[Music] hi everybody and welcome back to my videos about English literature and in particular in particularly now we are talking about English literature of the Victorian age latarian era today we are going to talk about one of the most representative writers of the time and someone says that he together with Shakespeare is probably one of the highest expression of English literature and one of the most eternal and you can say universal talents I am talking about Charles Dickens chesticles was born in 1812 in in a town called LAN port and southern England and he was born in a very poor family in fact at the age of twelve he had to start working in a factory and he also had to provide for his family when his father was imprisoned for deaths this aspect of his childhood has influenced his art his writing a lot he also managed to start him he started low but it couldn't complete okay his start is there and so he managed somehow to become a reporter in the course of law so he was his witnesses of we can see the legal system were extremely strong and this also influenced his art and his novels the first work that we can say it became extremely popular was the peak week paper papers the big papers was I can say that it was also recalling some literary traditions like for example Boccaccio or even choice okay with all these tails okay and it had a great success at the time he could also earn a lot because of that and so he could travel a lot he went to the United States sir - sir learned Italy to France and so he could improve also get married and he could improve his cultural activity he wrote 14 14 novels some of the most famous ones are Oliver Twist David Copperfield David Copperfield is considered his most autobiographical work even if many aspects of his life are present in Oliver Twist - okay but David Copperfield is considered really his most autobiographical novel and then hard times for example which talks a lot about society and the society of the time and he also wrote some short stories probably the most famous one is a Christmas Carol which which was written in 1843 now I'm talking about Dickens we have to remember that most of his stature are inspired by the so called picaresque novel because novel is a genre which was worn and developed down in in Spain around the 15th 16th century 16th century mostly and it talks about this characters young characters usually who start their paths okay from a very poor condition and then they develop themselves and then they can find a real position in society they can improve their social economical situation and most of all they experience an important personal growth a moral growth - okay this is absolutely important and we can find it a lot in in Oliver Twist for example in David Copperfield - so in order to understand and analyze Dickens works we can also remember that he talked about some very cyclic and recurring themes some of them are for example the exploitation of the working class okay the exploitation of poor people okay he always felt for poor people obviously he experienced okay that kind of life when he was very young okay so he oh it was always very careful to the needs and the situation okay of poor people okay so exploitation of of the working class but also exploitation of child labor okay another theme he was very careful of was obviously the condition of children he also talked about the ill treatment of of pupils in Heidi's schools this sort of institutions that were extremely they were very present in literature at the time if you remember maybe child raunchy she doesn't belong to the Victorian age she is a romantic writer but in her work Jane Eyre even if she doesn't focus on society because she focuses on something else okay on we can say more individual and existential themes of good and evil and a purity which can redeem evil and so on anyway she also talked in the first part of her novel about this Heidi's schools in which children were extremely mistreated at which in a very cruel way so Dickens again talks about that and he also talks about the injustice of the panel code and imprisonment for deaths obviously because of the experience he he suffer okay because of his father who was imprisoned for death and that he talked about the unsanitary slums and the awful condition in which poor people and workers had to live on earthly conditions or conditions okay and he also talked about the greediness and selfishness of the upper-middle class okay basically but this is very important final message is always always positive okay good triumphs over evil always okay which is very important this is always his final his his final message okay situations even the worse situation always have a positive outcome as claimed he represented society in general using different tones okay he also used some exaggerations in order to create sort of a tragic comic vision of the Victorian world basically and he was a great entertainer basically so he could Biggs milord melodrama on one side and humor on the other side and also some dramatic aspects and so the final result was extremely multifaceted and it was a sort of a mixture of the dark and light elements together he also had a great talent in portraying his characters and I'm only his heroes or hearings who experience this sort of a personal growth especially as far as the other characters are concerned background characters which are really background characters because they are part of his of his novel they are the circle flat characters sometimes most of the times they have also sort of a grotesque aspect and they are quite an ironic representation of the world of his world of the of the Victorian world okay reality in general so the environment is represented starting from a very realistic point of view but then he manipulates reality in order to convey the message he wants to to convey let's think about hard times for example hard times in our times I tried he manages also to represent a world the world of the new industrial cities a world which is extremely alienating okay the individual is alienated and and he loses okay his personality now also the environment mirrors this aspect okay houses and streets and Colour they're all the same people are all the same they all dress the same way okay and this is the lack of personality the lack of subjectivity that it considered to be a part of the new society of this industrial society which is a huge mechanism in which the individual has to live even education education is now becomes extremely factual and it doesn't have any room only any-any there isn't any possibility to give sort of a subjective interpretations to the elements so this is extremely interesting it isn't completely new because if you remember when we talked about Romantic poets and in particular in this case when we talked about William Blake and his poems and sons of experience so London and chimra super he also mentioned this aspect of the city of people have exploited people exploited children of the city becoming sort of a alienating environment now Deacon's we can say he describes it from a very for a deeper perspective okay a three-dimensional perspective and he gives us a witness of his society but pay attention he it doesn't have never never ever he doesn't have a revolutionary intent there is no revolutionary intent in Dickens works he belongs to his time he believes that this word is the only world possible okay and probably it's not too bad because after all even if you if you if you were born in a bad condition as it was anyway thanks to hard work and honesty and you can say a strong character you can anyway achieve success you can improve your economical condition you can find also a better social situation so it really believes in hard work in romantic love okay and in family life so these aspects are extremely representative for his time and Jarden society and Victorian age in general ok so these are probably the most important aspects of Dickens's words if you have any questions please just leave a comment below if you have any requests or anything I'm just here for you ok if you like my videos please subscribe my channel in my next video we are going to talk about Stevenson and if you all like my lessons please share and as I always say the more we are the better we can work together thank you very much and see you soon bye [Music]