Transcription
[Music] Hello, hello. Now we will talk about the greatest novels of Charles Dickens.
Hey guys, did you watch the previous video, Charles Dickens Part One, where we talked about his novels starting from *Pickwick Papers* down to *Dombey and Son*? *Pickwick Papers*, 1836; *Dombey and Son*, 1848. Now, the novels of the 1850s and 60s, starting with our greatest novel, *David Copperfield*. *David Copperfield*, 1850. Oh my god, there are so many novels and books published in 1850. Remember 1850: *In Memoriam*, 1850; *Sonnets from the Portuguese*, 1850; Tennyson became Poet Laureate; Wordsworth's *Prelude* was published, and Wordsworth died. *David Copperfield* is sometimes considered to be his last great novel, but *Great Expectations* came after that. The personal history, adventures, experience, and observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery, which he never meant to publish on any account. This is the full title. *David Copperfield* is writing his own autobiography; he never wanted to publish it. He is the younger of Blunderstone Rookery; his father was dead even before he was born. This is the story; *David Copperfield* is telling his own story. It's a bildungsroman, and very few of his novels—Dickens' novels—are narrated by the protagonists. Dickens loved *David Copperfield*, called him "my favorite child," and this is a pseudo-autobiography. Obviously, it is not David Copperfield who is writing; it is Charles Dickens. The first chapter is famous: "I am born." Do you remember the opening line that is also given here? "Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show." That means, whether I will be the hero of my life or if somebody else will be the hero of my life, these pages will show. Wow. So what is happening here? Adult David Copperfield is telling his story, and he's talking about his childhood, his birth. His mother was a poor, suffering woman; her father—her husband—has died, and she remarried Mr. Murdstone. Mr. Murdstone, the stepfather, turns out to be very cruel. One day, during his beating, David—David—bit Mr. Murdstone's arm, and Mr. Murdstone sent him away to study. He is sent to the school of Mr. Creakle. Mr. Creakle's school is called Salem House, a very bad school, and there David has to study. He becomes friends with Tommy Traddles, one poor boy; James Steerforth, who becomes a pretentious boy later. After his schooling, he joins Mr. Murdstone's wine business. At this time—this is in London—at this time, he is a paying guest; he is living in the house of Mr. Micawber. Mr. Micawber is a good man, but he is inefficient in financial management. He is imprisoned, like Dickens's own father, and Mr. Micawber—when he is put in prison—David goes from there to Dover. He runs away, actually, to meet his Aunt Betsy Trotwood. Betsy Trotwood is an eccentric woman. She had come to David's house when his mother was going to give birth. Betsy Trotwood wanted only girls, and David's mother delivered a boy, but Betsy Trotwood got very angry and left the place. Now, Betsy Trotwood is a gruff woman with actually goodwill. She takes care of David, calls him David Trotwood, etc., sends him to Canterbury to study with Dr. Strong. There, he becomes the paying guest of Mr. Wickfield. First was Mr. Micawber; now he becomes the paying guest—boarder—of Mr. Wickfield. Mr. Wickfield's daughter becomes David's friend. There is a man who is wearing black clothes, who has a snake-like appearance, a very evil man called Uriah Heep, who is also a boarder with Mr. Wickfield. Uriah Heep turns out to be a very evil man later; he's the antagonist of *David Copperfield*. Agnes likes David, but David is an innocent boy; he doesn't understand. And after that, he graduates and goes to work in a law firm. Trotwood—Betsy Trotwood—is determined that David should be a lawyer, so David becomes an articled clerk to Spenlow and Jorkins' law firm. Spenlow's daughter, Dora Spenlow, he likes and falls in love with, but Dora Spenlow is not a good wife. Spenlow, at first, did not agree to the marriage, okay, but later Spenlow dies, and David marries Dora, but Dora is not a good wife. Finally, Dora dies. David goes to Switzerland, not knowing what to do with life. It is in Switzerland that he decides to become a writer. He becomes a writer, and then he remembers Agnes Wickfield. Wow. Agnes was there, my dear friend; I should have married her. He remembers and comes and marries her, and they have a wonderful life afterwards. This is the ending of *David Copperfield*: a little boy is growing up, becoming a man, learning about life, and eventually he settles down in life, becomes a writer, tells us his story. Did you understand? That is a bildungsroman.
Now, this novel is very important for its social criticism, like the other novels of Dickens that we looked at. This mature novel also shows a very deep criticism of the society. He criticizes society's treatment of orphans; he criticizes the educational system; he criticizes class conflicts, etc.
