Images of Children in Dickens’ Novels

A Brief Analysis of the Images of Children in Dickens’NovelsⅠ.IntroductionIn the long period of domination of Queen Victoria, Charles Dickens was the most popular and internationally known English novelist. Being the greatest representative of the English critical realism, he gave us a most vivid picture of everyday life, of the ordinary people of his time. He created a large number of unforgettable characters, well known and full of life. He had suffered so bitterly himself as a child and had seen so much evilness that he was burned with the desire to fight it to the end. While representing a truthful account of the hardships born by poor people, he believed that a hard-working and honest man could achieve his little personal business under capitalism. The success of one great novelist would rely on the carrier: his works, to support himself.Charles Dickens wrote many a novel such as The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Dombey and Son, Hard Times and A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens used his pen to mould a typical figure of all stratum in the Victorian age: Mr. Pickwick, the benevolent gentleman; Oliver Twist, the good lucky young man; Mr. Grandgrad, the victim of his own ridiculous utilitarian philosophy and Mr. Manetle, the innocent doctor who witnessed the French Revolution. All the above novels played an important role in Charles Dickens’ successful career. But David Copperfield, a novel based on his early life experiences, is Dickens’ satisfied reminiscence of his way of life and literary reappearance of his personal history. Like Dickens, David works as a child, pasting labels onto bottles. David also becomes first a law clerk, then a reporter, and finally a successful novelist. Mr. Micawber is a satirical version of Dickens’s father, a likable man who can never scrape together the money he needs. Many of the secondary characters spring from Dickens’s experiences as a young man in financial distress in London. So we can see that Dickens liked this novel very much. No wonder Dickens wrote, “of all my books I like this the best; like many fond parents I have a favorite child and his name is David Copperfield”.David Copperfield, the strong-willed young man who relied on himself suffered a lot and at last became a successful novelist like Dickens. Through the description of David Copperfield, Charles Dickens made a fierce and harsh attack upon the bourgeois society, and at the same time shows deep sympathy to the benevolent, thepoor, the depressed and the innocent. In this book, the good would surpass the evil, the truth would conquer the false and all kind-hearted people would embrace the endowments of lifeⅡ.Charles Dickens2.1 A Briefly Statement of Novelists in Middle 19th centuryIn the middle of the 19th century, there were a number of novelists in England between those conservative poets and prose-writers. They had a world of sympathy for the miseries and a strong feeling for the poor laboring masses. They cried aloud against social injustice but they also did not approve of violence to fight the social wrong. They had been known as critical of the social reality in the sense that they were strongly critical of the social reality of their time but they had never thought of overthrowing the existing social order that was in the way, they could not establish a new one.These critical realists of the mid 19th century were all honest people and real artists in spite of their limitations in their general point of view on life. By exposing the social injustice and the guilt of the upper class, they put their hearts into describing the miserable existence of the common people. They gave a truthful picture of capitalist England of the time. They followed the fine tradition of their great literary predecessor of 18th century realism and early 19th century romanticism. They showed their warm sympathy for those people who suffered a lot.2.2 A Brief Introduction of Charles DickensThe greatest of the critical realists was Charles Dickens. In his early years, he worked as a reporter and this experience gave him a good knowledge of the political life of England at that time and it had a far-reaching effect upon his lifelong contempt for all the political institution which was practical in England. As result of his ability to notice things of London life, a number of stories and sketches of London street scenes, Sketches of Boz, was published. In 1837, his first novel Pickwick Papers appeared which won him a great reputation as an important writer of the time. This success was repeated again and again during the rest of his life, with the publication of some 15 novels as well as lots of stories and countless sketches and essays. In his very early literary period, Dickens attacked one or more specific evils in England Victorian time: Yorkshire schools, capital punishment and so on. The most important of these novels was one to show optimism and a light and cheery tone, which wasmaintained, at the same time they had plenty of humor and laughter and reactionary forces for the Middle class who were running more rampant, Dickens was more alive to the social reality and become more critical. Now, his optimistic spirit was replaced by strong feeling of depression and resentment. It was a successful period in which Dickens attained to his maturity as a great artist. The whole period was also characterized by the change and development of the great novelist’s artistic style.Cha rles Dickens’ childhood and young adulthood was definitely filled with enough drama. Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812.He spent his earliest years in the English seaport town of Portsmouth. Although the family did have a penchant for living beyond their means, yet the early years of his life were idyllic enough. From many books in which mentioned his birth we can learn the evidence that Dickens was born on Friday, at Mile-end Terrance where his mother gave birth to him. This is a lofty pronouncement coming from a lowly government employee, with neither money nor title to lay claim to. Due to this, Charles “considered Friday his lucky day, needing to believe he had been born with great expectations and the talent and will to realize them”.When Charles was ten years old, the family moved into London. They lived in a quite expensive environment, but his father’s income was no longer as much as before. To Charles’s dismay, he was not to be enrolled in a London school, but he had to do the odd jobs aro und the house. It is believed that the termination of Dickens’ education had been a major blow to his ego, as “he had already imagined himself a man with a profession, enjoying success. He would be a gentleman by talent and achievement”To help pay off th e family’s debts, James Lamert, a family friend, secured Charles a post at warren’s Blacking Warehouse, a shoe polish factory. The job, which consisted of pasting labels onto pots of shoe polish, was a tedious and humiliating one for Dickens, especially when his boss moved him to a window at the front of the warehouse for all the passersby to see. It was also a time that Charles would never be able to forget. His situation only worsened when it became clear that the extra money Charles brought home from his little income would not be enough to save his father from debt. On February 24, 1824, his father was arrested and sent to a debtor’s prison for failing to pay his creditors.This experience let Dickens write Oliver, and Oliver is Dickens in the novel.Ⅲ.The Characters of C hildren in Dickens’ NovelsOne prominent feature of Dickens's humanism in his novel is attaching importance to portray children image as heroes. Dickens pays more attention to the fate of children. Those children, as described by Dickens, crying, laughing, commenting on life as adult and dreaming the future, form a group of figures with their own personalities.Most of the children are orphans, adopted daughters, illegitimate children, posthumous children, even waifs of unknown origin with an orphaned and helpless lot. For example, David, Treadles in David Copperfield, Oliver in Oliver Twist, Don't in litter Dorr it, Pip in Great Expectation, Nell in the Old Curiosity Shop and Joe in Bleak House.The fable of Dickens essentially is the story of a lost or rejected child who endures intense suffering, both mental and physical, without losing his integrity; finally discovers the secrets of his identity and is rewarded with happiness and prosperity.In his novels, he exposes many ill-treatment conducts, including mental and physical maltreatment. Children's suffering is not only caused by the deficiency of materials but by mental torment.3.1 David in David CopperfieldDavid was subjected to the physical torment by Mr. Mudstone, even his born delicate and sensitive heart was injured, so he became eccentric and lost confidence; in Salem House School, Mr. Creaked was ignorant and mothers, failure to carry out obligations is also mocked and criticized. He satirizes Mrs. Alibi who shows no consideration for the survival condition of children, and ridiculed “her career as charities in Telescope”, because she didn’t fulfill her obligation, and she is so hypocritical and has no human feelings at all. The worst cruel is children in the society or school in which naive is nipped like jumping into a fiery pit. In the school of deserted child, Salem House School, besides leather-thronged whip, there is cold blood left to keep those children losing the love of family, of parents in bondage.Although David narrates his story as an adult, he relays the impressions he had from a youthful point of view. We see how David’s perception of the world deepens as he comes of age. We see David’s initial innocence in the contrast between his interpretation of events and