Biography Of Charles Dickens Essay, Research Paper

Biography of Charles Dickens

There is something about Charles Dickens & # 8217 ; inventive power that defies

account in strictly biographical footings. However, his life shows the

beginning of that power and is the best topographic point to get down to specify it.

The 2nd kid of John and Elizabeth Dickens, Charles was born on

February 7, 1812, near Portsmouth on England & # 8217 ; s south seashore. At that clip John

Dickens was stationed in Portsmouth as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. The

household was of lower-middle-class beginnings, John holding come from retainers and

Elizabeth from minor administrative officials. Dickens & # 8217 ; male parent was vibrant and generous but

had an unfortunate inclination to populate beyond his agencies. his female parent was

affectionate and instead inept in practical affairs. Dickens subsequently used his

father as the footing for Mr. Micawber and portrayed is mother as Mrs. Nickleby in

A Tale of Two Cities.

After a transportation to London in 1814, the household moved to Chatham, near

Rochester, three old ages subsequently. Dickens was approximately five at the clip, and for the

following five old ages his life was pleasant. Taught to read by his female parent, he devoured

his male parents & # 8217 ; little aggregation of classics, which included Shakespeare, Cervantes,

Defoe, Smollet, Fielding, and Goldsmith. These left a lasting grade on his

imaginativeness ; their consequence on his art was rather of import. devils besides went to

some public presentations of Shakespeare and formed a womb-to-tomb fond regard to the theatre.

He attended school during this period and showed himself to be a instead lone,

observant, good-natured kid with some endowment for amusing modus operandis, which his

father encouraged. In retrospect Dickens looked upon these old ages as a sort of

aureate age. His first novel, The Pickwick Papers, is in portion an effort to

animate their idyllic nature: it rejoices in artlessness and the vernal spirit,

and its happiest scenes take topographic point in that precise geographical country.

In the visible radiation of the household & # 8217 ; s move back to London, where fiscal

troubles overtook the Dickens & # 8217 ; s, the clip in Chatham must hold seemed

glorious so. The household moved into the shabby suburb of Camden Town, and

Dickens was taken out of school and set to menial occupations about the family. In

clip, to assist augment the household income, Dickens was given a occupation in a shoe polish

mill among unsmooth comrades. At the clip his male parent

was imprisoned for debt,

but was released three months subsequently by a little bequest. Dickens related to his

friend, John Forster, long subsequently, that he felt a deep sense of forsaking

at this clip ; the major subjects of his novels can be traced to this period. His

understanding for the victimized, his captivation with prisons and money, the desire

to justify his heroes & # 8217 ; position as gentlemen, and the thought of London as an

awesome, lively, and instead baleful environment all reflect these

experiences. No uncertainty this impermanent prostration of his parents & # 8217 ; ability to protect

him made a graphic look on him. Out on his ain for a clip at twelve old ages

of age, Dickens acquired a permanent autonomy, a impulsive aspiration, and a

boundless energy that went into everything he did.

At 13 Dickens went back to school for two old ages and so took a

occupation in a attorneies office. Dissatisfied with the work, he learned stenography and

became a free-lance tribunal newsman in 1828. The occupation was seasonal and allowed him

to make a good trade of reading in the British Museum. At the age of 20 he

became a fully fledged journalist, working for three documents in sequence. In the

following four or five old ages he acquired the repute of being the fastest and most

accurate parliamentary newsman in London. The value of this period was that

Devils gained a sound, firsthand cognition of London and the states.

Dickens was really active physically. He loved taking long walks, siting

Equus caballuss, doing journeys, entertaining friends, dining good, playing practical

gags. He enjoyed games of charades with his household, was an first-class amateur

prestidigitator, and practiced mesmerism. One tends to portion Shaw & # 8217 ; s sentiment that

Devils, in his societal life, was ever on phase. He was like an ageless Maestro

of Ceremonies, for the most portion: royal poinciana, observant, speedy, dynamic, full of

gusto. Yet he was besides ungratified, capable to tantrums of depression, and hot tempered,

so that at times he must hold been about unbearable to populate with, nevertheless

agreeable he was as a comrade.

In position of his really strenuous life it was non surprising that he died at

fifty-eight from a shot. At his decease on June 9, 1870, Dickens was affluent,

vastly popular, and the best novelist the Victorian age produced. He was

buried in the Poet & # 8217 ; s Corner of Westminster Abbey, and people mourned his decease

the universe over.