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Tamara Ready Period 5 Clark Author Study Project

Charles Dickens
Poor laws and way of life can really affect a person, even a writer, some in bad ways, but others in a good. For Charles Dickens, these things worked to his advantage. Dickens was always thinking outside the box, and which is why, in writing, Dickens is known as the King of style, but this is all due to the life careers he had chosen before becoming an novelist and author. Charles Dickens uses many different types of style in his writing that enables you to identify his writing and this is what makes him so unique. The different ways he adds great detail to his writing to make the scenes of his stories come to life, how he adds much definition into his characters, mostly his main, and gives them all a very round and changing personality towards and in life, how he adds a little taste of humor into his writing, and his great use of metaphors, similes and personifications. The novels and classic tales Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Hard Times, Little Dorrit and A Christmas Carol are all great examples that help prove why Charles Dickens is the King of style. In Dickens writings, one way he shows detail in a certain scene is by repeating himself. For example, in Hard Times where Dickens is giving us an image and view of Coketown, he is continuing to repeat what he is saying. "It contained several large streets all very like one another, and many small streets still more like one another, inhabited by people equally like one another, who all went in and out at the same hours, with the same sound upon the same pavements, to do the same work, and to whom every day was the same as yesterday and to-morrow, and every year the

counterpart of the last and the next." Here, Dickens is using the phrase like one another to really show that everything in this town is the same as everything else and shows that nothing really seems to have individuality. Another way Dickens puts great detail into his writing is when he has run on sentences of nothing but detail. The Queen of Denmark, a very buxom lady, though no doubt historically brazen, was considered by the public to have too much brass about her; her chin being attached to her diadem by a broad band of that metal (as if she had a gorgeous toothache), her waist being encircled by another, and each of her arms by another, so that she was openly mentioned as the kettledrum (Great Expectations). This run on sentence is indeed in great detail, and is most defiantly long, but does keep the reader interested in what he is saying. This is due to all the punctuation he uses. It is as if this is all just long twisty road of language, but you continue to read because it is just so interested and you want to try to discover the point to why all this is being said. One last example is when Dickens is describing Fagin's short stay in prison in the novel Oliver Twist. This represents the portion of the prison from which the turnkey says Kit is spared. Fagin's prison is seems very hell-like and dark. To reach his holding cell for the hours prior to his execution, Fagin must walk "through a paved room under the court," suggesting that this is the travel of the damned. This notion is enhanced when Dickens describes Fagin crossing "a gloomy passage lightly by a few dim lamps, into the interior of the prison. These are just a few of many examples of Dickens adding great detail into his work. Dickens shows a great deal on character change in most of the main characters in each of his books. In David Copperfield, David's position at home changes from that of a much-loved only child to a victimized and lonely outcast, he gradually appears, both to himself and to the Murdstones, as less than human. Finally, the Murdstones complete this dehumanization by forcing on him a placard, "Take care of him. He

bites." The irony packed into the word "care" emphasizes the brutality of this treatment as does David's complete acceptance of his animality. After looking for the dog that is to wear the sign and finding it is for him, he rejects utterly his own humanity and suffers a "dread" of himself. Another example of Charles Dickens adding a dynamic change in characters is character Pip in Great Expectations. Pip starts off as a mild-mannered young boy and once he meets the convict, Magwich, his future benefactor, he changes. Before Pip does receive a benefactor, Pips uncle brings him to Ms. Havisham to make extra money. Ms. Havisham is an old woman who uses Pip for her revenge on men by using her adopted daughter, Estella to win Pips heart and then break it. Pip does fall in love with Estella though, and because of the way she was raised, Estella treats him badly. He still falls for her though because he feels that there is some one good in her and he will wait until that side of her comes out, but when she says that she cant feel the same way he feels for her, he just becomes angry with everything and everyone. This is the first time Pip really starts to change. Pip also changes when he because a Gentleman after attending school for it. When Pip becomes a Gentleman, he becomes a snob and acted like he was better than everyone else when really he is not and the exact opposite of what he was like as a kid. His un-known benefactor is the reason why he lives the way he does but once he discover who is his benefactor, he becomes the Pip from the start of the book; humble, loving Pip. Dickens likes to use a lot of humor in his stories, but not all are meant towards the other characters in cruel and or humiliating ways, but to show more life of the lower working class. This is because Charles Dickens does in fact have favoritism towards the lower class men and women. In chapter 10 of Little Dorrit, Dickens continues to repeat the phrase you want to know, you know as a sort of humorous insult meaning, got it? Charles adds emphasis on what he is trying to say by continuing to repeat this over and over but does so in a humorous way.