our own understanding of them. Although David is ignorant of Steerforth’s treachery, we are aware from the moment we meet Steerforththat he doesn’t deserve the adulation David feels toward him. David doesn’t understand why he hates Uriah or why he trusts a boy with a donkey cart who steals his money and leaves him in the road, but we can sense Uriah’s devious nature and the boy’s treacherous intentions. In David’s first-person narration, Dickens conveys the wisdom of the older man implicitly, through the eyes of a child.David’s complex character allows for contradiction and development over the course of the novel. Though David is trusting and kind, he also has moments of cruelty, like the scene in which he intentionally distresses Mr. Dick by explaining Miss Betsey’s dire situation to him. David also displays great tenderness, as in the moment when he realizes his love for Agnes for the first time. David, especially as a young man in love, can be foolish and romantic. As he grows up, however, he develops a more mature point of view and searches for a lover who will challenge him and help him grow. David fully matures as an adult when he expresses the sentiment that he values Agnes’s calm tranquility over all else in his life.3.2 Oliver in Oliver TwistOliver Twist shows the brutality of the obsolete law for poor life and exposes the vice and crime of the London underworld.Oliver Twist was Dickens’ second novel, which marked the beginning of Dickens’ literary life. During much of the long period Frenc h Revolution began, England was engaged in the turbulent events on the continent of Europe, which took a great change at home. However, Charles Dickens was born at that time —the destruction of manufacturing equipment was made punishable by death. During this time England was plunged into the most ruinous depression that the nation had ever suffered. And the aggrieved masses placed the blame for their sadness on the landlords and industrialists. Later came the beginning of regulation over the employment of children in factories. From that time on, an increased amount of legislation was enacted to control the hours of labor and working conditions for children and women in manufacturing plants. Dickens was quite sympathized for those people who lived in the co rner, describing the criminals of London’s poor people to show much miserable reality. That reality was great and enduring strength of the book.Children image represents great social disaster. David became an orphan when he was very young; he was deserted in the bleak and boundless desert of life when he is dependent and can’t face the frustration in his life. The specter of misery alwayshaunts the poor children. In the workhouse Oliver of nine years old was tormented. He was skeptical and thin in his waist. After a week or two’s gruel the clothes fluttered loosely on his wasted, sunken forms. To survive, “a council was held; lots were cast who should walk up to the master after supper that evening and ask for more; and it fell to Oliver Twist.”Oliver's remark likes a bomb and workhouse is exploded. Everyone stared at him and didn't see why this pitiful orphan was so daring. They didn’t give more but confining him in a black room. Loneliness makes a sensitive and precocious child more frightened than starved.Those foundlings in Dickens’ novels in so cold world in which there isn’t any happiness for them. “Reveal the sad life of foundlings…is the core of Dickens’novel,” he dissects deeply, extensively the phenomenon of cruel injury on children in society and family, and shows profound and wide indignation.Dickens depicts those children so vividly. What is his inspiration? We need to learn his experience and social background.Dickens’novels frequently reflect the aspect of his own personal experience. These obviously the case with David Copperfield, as a fictionalized autobiography, The inspiration of his writing .3.3 Pip in Great ExpectationsThe frightened Pip is tormented by a sense of guilt which some readers have found excessive, for it is not justified by the events in his life. Julian Moynahan asserts，“Pip has certainly one of the guiltiest consciences in literature.” They explain his affair with Ellen Ternan and the break up of his marriage of over twenty years. But is Pip’s guilt excessive, and is it unjustified by the events in his life? First of all, this question assumes that our sense of guilt is always s proportionate to our actions, but is this true? Do we sometimes feel guilty over behavior, feelings, or thoughts which are natural, which are minor transgressions, or which we have no control over? Do children, for instance, take responsibility for their parents’divorce or a parent’s alcoholism and feel guilty?Second, is there indeed no justification in his life for his sense of guilt? Consider the way that he is physically, verbally, and emotionally abused by his sister. Could such treatment give a child a sense of being somehow wrong and deserving to be punished? A close reading of the opening chapters suggests other possible causes for Pip’s guilt.His behavior at times causes his sister to assault Joe; when Joe’s oblique references to Pip’s supposed bolting of his bread drive her to knock Joe’s head against the wall, Pip looks on helplessly and “guiltily”.