Characterization in Dickens

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[The thumbnail images at the right, most of which originated in Victorian periodicals, all depict Dickens surrounded by the characters in his writings. Some of these images appeared as tributes during his lifetime; others, like The Empty Chair at top, as memorials after his death. What do all they tell you about how his contemporaries read and enjoyed Dickens's novels. [Click on thumbnails for larger images and more information. — George P. Landow.]

General

• "Presentation of Characters," Chapter Five from E. D. H. Johnson's Charles Dickens: An Introduction to His Novels
• The critics and characters in Martin Chuzzlewit
• A Gallery of Memorial Cariactures emphasizing Dickens's Characters
• Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine on Dickens's Unforgettable Characters
• Techniques of Characterization: An Introduction
• Heroism and Lack of it in Dickens's Protagonists: Little Dorrit and A Tale of Two Cities

David Copperfield

• "Ghosts, Bodies, Selves and others in David Copperfield"
• David Copperfield: Progress of a Confused Soul [chapter from Steig's Dickens and Phiz]
• How did Dickens deal with prostitution in his novels? Little Em'ly in David Copperfield
• Martha Endell in David Copperfield

Dombey and Son

• Toodle the Railway Man — Occupation as Character

Great Expectations

• Guilt, Criminality, and Doppelgängers in in Great Expectations
• Seeing Double, Double Seeing: The Use of Doubles in Great Expectations
• Magwitch's Journey to Selfhood in Great Expectations
• Defining Characters by Their Chosen Environment
• Pip and Anados find themselves misled
• Alice gets it wrong, Pip gets it right (sometimes)
• Pip's Playing at Life
• Criminally Self-Conscious: Pip's "Great Expectations"
• Pip's Commercial Vocabulary
• Biddy Voices Pip's Repressed Conscience

• White and Faded Yellows — Miss Havisham
• Bad to the Bone — Pip's Guilt
• Jasper Ford's Explanation of Miss Havisham's Character
• Female Aggressiveness in Great Expectations
• Guilt and Complicity in Great Expectations
• Frightening Impressions in Martineau and Dickens
• Mechanism and Character in Great Expectations
• Wemmick: Description and Character in in Great Expectations
• Animal imagery in Great Expectations
• Miss Havisham: Pip�s Sailing Vessel or Sinking Ship?

Hard Times for These Times

• Heroism and Lack of it in Dickens's Protagonists: Little Dorrit and A Tale of Two Cities
• The Implication of Christian Names and Surnames in Charles Dickens's Hard Times for These Times

Little Dorrit

• Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine on Dickens's Unforgettable Characters
• Characterization and Setting in Dickens's Little Dorrit
• Characterization (another view)
• Swindlers and Society in Dickens and Carlyle

Martin Chuzzlewit

• The Names of Dickens's American Originals in Martin Chuzzlewit
• Dickens's Jonas in Martin Chuzzlewit and Milton's Satan
• The Figure of the Governess (based on Pearsall's Night's Black Angels)
• Dickens on the plight of the governess
• Tom Pinch's love of bookstores
• Mr Pecksniff travels by coach and thinks about life and pleasure

The Old Curiosity Shop

• The Marchioness in Charles Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop (1840) — A brilliant afterthought

Oliver Twist

• The Parish Beadle

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Last modified 15 October 2020