1. SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES
CHARLES DICKENS FICTIONS AND CONTEMPORARY REALITY

2. CHARLES DICKENS AND THE VICTORIAN NOVEL
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
The Victorian Age = reign of Queen Victoria ( )
Complex and contradictory era
Age of progress, stability, social reforms
Characterized by poverty, injustice and differences between social classes
THE VICTORIAN NOVEL
It reflects social changes due to the Industrial Revolution
Themes: industry, agriculture, health, prison and workhouses conditions, criminality, exploitation and starvation of children
Photograph of social reality using the grotesque and the third person omniscient intrusive narrator
Purpose: creates alibi, humors, pathos, horror, disgust and laughters
CHARLES DICKENS ( )
English writer and social critic
The greatest novelist of the Victorian period
His literary style is a mixture of fantasy and realism

3. CHARLES DICKENS FICTIONS AND THEIR MAIN FEATURES
OLIVER TWIST ( )
EXTRACT: Oliver wants some more
The extract focuses his attention on the lack of food the master offered to the children and on Oliver Twist action who ask for more food. This action is presented like an exception to the rules that will be punished.
Themes:
poor conditions in the orphanage
starvation
children exploitation
Objective:
Dickens’s point of view about his contemporary problems
Narrative strategies:
exaggeration to highlight precarious children condition
grotesque to characterize the master
third person omniscient intrusive narrator

4. CHARLES DICKENS FICTIONS AND THEIR MAIN FEATURES
HARD TIMES (1854)
EXTRACT: Mr. Bounderby
The extract presents Mr. Bounderby, a rich man deprived of sentiment who works in the commercial sector
Themes:
focus on the economic situation
differences between social classes
progress: form poverty to richness
lack of real values
Objective:
Highlight the values of a typical capitalisti society
Narrative strategies:
technique of the grotesque in order to make a parody of Mr. Boundary and provoke laughter

5. CHARLES DICKENS FICTIONS AND THEIR MAIN FEATURES
HARD TIMES (1854)
EXTRACT: The definition of a horse
The dark-eyedrigid man named Thomas Gradgrind has established a school in Coketown. Mr. Gradgrind ask to his student a clear-cut definition of a horse.
Themes:
life based on facts, no place for imagination
education in the Victorian Age
depersonalization
sex differences
Objectives:
Dickens criticizes the education system of the Victorian Age
make the reader understands that only economic relationships are possible
illustrates the bases of capitalistic system of the Western sociey
Narrative strategies:
use of the grotesque to present the character of Mr. Gradgrind (accumulation and exaggeration)
third person narrator

6. CHARLES DICKENS FICTIONS AND THEIR MAIN FEATURES
HARD TIMES (1854)
EXTRACT: Coketown
It is about a typical Victorian city that is an industrial, monotonous, artificial and material one. consequences of the Industrial Revolution
Themes:
industrialized city = ideal city
Coketown as an expression of the capitalistic system
alienation
utilitarianism = Victorian mentality
Objectives:
Dickens clearly reveals materialism
Dickens shows how the system determines the life of people and criticizes the alienation caused by mass production.
Narrative strategies:
Dickens uses senses to describe the symbolism of Coketown

7. DICKENSIAN THEMES TODAY
DICKENSIAN POVERTY
Analogy
Dickens cared about look at underclass and poverty
"red tape” = bureaucracy in positions of power that hurt weak and poor
"Dickensian" = word to describe an unacceptable level of poverty
Deprivation in some areas = "life mirroring the times of Dickens”
Dickens's view resonated through the ages:
starvation
illnesses and diseases
scarse cleanliness

8. DICKENSIAN THEMES TODAY
OUR VIEW OF THE LAW
Analogy
Dickens was critical of:
the establishment
discrimination against the poor
These are valuable addition to our authorities
Is it a central issues today?
Problem of equality
different regard
corruption

9. DICKENSIAN THEMES TODAY
INDUSTRIALIZATION OF CITIES
Analogy
Industrialization has positive and negative aspects in the Victorian Age and today
Dickens depicted the horrors of industrial England
Coketown: ideal industrialized city
pollution: predominance of black and smoke
huge production
Negatively impacting on our world today:
global warming
carbon dioxide
pollution
important cities are industrialized
Positive aspects on our world today:
improving our standard of living
job opportunities
advancement of technology
quality of products

10. DICKENSIAN THEMES TODAY
EDUCATION OF CHILDREN
Differences
Access to education varied tremendously, according to location, gender, and class
based only on facts
alienation of children
no imagination, quality of children
educated to capitalism, utilitarianism and industrialization
strict methods
Today education:
public school
humanistic and scientific subjects
less firm
relationship between teacher and students
had increased also in poor country

11. DICKENSIAN THEMES TODAY
WOMAN RIGHTS
Differences
Two different spheres: MEN AND WOMEN
knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing
no higher education or professional work
no relationship with men if they are not married
sexist judgment
prostitution
Women are better off TODAY
less paid than man
women with economical and political power fece sexist behavior
struggle against violence
research for equality
more opportunity in the everyday life

12. CONCLUSIONS Dickens reflects themes of his contemporary society
These themes can be considered of maximum importance today
Dickens results actual
The same judgements and critics can be used in our time
There are differences and analogy: we partially improved our society
Capitalism in the Victorian Age and today: material point of view
Importance of industrialization, equality, education, production
Based on reality

13. Liceo Scientifico A. Einstein
THE END
Girardi Gioia
Class 5^ALS
Liceo Scientifico A. Einstein