The Historic Author

Dickens’s mother sent his brothers and sisters into prison with their father, and arranged that Charles should live outside the prison and work with other children. Dickens found the job miserable and thought that he was too good for it; he also dreadfully missed his family. 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. It can be seen through Dickens’s highly successful novel Great Expectations, that his early life events are reflected into the novel.

The early childhood of dickens was really rough. When his father was sent to jail the family struggled with money so dickens began his first job at age 12. This made him feel abandoned and may have even helped his writing be better. From the rough past dickens had it helped him understand the lower class and his comic genius. Which helped him in writing Oliver Twist.

Charles worked as a label-paster, with co-workers of the lowest type (library.thinkquest.org). Dickens lived in a tiny room close by, visiting the prison every Sunday (library.thinkquest.org). Charles despised this situation and lived in misery during his time there. Finally, his father had an altercation with the relative who employed Charles, and John pulled his son from the job (library.thinkquest.org). His mother tried to return Charles to his job, an act that Charles never forgave (library.thinkquest.org).

Dickens’ felt abandoned and betrayed by the adults who were supposed to take care of him. These sentiments would later become a theme in his writing. Dickens was able to go back to school when his father received an inheritance and paid off his debts. At the time, he went to Wellington House Academy in London for nearly three years. In 1827, Dickens had to drop out of school again when he was just 15 to contribute to his family’s income.

This obviously caused him to have a lack of appropriate education, so Dickens began to develop on interest into books. He was later sent back to school when his dad got out of jail, but when his parents could again no longer afford to pay for their son’s education, he found work in a law office, then as a newspaper reporter. It was here that Dickens’ taught himself shorthand,” (www.ucsc.edu/dickens/DEA/ACC/dickens.bio.html, Dickens’ Life and The Carol). This began the writing of the many Dickens’ classics we enjoy to this very day. One particular book being, A Christmas Carol, a well-known holiday classic.

Charles Dickens, the son of John and Elizabeth Dickens, was born in Landport on 7th February 1812. John Dickens worked as a clerk at the Navy pay office in Portsmouth. He later found work in Chatham and Charles; the second of seven children, went to the local school. Dickens father, John Dickens, found it extremely difficult to provide for his family on his meagre income. This resulted in the family being forced to sell most of their possessions but that still was not enough to satisfy his creditors and he ended up being arrested and put in Marshalsea Prison.

Even when his father was free, there was not enough money to support the family adequately. So Charles was taken out of school at the age of 12 to go to work in a factory pasting labels on bottles. He only had the job for a few months, but the shock affected him deeply. The images of prison life and of mistreated or lost children appeared in many of his novels. Charles attended school off and on until the age of 15 when he left for good.

A few weeks after he started working, his father, mother, and siblings were put into debtor’s prison. Dickens lived alone and worked in the factory for a few more months. He experienced orphan hood, and the terrible conditions of being an orphan and working in the factories haunted him. After inheriting some money, Dickens returned to school and his father was released from prison. Dickens became a journalist and grew disillusioned with law makers attempts to alleviate the social conditions of the Industrial Revolution.

He felt more rejected in life throughout primary school and high school where he didn’t have any friends or have a social life besides paying people to come to his apartment which influenced him to begin to drink heavily. According to the social control theory If Jeffrey had made friends in school or when he joined the army or any close relationships this would have prevented him from committing all those crimes. When his victim would try to leave he would strike them and prevent them from leaving as the loneliness and fear of rejection grew. At a young age Jeffrey satisfied his inner self from the loneliness by disfiguring dead animals which he later on carried on by disfiguring the corpse of his victims.

(Farrell, 1932, p. 32)His parents insist he continue his education. William does not understand their perspective particularly his father who had an impoverished upbringing. “Often there had not been enough to eat in the house. Many’s a winter day he and his brother had to stay home from school because they had no shoes.” (Farrell, 1932, p. 15) Studs really was naïve to the sacrifices his parent have and still make. In the end, he relents and enrolls in high