for adoption by Jaggers and adopted by the disheartened Miss Havisham.
The book has a weird story line with a strange twist at the end but overall it was a good book. The only thing that made it suffer was the hard wording and the difficulty getting into the story. This is mainly from the fact that it was written in a different time and for a different culture.
Charles Dickens has left his mark on the world through his books and his characters. He has influenced many people through his works.
Work Cited
Axton, William F. “Relationships and Their Meaning.” Readings on Great Expectations. Ed. Lawrence Kappel. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. 65.
Connolly, Thomas. “Pip Unifies the Novel’s Structure and Characters.” Readings on Great Expectations. Ed. Lawrence Kappel. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. 102.
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. England: Penguin Classics. 1985.
Gilmour, Robin. “Examining the Role or Magwitch.” Readings on Great Expectations. Ed. Lawrence Kappel. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. 82-87.
Hardwick, Michaeland Hardwick, Mollie, Ed. The Charles Dickens Encyclopeda. Great Britian: Hertfordshire, 1992. 18, 296-333.
Morris, Pam. “Pip’s Bought Self.” Readings on Great Expectations. Ed. Lawrence Kappel. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. 108-109
Nelson, Harland S. Charles Dickens. Boston: Twayne Publishing. 1981. Chronology.
Selby, Keith. “The Theme of Love and Money.” Readings on Great Expectations. Ed. Lawrence Kappel. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. 37
Stoehr, Taylor. “The Importance of Place.” Readings on Great Expectations. Ed. Lawrence Kappel. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. 72-73
Wilden, Eldred J. “ Enjoy Dickens with Me.” Readings on Great Expectations. Ed. Lawrence Kappel. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. 30
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