NHD final draft

Olivia Sherman
Mrs.Thompson/Mr.Brasof

Topic Selection Essay: Charles Dickens

Have you ever seen the screenplay "A Christmas Carol"? Well I have. Do you know you wrote it? Charles Dickens wrote it in December 1843. He said, "I have endeavored in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humor with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it." He was a writer of many sorts. He wrote screenplays and books. He is well known and still is an inspiration.

Whenever I hear the name Charles Dickens I think of Christmas time. I think of the Christmas parties and all the things that happen during those parties. I think of the laughing, the food, the music, the singing, and the eggnog. I have always dreamed of spending my Christmas by the fireplace. I also think about the many orphan children and those who don’t have a home to go to and any place to spend their Christmas.


Charles Dickens was born Charles John Huffman Dickens. He was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. He was born into a poor family. His parents were Elizabeth née Barrow, she lived from 1789-1863, and John Dickens, who lived from 1785-1851. Dickens led a hard early life. His father was clerk in the Navy Pay Office. He was a friendly, sociable and generous man. His actions caused him to struggle financially throughout his life. And in 1824 his father was imprisoned for his debt. Charles had an older brother named Frances; he was often called Fanny for short. Charles also had younger siblings named Alfred Allen, Letitia Mary, Harriet, and Frederick William also known as Fred, Alfred Lamert, and Augustus Newnham. Later on, Dickens mother and siblings were also put into jail with his father at the Marshalsea Prison. He was not good at keeping his finances straight. In 1824 Dickens became a reporter. At that time Charles was put to work at Warren's Blacking factory. When he was twelve years old his father was released from jail. Already scarred mentally by the experience of his family in jail he was also surprised by his mother's suggestion that he continue to work at the factory. His father saved him from doing that and between the years of 1824 and 1827 Dickens was a student at a school in London. His brief service at the factory tormented him for the rest of his life. He later came to write that he wondered, "How I could have been so easily cast away at such an age". He only told his wife and to his closest friend, John Forster this dark secret. This secret became a source of creative energy and betrayal in David Copperfield in one of Dickens books Great Expectations. Before his death on June 9, 1870 Dickens wrote 15 major novels, countless short stories and articles. He wanted to be buried, in a small cemetery in Rochester, but the Nation would not allow it. He was laid to rest in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, and the flowers from thousands of mourners overflowing the open grave.

Later on in his life his parents were always pestering him to give them some money. Dickens went on to write many novels that we read today. One of his most infamous novels is "The Christmas Story", every year around Christmas time, movies that are based on this book, are played on television.

Charles Dickens was an eager and early reader. This was influenced by his mother learning's. Mary Weller was an early influence on Charles Dickens. She was hired to take of care Dickens and his siblings. Her bedtime stories, featured people like Captain Murder, who supposedly would make pies of out his wives. She swore these stories extremely true. Charles Dickens said, "The young woman who brought me acquainted with Captain Murderer had a fiendish enjoyment of my terrors, and used to begin, I remember - as a sort of introductory overture - by clawing the air with both hands, and uttering a long low hollow groan. So acutely did I suffer from this ceremony in combination with this infernal Captain, that I sometimes used to plead I thought I was hardly strong enough and old enough to hear the story again just yet."

Although his work wasn’t read until after his death he has still be a big influence on the world today. His views were later viewed on by the social change and the world he would create through his fiction.

As a 19th century author, Dickens was known for his characters, novels, and his depth of descriptions. He shed light into the lives of the poor. He had many critic and admirers. Dickens inspired many characters in plenty of different books. Although his earlier life was not all chocolates and roses, he still made it through his trials and tribulations. Charles Dickens was trying to approve people's social life and his books brought out to the public eye the horrific conditions of that time. He also made people look at their religion in a different way then what way they were looking at. And that's why our group chose Charles Dickens.



Bibliography

1. http://www.online-literature.com/dickens/
2. http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/index.html
3. http://charlesdickenspage.com/
4. http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/dickensbio1.html
5. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/162141/Charles-Dickens