(Dickens,2003:10)In taking food to the convict, Pip is stealing, and he certainly knows that stealing is a crime.When Pop asks what a convict is, the only word Pop understands of Joe’s explanation is “Pip.”Reinforcing Pip’s identification of himself as a criminal, his sister says criminals who murder and rob (which Pip intends to do) always start by asking questions (which Pip has been doing). A little later he thinks he has somehow murdered Pumblechook with the doctored brandy. When he runs into the sergeant, he thinks the handcuffs are for him.Pip is made to feel that his very existence is a crime: “I was always treated as if I had insisted on being born in opposition to the dictates of reason, religion, and morality, and against the dissuading arguments of my best friends.”(Dickens,2003:21)His sister tells the Christmas dinner guests about the acts of sleeplessness I had committed and all the high places I had tumbled from, and all the high placesI had rumbled from, and all the low places I had rumbled into, and all the in juriesI had done myself and all the times she had wished me in my gave, and I hadcontumaciously refused to go there. (Dickens,2003:26)She constructs a scenario of the ordinary actions of childhood as crimes; the final crime is his continuing to live. The guests all acquiesce. Only Joe, who is powerless to protect Pip, offers solace; he ineffectually spoons more gravy onto his plate.Pip several times refers to the corruptness of his own nature.The adult Pip wonders what terrible acts he might have committed as a child, under the pressure of fear and the consciousness of having no adult to turn to for help: “I was in mortal terror of myself…I am afraid to think of what I might have done on requirement, in the secrecy of my terror.” (Dickens,2003:13)He does not confess the theft to Joe because he is afraid of losing Joe’s love and trust. He sees this failure and the theft as examples of deliberate moral transgressions: “In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew what was right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.” (Dickens,2003:40)In the fight with the pale young gentleman in Miss Havisham’s garden, Pip confesses, “I am sorry to record that the more I hit him, the harder I hit him.” Looking back, the adult Pip hopes that he regarded himself “as a species of savage young wolf, or other wild beast.” (Dickens, 2003:90) The young Pip suffers agonies afterwards, expecting to be arrested or otherwise punished for the young gentleman’s injuries.The culmination of pip’s being treated as a criminal occurs with his apprenticeship. Pumblechook tasks Pip “into custody” and physically handles Pip as if he committed a crime; bystanders in court think he has been caught “redhanded”; one comments he “looks bad, don’t he?” and another gives him a tract written for young criminals.(Dickens,2003:103)After his visit to Satis House, Pip becomes ashamed of himself, his home, and Joe and dreams of becoming a gentleman. Would the rejection of the loving Joe, his true friend and constant companion, contribute to a child’s feeling guilty?Ⅳ.Description of Children from Various Angles4.1 To Regain the Nature of GoodnessOliver Twist, one of the most famous works of Charles Dickens’, is a novel reflecting the tragic fact of the life in Britain in 18th century.The author who himself was born in a poor family wrote this novel in his twenties with a view to reveal the ugly masks of those cruel criminals and to expose the horror and violence hidden underneath the narrow and dirty streets in London.The hero of this novel was Oliver Twist, an orphan, who was thrown into a world full of poverty and crime. He suffered enormous pain, such as hunger, thirst, beating and abuse. While reading the tragic experiences of the little Oliver, I was shocked by his sufferings. I felt sympathy for the poor boy, but at the same time I detested the evil Fagin and the brutal Bill. To my relief, as was written in all the best stories, the goodness eventually conquered devil and Oliver lived a happy life in the end. One of the plots that attracted me most is that after the theft, little Oliver was allowed to recover in the kind care of Mrs. Maylie and Rose and began a new life. He went for walks with them, and he worked hard at his lessons. He felt as if he had left behind forever the world of crime and hardship and poverty.How can such a little boy who had already suffered oppressive affliction remain pure in body and mind? The reason is the nature of goodness. I think it is the most important