Social issues in the novels of charles dickens: a brief study

Charles Dickens is considered to be one of the most representative writers of the Victorian age. The Victorian age was an age of peace, prosperity and progress. This age witnessed many drastic and sweeping changes. This age was one of the most remarkable periods in the history of English literature. Victorian age was also known as the age of faith and doubt, the age of friction between science and religion. It was the period of rise of the middle class. Queen Victoria inspired and influenced the people with love, affection and patriotism and the English empire reached to the zenith of progress and prosperity. But, unfortunately, the bright side of this age also had many social evils. Dickens had vividly presented these evils in his works. Dickens was indeed a novelist with a purpose of exposing these evils prevalent in the society and drawing the attention of his readers. As this was the period of industrial revolution, so the workhouse culture became prominent, but the condition of workers became miserable and inhuman. These workers were exploited by their masters and treated in a most callous and apathetic manner. Even the children were exploited and were forced to work in factories and industries in miserable conditions. Charles Dickens, in portraying the sufferings and pathetic condition of children, has excelled any other writer. Dickens was also known as the social reformer and a critic who has exposed the follies of his age in a meticulous way. In almost all his novels, Dickens has addressed the social issues and especially the unhappy childhood of orphans and isolated children. Charles Dickens is one of the most famous writers in English literature. In his novels, he explores the themes of exploitation, corruption, abuse, crime, injustice, inequality, etc. that were probably inspired by his own unhappy childhood. The principal qualities of Dickens as a writer are excellent descriptive power, fascinating humour and poignant pathos and wonderful art of characterization.