Charles Dickens Flashcards
Who were Dickens’s characters?
Dickens shifted the social frontiers of the novel: the 18th century realistic, upper middle class world was replaced by the one of the lower orders
What was his aim with his characters?
His aim was to arouse the reader’s interest bu exaggerating his characters’ habits as well as the language of the London middle and lower classes, whose social peculiarities vanity and ambition he ridiculed freely through without sarcasm
Whose side was he always?
He was always kn the side of the poor, the outcast and the working class
Who are often the most important characters?
Children
a lot of instances of good, wise children as opposed to worthless parents and other grown up people illustrate the reverse of the natural order of things
What role do children play ?
children become the mirL teachers instead of the taught, the examples instead if the imitators
children as models of the way people ought to behave to one another
what was the didactic aim?
They wanted the more educated, the wealthier classes to gain knowledge about their poorer neighbors, of whom they previously knew little or nothing
What was Dickens’s task?
to make the ruling classes aware if the social problems without offending middle class readers
What style did Dickens employ?
He employed the most effective language and accomplished the most graphic and powerful descriptions of life and character
How did he manage to get these powerful descriptions of life?
With his careful choice of adjectives, repetitions of words and structures, juxtaposition, repetitions of images and ideas, hyperbolic and ironic remarks
How is considered C.Dickens in English literature?
as the greatest novelist in the English language
What were Dickens’s novels influenced by?
by the Bible, fairytales, fables and nursery rhymes, by the 18th century novelists and essayists and by Gothic novels
How are his plots?
His plots are well planned even if at time they appear a bit artificial, sentimental and episodic
What was the setting of his novels?
London was the setting of most of his novels: he always seemed to have something new to say about it and showed an intimate knowledge of it
What view did he develop?
He developed a more radical social view, although he did not become a revolutionary thinker
What was he aware of?
He was aware of the spiritual and material corruption of daily reality under the impact of industrialism; the result was an increasingly critical attitude towards his society