information implied in the novel by Dickens-he believed that goodnesscould conquer every difficulty. Although I don’t think goodness is omnipotent, yet I do believe that those who are kind-hearted live more happily than those who are evil-minded.For me, the nature of goodness is one of the most necessary character for a person. Goodness is to humans what water is to fish. He who is without goodness is an utterly worthless person. On the contrary, as the famous saying goes, ‘The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose’, h e who is with goodness undoubtedly is a happy and useful person. People receiving his help are grateful to him and he also gets gratified from what he has done, and thus he can do good to both the people he has helped and himself.To my disappointment, nowadays some people seem to doubt the existence of the goodness in humanity. They look down on people’s honesty and kindness. As a result, they show no sympathy to those who are in trouble and seldom offer to help others. On the other hand, they attach importance to money and benefit. In their opinion, money is the only real object while emotions and morality are nihility. If they cannot get profit from showing their ‘kindness’, they draw back when others are faced with trouble and even hit a man when he is down. They are one of the sorts that I really detest.Francis Bacon said in his essay, “Goodness, of all virtues and dignities of the mind, is the greatest, being the character of the Deity, and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing, n o better than a kind of vermin.”That is to say a person without goodness is destined to lose everything. Therefore, I, a kind person, want to tell those “vermin-to-be” to learn from the kind Oliver and regain the nature of goodness.4.2 Psychoanalysis of the Children by DickensDickens consumes more energy to analyze those children's psychology under maltreatment. He deserves to be called children’s psychologist, because he is skilled at depicting vividly the lonely mood under the mental and physical torment, following the eye and the imagination of the foundlings, such as Joe in Bleak House, an orphan, who pursued closely by policeman. He looked at the Cross at the top of Saul Polo Cathedral which is sparking in purplish red mist, seeing the expression on the child face, you may feel his sacred token is the most difficult to understand in the big complex city, because it was so resplendent and magnificent, so unattainable, soinaccessible, he sat there, looking at the sun setting in the west, rolling water, jostling crowds…Joe’s solitude lies in his incompetents of everything and everybody in the world. Dickens clearly describes the changing mind of the lonely heart of the children, that is to say, children objectify the solitude heart felt in social atmosphere into structure. In term of this analysis, we can picture all the implication all his suffering in our fancy world. Readers can truly know the horror, loneliness, and insecurity of those children.Solitude makes children easy to fall into fancy world. Imagination becomes the freedom of their own and dream is the special form. In their grey childhood, even though there is no ray of bright color in their dream world, Dickens throws deep sympathy into the description of it, and opens up a broad territory in describing the psychology of children.4.3 The F unction of “D ream”Oliver is sold to coffin store after suffering all kinds of torment. Everyday he undergoes all sorts of terror, and then went back with weary to a small room in which he can stretch out his legs. On evening, dream is for him to give free rein to his childish instincts. However, in his dream, there is no star, fairy tales, no prince and fairy maiden, and no rose. So have what? He dreams the bed he wants to lie down is his coffin. “He can lie down tranquilly kin the cemetery o church, where green grass stand above his, surging gently. The archaic, deep sound of tolling bell consoles his in his dream.”Everyone would have a dream in his childhood, and the dream is the reflection of his real life. It is worse than to die, for children, without dream, imagination. Dream is the only luxury item free to enjoy, but if what appears in fancy can be only realized in dream, his loneliness and pity is more evident, and his misery, the countless trauma of his immature heart caused by circumstance is hardened.Another child, Paul in Dumber and Son, losing mother and father’s love, always lives in dream. Only dream can linger in his mind. Although a nursemaid takes care of him, he is still an orphan. “His only trouble was the swift and rapid fiver. He felt forced, sometimes, to try to stop i t—to stem it with his childish hand s—or choke its way with san d—and when he saw it coming on, resistless, he cried out.”This symbolic paragraph implies that Paul is feeling all the time that time passing by like water flows quickly and death