A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

1292 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: hard times charles dickens social class

Charles Dickens is much loved for his contribution to classic English literature. His epic stories, brilliant characters, and illustration of contemporary life are unforgettable and made him one of the most prominent authors in history. Charles was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, England to John and Elizabeth Dickens. He was the second of eight children. Dickens was driven to achieve success from the days of his boyhood. With little formal education, he taught himself, worked furiously at everything he undertook and rocketed to fame as a writer in his mid-twenties. His writings depicted his concern for social justice and reform.

His father, John Dickens, was a naval clerk who wanted to achieve wealth for his family. Charles Dickens’ mother, Elizabeth Barrow, aspired to be a teacher and school director. Despite his parents’ best efforts, the family remained poor. In 1816, the family moved to Chatham, Kent. In 1822, the Dickens family moved to Camden Town, a poor neighborhood in London. By then the family’s financial situation had grown dire, as John Dickens had a dangerous habit of living beyond the family’s means. In 1824, John was imprisoned for bad debt; Charles was just 12 years old. At that point his education had to be interrupted because he had to work.
A few years later his father inherited money that he used to pay off his debt. Much to his relief, Dickens was permitted to go back to school. But when Dickens was 15, his education had to interrupted once again. In 1827, he had to drop out of school and work as an office boy to contribute to his family’s income.
Within a year of working, Dickens began freelance reporting at the law courts of London. Just a few years later, he was reporting for two major London news...

... middle of paper ...

...revolutionaries.

Works Cited

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities,. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1942.

"A Tale of Two Cities: PLOT STRUCTURE / LITERARY ANALYSIS by Charles Dickens." A Tale of Two Cities: PLOT STRUCTURE / LITERARY ANALYSIS by Charles Dickens. 11 Nov. 2013 .

"A Tale of Two Cities: SHORT SUMMARY / SYNOPSIS / THEMES / MOOD by Charles Dickens." A Tale of Two Cities: SHORT SUMMARY / SYNOPSIS / THEMES / MOOD by Charles Dickens. 11 Nov. 2013

.
"A Tale of Two Cities Summary." Shmoop. 11 Nov. 2013 .
Cody, D.. N.p.. Web. 11 Nov 2013. .

Show More
Related

  • Dynamic Characters In A Tale O

    1022 Words  | 3 Pages

    The English novelist, Charles Dickens, is one of the most popular writers in the history of literature. During his life, he wrote many books, one of them being A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens uses many dynamic characters in this novel. Dynamic characters or, characters that drastically change, play a very important role in the novel A Tale of Two Cities.

    Read More

  • Scrooge's Transformation in Dickens' A Christmas Carol

    2180 Words  | 5 Pages

    Dickens used his great talent by describing the city London were he mostly spent his time. By doing this Dickens permits readers to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of the aged city, London. This ability to show the readers how it was then, how ...

    Read More

  • Resurrection in A Tale of Two Cities

    1152 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kalil, Marie. Cliffs notes on Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities.  Cliff Notes Inc, June 2000

    Read More

  • How Does Dickens Create Tension In The Lead-Up To Nancy’s Death?

    1289 Words  | 3 Pages

    Charles Dickens is a famous novelist who was born on February 7TH 1812, Portsmouth England. His novel ‘Oliver Twist’ had been serialized and to also show Dickens purposes, which was to show the powerful links between poverty and crime. The novel is based on a young boy called Oliver Twist; the plot is about how the underprivileged misunderstood orphan, Oliver the son of Edwin Leeford and Agnes Fleming, he is generally quiet and shy rather than being aggressive, after his parents past away he is forced to work in a workhouse and then forced to work with criminals. The novel reveals a lot of different aspects of poverty, crime and cruelty which Dickens had experienced himself as a young boy in his disturbing and unsupportive childhood, due to his parents sent to prison so therefore Charles, who was already filled with misery, melancholy and deprivation had started working at the age of twelve at a factory to repay their debt.

    Read More

  • The Consequences of Socioeconomic Inequality as Portrayed by Tale of Two Cities

    1868 Words  | 4 Pages

    Charles Dickens, an English writer and social critic, lived in England from 1812 to 1870 (Cody). Dickens usually critiques topics important to him or those that have affected him throughout his life. He grew up poor and was forced to work at an early age when his father was thrown into debtors prison (Cody). As he became a popular and widely known author he was an outspoken activist for the betterment of poor people’s lives (Davis). He wrote A Tale of Two Cities during the 1850s and published the book in 185...

