Dickens' father was also an influence on his work, making the young Charles aware of the financial struggles families could face due to the unavoidable fact that his father was greatly inept with money.
When Charles was twelve, his father was imprisoned for debt. This rude awakening meant Charles had to leave school and work in a factory again providing important material for his richly characterised books.
Dickens began his career as a journalist he gained acclaim for his serialized novels published in instalments in various periodical magazines of the day. He was an avid social commentator, often highly critical of the great injustices towards the poor of the Victorian era.
He supported numerous charitable causes throughout his life and used his novels to continually highlight the conditions for children and the poor. Dickens' character Edith from the novel Dombey and Son (quoted above) also raised awareness of domestic abuse in marital relationships. He frequently gave enthusiastic public readings of his works, which were highly popular raising awareness of both his novels and the social issues he wanted to highlight.
The frequently overlooked novel 'Dombey and Son', has an important female character Edith whose individual story illustrates vividly, the oft occurring plight of married women during the Victorian Age. In context, an influence at a time when the first seeds of women’s suffrage and improved marital rights for women were being planted. His own unhappy experiences in school and his mother's lack of understanding also left a deep and lasting impression upon Charles, the result being he often explored themes of childhood, education, and motherhood in his writing. Dicken's other famous character Nancy in Oliver Twist also highlighted the bitter reality of women’s lives during the Victorian era and the darkest underbellies of Victorian society.
The appeal of Dicken's books to people of all classes and backgrounds guaranteed the success he found worldwide. His work was characterized by an innate ability to capture the very essence of Victorian society including its most unpleasant (albeit often highly entertaining) aspects, making him undoubtedly one of the greatest forces in 19th century literature. It is hard to find another author whose books, each and everyone of which, are literary masterpieces.
Despite some of the personal flaws to Dicken’s character his empathy towards the people of the society he lived in made his entertaining novels actually highly important social justice commentary.
This great writer’s life came to an end on June 9, 1870, at his home 'Gad’s Hill', near Chatham, Kent. The legacy of Dicken's great novels however, lives on as they continue to be widely read and celebrated around the world. His deeply relatable characters and depictions of everyday life, the social commentary as a constant thread throughout his novels, and his compassion for the downtrodden have made him an enduring and highly important figure in English literature.