is coming. This figure stands for the poetic sentiment of sentimentality in the era against business spirit. Even if his early-mature is disgusting but if we delete him, we will say goodbye to the symbolism which is veryimportant in novel, Paul’s daydream goes beyond the meaning of sympathy to a lonely child and its symbolizes the great destructiveness to mental world caused by capitalism. It is best to choose children to give vent to great disaster. Because the spiritual world of children isn’t dominated by reason but sentiment, the world is full of feelings and fantasy. Although these children in Dickens’live in adverse circumstances, they don't lose the natural gift. The prominent daydream and susceptible disposition formed in starvation, disease, difficulty, lacking of love see, to fill preposterous deficiency. Most of those children are melancholy, and like to place life in dream. The dream of lonely children reflects their lonely heart. Using solitude and cold dream to comfort their heart shows the indifferent, and exposes that in so wide a room, these is no comer for them to live. In a sense, it displays the conflict between Dickens’s humanism and capitalism.Dreaming is a way to avoid reality, but that is temporary. In Dickens’s novel, death is the climax of tragedy.When Oliver’s friend is in workhouse, little Dick bids farewell to him, Dick knows that after he died, not before, he knows the doctor is right, Oliver! Because he often dreams God, Angel and some kind people he has never seen when he wakes up kisses me. Then he climbs up low fence with frail body, stretching out his hands to hug Oliver’s neck, and said: “Good-bye! My dear, God bless you? Dickens expresses his dignity to the society which regards poor children as nothing.”In a word, misery and sympathy are filled in the works by Dickens.4.4 Innocent Heart and Pure LoveIn his novels, the most fierce and pure reminiscences belong to childhood. Those children have a world of lovely childish heart. In this world, they have a premonition to judge correctly about their footy and human affaire. And they can be conscious of the stupid, stale, cold in adults' world. They have deep and innocent thinking about complicated circumstances. Some early-maturing thinking is gifted by life, and life makes their childishness fade away, so they often say something naive but not of their age. Sometimes Dickens praised excessively their precocious, so it lacks fidelity. But summing up all his works, we get a large number of pictures of real and credible world of childish heart.Childhood is a period with unique value. Although it is wrong for old man to feel rejuvenated and so to a person who lost interest in innocence an artlessness ofchildren, because childishness mixes with real with is lost for children to adapt to peculiarity of grown-up. We must “climb to higher step”to realize the point.(Jordan, 2001:312)Dickens sees the world in a naughty and humorous eye and grasps “the reality”, then finds out total absurdness in adult’s world. This is a great significance in his childish world, and a superb art of irony.Everyone possesses a childish heart at least one time, but Dickens is estimable because he preserves innocent heart to write. In this way, two effects are achieved:1. Free his imagination limitless;2. Tell the truth through the description of the children’s heart which emphasizes criticism much more deeply to some expend, and exposes some vicious conduct, ignored by some adults.Even his rival confesses that Dickens gives children naive laughter, a flawless words. The exquisite childish heart is a broad area for him to seek the beauty of humanity and an idea state which he pursues assiduously.I hope I can occupy a clear space in the center of my children’s world.Ⅴ.ConclusionDickens advocates to loving people and in particular emphasizes self-sacrifice for it. He firmly believes “love is more vigorous than hat red.” He believes the world should be full of love，unselfish love can penetrate through the mist of hate and dissolve all evils．He wants to express a world of pure love，an ideal realm of humanism．No matter how many ways to it，it is being confined，pursued and dreamed．In his work he gave children a voice that they desperately needed, which they had before. In little world which children had their existence, who brought them up, there was nothing so finely perceived and finely felt, as injustice. It seems as long as they remain children, the children in Great Expectation will be unhappy. He illustrated what these children needed and what they were missing. Just as a “seed” was not nurtured cannot grow, children who were not loved and cared for could not grow up to live happily lives. One may wonder why Dickens always seemed to make the world weigh so heavily on the little shoulders of so many of his characters. One reason why Dickens appeared to have created these suffering characters was that he。