Then came another novel in 1853, *Bleak House*. *Bleak House* is about a long-running court case, Jarndyce versus Jarndyce. I'm not going into the details, but I will tell you just a little bit. Esther Summerson is the female narrator and protagonist. Richard Carson, Ada Clare—they are her friends and important characters. Leigh Hunt is caricatured in *Bleak House*; Harold Skimpole—will you remember? Then, *Hard Times*. I already mentioned it. It is a novel about industrialization; it attacks utilitarianism. 1854. *Hard Times* is a very short novel. *Hard Times* is subtitled "For These Times," and the setting is not London. Can you believe that Dickens, who is so integrally connected to London, wrote a novel which is not about London? Ah, that is Coketown. The novel begins with a description of Coketown. Coketown is an industrial town where there are red brick houses which have all become black because of industrial smoke. Did you know, guys, in central England, still there are houses like that? I saw hundreds of them when I—when I went on a road trip across England, visiting all the major places and authors' museums, etc., after the pandemic. We'll all go. Okay, we will start a literary tour to England by then. Study well, get your professor job, start working hard, and save some money for that lifetime trip. It was life-changing for me. So many houses in England are made of brick. There are also stone houses and stone towers, etc., castles, etc., in the central part of England. These brick houses are all blackened by industrial smoke; even now they are preserved like that. They are preserved like that. So there is a description of Coketown; there's a description of how the industrial smoke has polluted and corrupted life and the buildings in the beginning of *Hard Times*. *Hard Times* is about Thomas Gradgrind. He is a politician and a rich man. He runs a school, and he has utilitarian ideas: "Facts, facts, facts! All I want is facts. Teach these children nothing but facts!" Famous statement. He believes that emotion, imagination—all these are unnecessary; all you need is facts. That is an extreme utilitarian perspective. His own children—he has a lot of children, apart from the children in his school—Louisa, Tom, etc.—he brings up without any emotion or love, to understand only facts. What happens? Louisa and Tom both become corrupted. Louisa doesn't know how to express love or emotion; she doesn't know whom to trust; she almost gets into a bad relationship with a cheat called James Harthouse. Tom robs a bank and makes a poor worker, Blackpool, guilty of it. These people become—these characters—Louisa and Tom become very corrupted people because of their wrong upbringing. Louisa meets her father eye to eye and tells him, "Father, what you've done is wrong. This is not the upbringing that we needed." So this is a novel that shows the working-class people, the rich people; it shows certain various attitudes to life and society, and it is a very deep novel. Disremember, it is dedicated to Thomas Carlyle. Thomas Carlyle and Charles Dickens both were critics of utilitarianism, and it is to Carlyle that *Hard Times* is dedicated. *Hard Times* also has three biblical parts: sowing, reaping, and garnering. Okay, I'm not going into the details. In our detailed class that started on Valentine's Day, February 14th, I'll be dealing with all this in detail. If you are interested, you can contact us and get to know more about it; if not, also no problem. You can just do your own work. Amazing work you can do with the help of these videos, and you can study on your own. No problem. I am with you, whether you join a course or not. I'm there in YouTube, doing whatever help I can, so don't worry. You can still study and have amazing careers. So with that little break about amazing careers, we come to the next novel, *Little Dorrit*. *Little Dorrit* came in 1855. This is also a novel about, um, you know, court cases and prison and such things. Amy Dorrit is there; Clennam—they are the important characters. And then there is a novel that all of you know, *A Tale of Two Cities*, inspired by Thomas Carlyle's famous book, *The French Revolution*, a history. Dickens said he read that book 500 times. Of course, you didn't read it 500 times; probably here's a five-times exaggeration. Anyway, one thing is for sure: Dickens was influenced by *A Tale of Two Cities*. *A Tale of Two Cities*—which are the two cities? Delhi and Bombay, option A; Trivandrum and Kochi, might be my cities in Kerala, option B; Chennai and Kolkata, option C; none of these. None of these. *A Tale of Two Cities* is the tale of London and Paris. