Ivana Jankovic

Introduction

Introduction
David Copperfield, Oliver Twist these and the others well-known characters were born in the brilliant imagination of the most popular world-wide novelist of the 19th century Charles Dickens. My first contact with Charles Dickens happened a few years ago. As a child I watched motion pictures that moved me emotionally, unaware that was inspired by Charles Dickenss novel. Years later I discovered that movie, actually it was a cartoon Oliver Twist. This movie awakened in me an interest in further exploration of his life, works and also the age of his time, Victorian age. How his works conjure up images of Victorian merriment, one of those closest to him knew how he was driven from a dark and shameful past. To his loyal readers he was last century super stock, the most popular, the most beloved author of his age, public celebrity of 19th century. In the next three chapters I will try to show you Victorian era like time of change, also a time of great literature, Charles Dickenss life, his battle for existence, fears, his emotional nature, relationship with his family, his passion for women, persons which have a very important influence in his work and life, someone of them are introduced in his novels like main characters, travels he made during his life which also influenced on his work and the way he wrote his novels. The Victorian age and Queen Victorias long rule made England enjoy one of her most prosperous periods with great industrial advancement, economic development, surge of national pride, power and prestige never paralleled before. In this period were lower and middle classes, but only the greater part of common people given real access to culture. But today education is more vividly distributed, and the result was that more and more people were able to read and write. The Victorian frame of mind was dominated by three basic formative agents. The first is directly linked with Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution went in parallel with and unequalled development of sciences, which led to the belief that sciences could solve all problems and everything could be scientifically explained. The second influence comes from doctrine of Utilitarianism; the third influence is direct result of Darwinian Theory about origin of man and evolution.

Ivana Jankovic

Introduction

The Victorian age is a time of GREAT literature. The literature of this era expressed the fusion of pure romance to realism. The discoveries of science have particular effects upon the literature of the age. If you study all the great writers of this period, you will mark four general characteristics: -Literature of the age tends to come closer to daily life which reflects its practical problems and interests; it becomes a powerful instrument for human progress. -Moral Purpose: The Victorian literature seems to deviate from art for arts sak and asserts its moral purpose. Tennyson, Browning, Carlyle, Ruskin-all were trackers of England with the faith in their moral message to instruct the world. - Idealism: Its often considered as an age of doubt and pessimism. The whole age seems to be caught in the conception of man in relation to universe with the idea of evolution - It is an idealistic age where the great ideals like truth, justice, love, brotherhood are emphasized by poets, essayists and novelists of the age. Great writers of this time were Charles Dickens (Great Expectations), Charlotte Bronte(Jane Eyre), Emily Bronte (Wuthering Heights),Anna Bronte, George Elliot, William Thackeray and the others.