The Child and Childhood as a Literary Theme in Charles Dickens’s Novels
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31150/ajshr.v4i3.2124Keywords:
image, childhood, childhood portrayal, orphans, child labor, innocenceAbstract
The nineteenth century saw England change from an agricultural society to an industrial civilization. During the century, the suffrage was extended to an ever greater number of people. The Victorian Era was a prosperous period for England, and London was the world's financial center.
The Victorian Age was a special period in the development of children's literature. Progressively, children's literature appeared in greater volume and with a more varied selection than before. As publishing became less expensive, cheaper reading matter, especially periodicals, was more readily available. Moreover, both publishers and critics came to recognize juvenile literature as separate from adult literature. In its broadest sense, children's literature is reading matter created exclusively for children as well as those items selected from general literature and read by the young. In other words, children's literature belongs to children either by creation or selection. (6, p.32)
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) reveals Victorian manners, class structure, and some social concerns in his writings. He was predominately an author for adults; however, his children's book The Rose And The Ring (1854-1855) was popular with youthful audiences. Since Thackeray was a widower, his children lived with their maternal grandmother in France; yet, despite their distance their correspondence reveals a close and warm relationship. It was their request for him to create some Twelfth Night characters that resulted in the The Rose And The Ring, which was finished in November, 1854, as a Christmas book.
Like Thackeray's works the majority of Charles Dickens's novels were written for adults or as family novels— where they would be read out loud to the entire family as entertainment. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was one of the best-known Victorian authors. He was a prolific writer and was considered the spokesman of "middle-class England." His 1843 Christmas Carol is one of the latter. Many of his novels were popular with children as well as adults, and, in many Victorian homes, Dickens's novels were read to children. (2, p.15).
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