Charles Dickens and Great Expectations.pptVIP

Charles Dickens and Great Expectations Beginnings Charles John Huffam Dickens Born on February 7, 1812 Second child to John and Elizabeth Dickens Father was a clerk for a Naval Pay Officer Lower middle class which “consisted of shabby genteel who had slipped down from higher classes and artisans and working classmen who had improved themselves” (“Charles”) They “Jealously cherished its pretensions of being a cut above the proletariat, whom it thought to be dirty, immoral, drunken, profane, comical, and potentially murderous” (Cruikshank 12). Also believed itself to be more moral than the “corrupt and sensual aristocracy” (Cruikshank 12). Moving Around The Dickens family moved often because of their father’s job and loose spending habits. Charles remembered his fondest years of childhood as the five years spent in Chatham where the family moved when Charles was 5. He first saw the mansion Gad’s Hill Place there and watched the prison ships called Hulks. There he was allowed to attend school and learned to read and write In 1822 they moved back to Camdon, North London Early Work for Chuck Father was imprisoned for debt early in Charles’ life (around the age of 12). Went to Marshalsea Prison. Had to pay to be there but could earn no money to get out of debt. Family lived with father in Prison so Charles is on his own Charles is sent to work to support his family Jealous of his sister who was studying at the Royal Academy of Music Marshalsea Debter’s Prison Poor Charles Charles was left alone to support himself Charles then went to work for a relative of his mother’s pasting labels on the bottles of shoe polish at Warren’s Blackening factory 12 hours a day, six days a week Eventually, due to an inheritance, the family’s debt was paid and they were allowed to leave prison (In prison 6-12 months Warren’s Shoe Blacking Company Dickens had always dreamed of living the life of an upper class gentleman, but had no money to achieve that dream. Other boys working there made