    Read More

  • Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    Swisher, Clarice, Ed. “Charles Dickens: A Biography.” Readings on Charles Dickens. San Diego, Greenhaven Press, 1998. Print. 21 March 2014.

    Read More

  • Tale Of Two Cities Metaphors Analysis

    964 Words  | 2 Pages

    A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is a classic novel written in the 1850’s by Charles Dickens. The novel is set in London and France during the French Revolution. The novel features an amazing use of themes as well as sensational development of characters. Charles Dickens and his feature style of the poor character who does something great is very evident in Sydney Carton, a drunken lawyer who becomes the hero of the book.

    Read More

  • Thesis on a Tale of Two Cities

    528 Words  | 2 Pages

    Charles Dickens’s voice varies from being sympathetic with the revolutionaries, to a feeling of discord with their method of revolting. A Tale of Two Cities revolves around the French revolution and the tension in England. Dickens gives the tale of a family caught in the conflict between the French aristocracy and radicals. In the course of the book, the family handles extreme difficulty and obscurity. Dickens’s neutrality, though sometimes wavering from side to side, is apparent throughout each book in the novel.

    Read More

  • The Critique Of Charles Dickens Historic A Christmas Carol

    1737 Words  | 4 Pages

    Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, England. He was the second of eight children, and his father, John drove them into poverty. John was sent to prison for debt in 1824 when Dickens was twelve years of age. Dickens worked in an unsanitary boot-blacking factory to provide money to his family, leaving school entirely. Although he started earning a fair amount of money at his factory job, he strived for educational

    Read More

  • The Historical Context of A Tale of Two Cities

    2559 Words  | 6 Pages

    Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. 1859. Reprint. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble

    Read More

  • The Role of Women in Great Expectations

    2281 Words  | 5 Pages

    Once Dickens’s father was released from prison, Dickens returned back to school. He then became a law clerk, then a court reporter, and then finally a hugely successful novelist.

    Read More

  • How Charles Dickens’ Life Influenced Oliver Twist

    2071 Words  | 5 Pages

    Dickens lived a life full of events that would later influence his novels. Dickens grew up during a time of change for Great Britain. By the time he was born in 1812, the Industrial Revolution was in full force. Dickens grew up as a normal middle-class child in Portsmouth, Great Britain. It was around the age of twelve that his life took a drastic turn. Dickens was still a child when his father was imprisoned for debt. Families, at this time, lived with the father in prison. Charles did not live in prison, though. Instead, he was sent to live alone and become a laborer at Warren’s Blacking Facto...

    Read More

  • Victorian Age Essay

    2214 Words  | 5 Pages

    He is born the second of eight children of John and Elizabeth Dickens. As a child, the Dickens’ had to move many times because his father worked as a “minor civil servant in the Naval Pay Office, a job that required the family to move a number of times,” (PBS 3). The line of servants ran in the Dickens’ family, on his father’s side were servants of the wealthy Crewe family in Creshire. It was where his grandfather, William Dickens, whose was a butler to the Crewes, married Elizabeth Bell, who was the Crewes’ housekeeper, (Glancy

    Read More

  • Dynamic Characters In A Tale Of Two Cities

    1083 Words  | 3 Pages

    . Charles Dickens is an influential writer in his time. Charles Dickens is born on February 7, 1812 in England. Many of the books he writes are classics. One of the his classics is A Tale of Two Cities. A Tale of Two Cities is about a group of people who get stuck in France at the time of the revolution and only a very dear friend saves them from living lives of sadness. In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens uses dynamic characters that change drastically from the beginning to the end of he book.

    Read More

  • Reflection of Charles Dickens' Childhood in Olvier Twist

    1155 Words  | 3 Pages

    Charles Dickens was born on 1812 in a mid-class family at Landport in Portsea Island. His father John Dickens was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office with a comfortable income. But his squandering quickly destroys the family by the accumulation of the debts which he could not pay and went to jail in the end. Dickens was also forced to leave school and work ten-hour days at Warren's Blacking Warehouse, where he earned six shillings per week for pasting labels on pots of boot blacking. The terrible working conditions in the blacking company left a strong impact on young Dickens and later became his inspiration of writing and depicting the miserable life of the lower class people in London, especially the character of Oliver Twist.

    Read More

More about A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

Open Document