“The panorama of the life and customs of Victorian

England on the basis of „A Christmas Carol” and „Oliwer

Twist” by Charles Dickens”

Dickens Charles is one of the greatest English and European novelists. His work is
dominated by care for people disadvantaged by society, especially the poor and
children. The author created his works during the Victorian era. He can be called the
chronicler of London's life in those days. In this era, an industrial revolution took place,
and in society the principle of morality was created, which Dickens denied.
A „Christmas Carol” perfectly represents Realism combined with the
atmosphere of fairy tales and lyricism. This poetry a great celebration of Christmas, it
is primarily an expression of criticism of the nineteenth-century division that prevailed
in Victorian England, between the rich and the poor, possessors and those without.
London was at the center of the world then. The city was enriched thanks to the
development of industry and colonial influences, but poverty was still visible in it. The
main character of the story, Ebenezer Scrooge, is a caricatural incarnation of all the
worst vices of voracious capitalism. He is a man who devotes the love of a beloved girl
to his estate, his own health and respect in the eyes of people. Thanks to the avarice
and the extreme oppression of employees, Scrooge earns his fortune, but he spends
Christmas alone.
Thanks to the wonderful visits of the Christmas ghosts, however, the hero
realizes his mistakes and, despite his age, gains the opportunity to repair them. He
remembers his own childhood dreams and reaches out to him how unjustly and badly
he treated everyone around him. Dickens in "Christmas Carol” not only condemns the
shortcomings of capitalist society, but also indicates the possibility of their repair.
W.J. Dawson writes that Charles Dickens is “The spokesman of the masses;
he writes for themand lives by their praise; he is understood of the common people,and
delights in kinship with them; he may thus claim to have been 1 the creator of the
democratic novel". Later critics like G.B. Shaw and Ernest A. Baker who also supported
the Dickens' moral activities.

(A forum of fiction: Coverage: 1967-2012 (Vol. 1, No. 1 - Vol. 45, No. 3 Published by:
Duke University Press)

In this Dicken’s position, you can see a deep reference to history -the poor law. It was
supposed to answer this situation. However, it was this law, it still needs to be
condemned to starvation. laborious work in fact or imprisonment for debtors, only
between the two options the poorest could make a choice. Children from the poorest
families were forced to work in hard conditions, in inhuman conditions, with very high
contamination, they often suffered from postural disorders. Few have managed to grow
into healthy adult people.
It is also important that the novel refers to the family life of Dickens. When he
was a teenager, his parents were sent to prison for debts, but he managed to avoid it.
In the novel, the artist criticizes the greed and corruption of the Victorian's rich, whom
Scrooge symbolizes before the change. On the other hand, the work is praise for the
poor, who do not think only about themselves and their needs, but about their loved
ones, this attitude is represented by the Cratchits family.
Another poem, that I will analyze in my BA thesis will be a book titled "Oliwer
Twist”.(1838). Oliwer Twist is a young boy who has to struggle with his fate since
childhood. Being in an orphanage is inhuman treated. In the following chapters, we see
the naivety of a young man. He is susceptible to the influence of other people. However,
at the end of the novel Oliwer gets lucky, love and friendship, which is what he did not
experience before.
When Oliwer Twist was published, many people were shocked, and clergymen
and magazine editors accused the young novelist of having written an immoral book. In
later editions, Charles Dickens defended the book, explaining that one of his purposes
had been to take the romance out of crime and show the underworld of London as the
sordid, filthy place he knew it to be. However, it should be remembered that apart from
criticism, the novel received positive comments from recipients and literary critics.
„There is no need to trace again here the growth of hatred for the Poor Law among the
working classes. It is enough to say that the extremely severe winter of 1837-8, the high
price of corn, trade depression, and unemployment then made the law even more
unpopular than it had been before. A novel could hardly have been more topical than
Oliver Twist: the season made it so.”- Humphrey House „In The Dickens World”

As House informs us, there is no exaggeration of the facts which are real.
In Dickens' song, as a reader, we are still overwhelmed by his fate. His life is at risk
on every step. He is still fighting for survival. Dickens presents his moral objection. He
does not support the system that kills people. In the novel, it is very well presented.
Gamfield imagines torture for Olivier. An older woman from an orphanage starves him
to death. All these facts are com- municating and presenting a real picture of those
times
Charles Dickens shows much of the original style in his novels. He is the most
famous writer of the Victorian era. Reformation Poor Law brings problems to the poor.
After the book's appearance, poor laws began to be more noticed by people. Each of
Dickens' novels has a hidden meaning. Reading his novels one can notice the deep
relationship between the content and the author himself. Becoming acquainted with
the biography of Dickens, his determination and struggle against the criticism and the
Viktorian society of England are easy to see. He convinces us that society is uncommon,
but if we try to fight him, he will restore our dignity.