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness," like that. Dickens is presenting a series of opposites right at the beginning. It was a very complicated age of opposites. What is happening? Lucie Manette—her father is missing, Alexander Manette. Lucie Manette is going to Paris with the help of Jarvis Lorry, and why they are going? Because they have got some news about Alexander Manette being imprisoned there. They go and get him from prison. Alexander Manette had had a very traumatic time; he went out of his mind. They bring him back, nurse him. At that time, Lucie Manette meets two men: Sidney Carton and Charles Darnay. Both of them are look-alikes; they look alike, Sidney Carton and Charles Darnay. And eventually, both of them love Lucie Manette, and Charles Darnay, the aristocrat—the French aristocrat—marries Lucie Manette. Sidney Carton is a drunkard and a lawyer; he loves Lucie but doesn't marry her, but he promises Lucie, "One day, I will lay down my life for you." At this time, the French Revolution starts. So many things related to the French Revolution happen. Madame Defarge and Monsieur Defarge—the two people there are a couple; they run a wine shop in Paris. There is a famous scene of a broken wine casket. They become revolutionaries. Madame Defarge has some grudge against Charles Darnay's uncle, a marquis, and she gets him killed. At this time, so many innocent people get to be arrested and killed. Charles Darnay is under disguise; he is living in London, and his—two words—a servant gets arrested in England—sorry, in Paris. Charles Darnay goes there to save him. He shouldn't have gone because he's caught; he's an aristocrat. Aristocrats are all guillotined at this time. Guillotine means they are made to lie like this, and a blade will come and chop off their heads. Oh, it's so terrible. It's called the Reign of Terror; it was happening. Charles Darnay is arrested and going to be killed. They can't save him. Sidney Carton smuggles Darnay out of prison, puts himself there in place of Darnay, and gets killed in place of Darnay. He saves Darnay's life, and he keeps his promise to Lucie. So this is a beautiful novel that shows different sides of the revolution: innocent people as well as guilty people, villains as well as heroes, all kinds of people. It's a whole world, and it's a—what a magnificent way of telling a story, isn't it? And Lucie Manette is like the golden thread connecting all these characters. So many symbols are there; so many realistic details are there. When I read *A Tale of Two Cities*, I'm reminded of *Les Misérables* by Victor Hugo: such realism and such—what can I say?—complicated depiction of traumas like the French Revolution and war. Wow. That is a masterpiece, *A Tale of Two Cities*. Here is 1859. So *A Tale of Two Cities* is a beautiful novel that represents a historical trauma from a very individual perspective of the characters. That is a true sign of a historical novel, like Leo Tolstoy's *War and Peace*, etc.
The next major novel by Charles Dickens is the great novel, *Great Expectations*, 1861. Do you remember in the previous video when I talked about *Nicholas Nickleby*, I said there is a theme in *Nicholas Nickleby*: what it means to be a gentleman. The same theme is explored in a very detailed, mature manner in *Great Expectations*. Pip—or Philip Pip—is a poor boy; he has no hope of making money or becoming a gentleman or even getting education, but his greatest dream is to be a gentleman, is to get education. He wants to be a great man. It is an ironic title because the poor people at that time cannot be gentlemen. You know, the privileges of life are denied to them. Pip is the younger brother of a woman who is married to Joe Gargery, a blacksmith. Joe Gargery is therefore Pip's brother-in-law. One day in his childhood, when Pip is sitting in the cemetery looking at his parents' tombstones, what happens is a convict in chains jumps from behind the tombstones and says, "I want food and a file." File means to cut his chains. Pip goes and brings him, but then, by then, he's arrested. Abel Magwitch is so touched by Pip's kindness in trying to help him that he goes abroad, he makes money in Australia, invests that money in Pip's name, and gives him education. Now, Pip doesn't know all these stories, backstories; he doesn't know what happened. One day, Pip goes—in his childhood, before Abel Magwitch comes back with money—one day, Pip goes to play in a neighboring house called Satis House. There is no satisfaction in that house, so it is an ironic title. Pip goes to Satis House to play with the little girl, Estella, who is there. Estella is an adopted child of Miss Havisham. Miss Havisham is an eccentric woman who lives in Satis House. She is always wearing a wedding gown; her clocks—all the clocks in her house—are stopped at 8:40, and she is bringing up Estella to break men's hearts: "Don't fall in love; break their hearts." This is what she's teaching Estella. Poor Pip does not know all these things. Poor Pip falls in love with little Estella. He wants to grow up, marry Estella, become rich, and become a gentleman. At that time, a lawyer comes from nowhere and says, "Pip, somebody has invested money in your name, and you're going to be a gentleman; go to London; you're going to get education." Pip thinks, "Oh, it must be Miss Havisham who is doing this for me because she wants me to marry Estella." Poor Pip; he doesn't know the truth. Pip goes to