Charles Dickens also adds humor into the Great Expectations too. The way he makes some of the characters and the relationships in this story is a bit comical. One example is Wemmeck and his father. The way he makes Wemmeck act quirky and so to say, kind of goofey and how he makes his father the typical old deaf man just really lightens up the story. Another example for humor in this story is in the wedding, this part gives the story a bit of comic relief. Another example of Dickens using humor is in Hard Times when he describes Mr. Bounderby as, A man made out of a coarse material, which seemed to have stretched to make so much of him. He does this to show his opinion in the rising, greedy middle class. Mr. Bounderby is a very large man, which indicates greed and a bit of a loud fella, which Dickens then mocks strongly. Charles Dickens uses a great deal of similes, metaphors and personifications in his writing. In Oliver Twist, Dickens' uses metaphor this metaphor "a maze of the mean dirty streets which abound in that close and densely-populated quarter". He is saying here that the streets are mazes. "Ruddy, brown-faced, broad-girthed Spanish Onions, shining in the fatness of their growth like Spanish Friars, and winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went by... Norfolk Biffins, squab and swarthy... and, in the great compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after dinner" (A Christmas Carol). This is an example of Dickens' incorporating personification into his writing. This example is talking about the Spanish onions and how they just wait on the shelf to be picked up and used for some ones cooking but he gives the onions human like qualities by saying "winking from their shelves in wanton slyness as they went by..." Onions are not living, therefore cannot wink. Dickens also likes to compare people to animals or imaginary creatures. One example of this is shown all over David Copperfield when he compares most of the people in the book to animals. He refers to all the good, innocent people in his life as harmless creatures and evil beings as dangerous, predatory beasts.

Dickens does this to show that David does begin to get this dehumanizing vocabulary, however only does so to reach comfort is a fantasy world. Some examples of this is when he refers to Mr. Chillip is "an amiable bird, Barkis is "like a horse, David's brother is like "a poor lamb," Dr. Strong is like "a blind old horse," and Traddles says he is a "fretful porcupine." Dora's aunts are "little birds," and Dora is "a Mouse." Mr. Dick and Aunt Betsey are like "a shepherd's dog" and "a sheep. But, on the other hand, he refers to some of the mean and scary characters as things that would be mean and scary in real life. Mr. Murdstone is like a vicious dog, Ms. Murdstone is a "Dragon, and together they are "two snakes." The Goroo man lives in a "den" and has the "claws of a great bird, Steerforth (after his seduction of Em'ly) is "a spotted snake," Mrs. Marldelutin is "a crocodile," Rosa Dartle is "lynx-like" and shows the "fury of a wild cat" and Uriah Heep is called at various times a "serpent, a "red headed animal, an "Ape, an "eel," a "red fox" and he and his mother are likened to "two great bats. The reason for all of his creativity was due to his hard life he went through as a kid that led him down the road of becoming author. Most authors you hear about are highly smart because they have studied at some college, even if it was for only for a short period of time, but you do not have to had gone to college to be smart or a writer for that matter and Charles Dickens is a perfect example of that, actually, Dickens is a great example of people who are even elementary school dropouts can become smart and successful. At a fairly young age, Charles Dickens was forced to quit school and work at an attorneys office as an office boy. After seeing stories go in and out of that office, he was curious to become the one that brings in the story, a reporter. Charles Dickens became a reporter at age 17 and as a reporter, you have to have a good sense of detail, a great use of punctuation, correct spelling and proper grammar. Another thing journalist have to carry with them in writing is a sense of putting together a story and having questions answered. All these aspects are

incorporated and seen all throughout his personal writings. Another thing that really influenced his writing was growing up in a large family, but having to be very poor one at that. This is the entire reason why he dropped out of elementary school and the reason why he has favoritism towards the lower class families. He saw higher class member as evil and cruel. He makes this very obvious in his writings. As an example, Ebenezer Scrooge, from A Christmas Carol, was the typical rich man of the Victorian era. One other example of this is when Dickens in talking about Mrs. Sparsit in Hard Times. She was now, in her elderly days, with the Coriolanian style of nose and the dense black eyebrows. In this quote, Dickens is showing how she represents the snobbish, cruel rich higher class who look down on everyone. These are just a few of the examples that show why Charles Dickens is known as the King of style. A few topics on why he is known as this is because his great use of detail, how he creates his characters and makes them so lively and round, the humour he likes to use, and how he uses many similes, metaphors and personifications. But all this is due to the careers in life he had before becoming a full time author.

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