The Childhood of Charles Dickens Essay -- Biography Biographies Essays

The Childhood of Charles Dickens      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   "I do not write resentfully or angrily: for I know all these things have worked together to make me what I am" - Charles Dickens    Charles Dickens's tumultuous childhood did indeed shape the person he became, as well as have a definite impact on his literary career.   There are shades of young Dickens in many of his most beloved characters, including David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and of course, Great Expectations' Pip.   Like Dickens, all three of these characters came from humble beginnings and were able to rise above their respective circumstances to achieve success.   Similarly, Dickens' literary success is owed in large part to his unhappy childhood experiences.   He did not merely overcome his past, he triumphed over it by incorporating it into best-selling works of art.   Drawing on these events not only provided a cathartic release from childhood traumas, it also modernized the classic rags-to-riches success story.   When comparing Dickens' childhood to Great Expectations, it becomes apparent not only how these formative years influenced his literary career by inspiring many of the characters and themes predominant in the novel, but also how Dickens used his work as a form of therapeutic release from childhood tensions.    Charles Dickens' childhood and young adulthood was definitely filled with enough drama to base a novel upon.   Born February 7, 1812, to John Dickens, a clerk in the Navy Pay Office, and his wife Elizabeth, Charles spent his earliest years in the English seaport town of Portsmouth.   The first years of his life were idyllic enough, alt... ... safe way.   He did not have to confront the people and events that shaped him directly, he could do it through characters such as Pip.   He was well-acquainted with the themes that run throughout the novel because he experienced them in his own life.   His first-hand knowledge of such feelings as guilt, betrayal and personal redemption added an authenticity to his fiction that would be difficult for authors without such a history to duplicate. Works Cited    Allen, Michael. Charles Dickens' Childhood. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan, 1988.    Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. 1861. Ed. Janice Carlisle. Boston: Bedford, 1996.    Forster, John. The Life of Charles Dickens. New York: Bigelow, 1876. Kaplan, Fred. Dickens: A Biography. New York: Morrow, 1988.            Ã‚