London; he studies with the pockets he gets, makes new friends, he starts getting education, and he begins to look down upon Joe Gargery. He shouldn't have done that. But at this time, there is a villain called Orlick, who has caused a big injury to Pip's sister, and she dies also eventually. Pip is 23 years old—21 years old—and he has come of age, and he's hoping that he will know his benefactor. He starts getting money when he is 23 years old. Suddenly, Abel Magwitch jumps into his room through the window and says, "I am your benefactor; I invested money for you so that you will get education." Pip is repulsed by him at the beginning. What? This poor man is the man who made me a gentleman. But Pip helps him then in a lot of adventure; they try—Pip and his friends—try to help Abel Magwitch, but finally, you can't save him. But then, Miss Havisham's backstory: we get to know Miss Havisham had fallen in love with one Arthur Compeyson, who cheated her at the wedding altar. That is why she is walking around in her wedding gown still, and she wanted Estella to break men's hearts. That Estella turns out to be the daughter of Abel Magwitch. Estella was putting on airs as if she's a rich girl, wonderful girl, and she also learns her lessons at the end. It has a double ending, the novel. Whether at first it was a tragic ending, Pip is now a gentleman, and Estella is married to some good-for-nothing fellow. They just pass by on the road; they don't meet each other; they don't talk to each other. But later, he rewrote the ending. Pip goes to Satis House; Satis House is dilapidated now; it is breaking down. Estella is there in the garden. Pip goes, takes her hand, and walks out of Satis House, and he famously says, "I never saw the shadow of another parting from her; I will never part from her again; I got her." That is the ending that he rewrote because of the insistence of his friends, um, Edward Bulwer-Lytton. So this novel, *Great Expectations*, has become very famous. There are some feminist criticisms of the novel, yes, but this is a novel that shows the socio-economic reality of England of this time. It shows a lot of ethical and moral concerns, and it is a true representation of an ordinary, average Victorian middle-class man. So this is a very major novel. After this, Dickens has also written *Our Mutual Friend*. *Our Mutual Friend* is about money; somebody is dead, John Harmon, and what happens after his death to his will—a lot of complications. The importance of *Our Mutual Friend* is in that novel—Mrs. Betty Higden; she has an adopted son, Sloppy. Sloppy is reading newspapers loudly. Betty Higden says, "He do the police in different voices!" Wow. That became the original title of *The Waste Land*. Later, *The Waste Land* was renamed as *The Waste Land*. Title taken from Jessie Weston's *From Ritual to Romance*, but the original title was taken from *Our Mutual Friend*: "He do the police in different voices." That is the original title. Dickens has written plays also; *The Frozen Deep* is a play that he wrote with Wilkie Collins, his friend. Did you know that Dickens's life—or biography—was written by John Forster, *The Life of Charles Dickens*? That is his biography.
So these are Dickens's major novels. Don't go; I'm going to tell you something very important features of Dickens' novels. All his novels were serially published, remember, and very popular. They have the features of popular fiction: melodrama, pathos, humor—all these are there. Social concerns are also there. Dickens wanted social reform, even though he never became a reformer. He talked about boarding schools of Yorkshire in which novel? Type in the chat box. *Nicholas Nickleby*, correct. He talked about workhouses, the evils of workhouses, in which novel? Type in the chat box. *Oliver Twist*, correct. He talked about the new manufacturing system in which novel? *Hard Times*, correct. One problem with Dickens is his novels—sorry, his characters—are all like two-dimensional; you know, they are not rounded characters, and they are all defined by some characteristic feature. Or Mr. Barkis in *David Copperfield* is willing; that is all that defines him. Mr. Micawber is always waiting for something to turn up. Uriah Heep is humble but not really humble; he's pretentious, like that. Dickens became very popular because of the large number of novels that he wrote about the ordinary people of London. Without him, Victorian literature would be incomplete, but in crafts definitely people like Thackeray, etc., are better than Dickens. So have you read any novel by Dickens? If not, time to read. Start with *Hard Times* or *A Tale of Two Cities*; they are small, or *A Christmas Carol*; that's also small, but please do read Dickens. The style, the way he uses words, the way he describes character—it is important to know Dickens. Bye-bye. Happy reading. We will meet again in the next video on another major Victorian writer. You think it is one major Victorian writer? You are wrong. Wait till tomorrow to know what are the writers. Okay, bye-bye. You.