Recurring Purposes Within Dickens' Novels Anonymous 12th Grade

Charles Dickens was a famous critic of his time. He took on Victorian ideals and issues that he viewed as social injustices and criticized them, both in public speeches and in his writing. In his novels, these were primarily subjects like poverty and what he viewed as problems with the English government: Oliver Twist points out poverty and crime; Bleak House comments on the Court of Chancery and the social activism of the time; A Tale of Two Cities marginally focuses on both poverty and comparing and criticizing the French and English governments. With these three novels, Dickens was able to make strong statements about the problems within English society.

All three of these novels are strongly critical of society, though in different ways. The major way that they’re critical is by pointing out the problem of poverty, with both Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities making a strong effort to do this. Bleak House and A Tale of Two Cities both highlight some problem within the governments, whether that’s the Court of Chancery being useless and more trouble than it’s worth, or showing the problems with the aristocracy. Dickens felt so strongly about the poor because he came from a poor background. As a youth while his father was...