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Features of Dickens’ novels
First, Dickens portrayed a
much broader social picture than any novelist before him. As a careful
observer, Dickens’ works nearly include all the complex and colorful social
customs and facts of the Victorian Age. Besides the natural environment,
such as capitalist’s villa, London’s apartment, village’s church, and
inhumane workhouse, etc. Dickens skillfully weaved those concrete
circumstances with the whole social background together, which formed a
typical and three-dimensional social picture for his characters. With these
descriptions, Dickens did a lot to expose the society and morality of
Victorian Age. As the greatest representative of English critical realism,
He tried to correct the false values, such as selfishness, and injustice of
society toward the poor with much more efforts than other writers of his
age. All of his novels reveal social problems powerfully. For example, he
exposed the inhumanity of the workhouse in Oliver Twist.
Successful characterization is another distinguishing feature of
Dickens’ art. He was capable to depict “typical characters under typical
circumstances”. Among the enormous characters in Dickens’ novels, many are
given the exact actions and words that fit them in their position and in
their given environments. Dickens was skillful in picturing colorful
character sketches by exaggerating some peculiarities. Exaggeration of these
peculiarities can reveal characters’ individual traits and make them vivid
and lifelike. Therefore, Dickens’ characters can be roughly divided into
three typical groups. The first group includes the idealized heroes, such as
David Copperfield. The opponents of the idealized heroes belong to the
second group. In the third group, there are many eccentric characters who
appear in all social strata, such as Mr. Micawber.
Third, Dickens’ is a well-known humorist and satirist. He
sometimes employs humor to enliven a scene or lighten a character by making
it (him or her) odd, or laughable. Humor is often used to picture those
benevolent and positive characters. Yet, he considered satire as a powerful
weapon to fight against the evils. He used this weapon to ridicule human
absurdities and crimes. The effect of satire is gained by use of irony and
apparent exaggeration.
Fourth, Dickens loved developing complicated and fascinating
Plot. He usually took the experience of a person or a family as major clue.
Yet, minor plots often can be found besides the major ones. Sometimes even
two parallel major plots appear in the same novel. In addition, he could
make marvelous use of suspense and mystery to make the story fascinating.
However, there are two defects of Dickens’ novels. First is
the flat character. The characters in his novels usually do not develop but
keep the same, that is, the good is always good, while the bad is always
bad. Their temperament never changes. Another defect is the happy ending
which is an obvious feature of Dickens’ plot formula. The good who may
suffer a lot, are usually rewarded, but the bad who may get the upper hand
temporally, will finally receive their punishment. It agrees with an old
Chinese saying, that is, good will be rewarded with good, and evil with
evil. However, the happy ending seems unnatural and unbelievable both
because of the increasing pessimism appeared in his later novels and the
cruel reality. It seems that Dickens deliberately made the happy ending to
fit his readers’ taste.
Dickens, as one of the greatest novelists in the 19th century
England, is definitely the remarkable landmark with his largely critical
exposition of the bourgeoisie society and his marvelous artistic skills in
writing.
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