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The Life and Adventures of Charles Dickens

The Life and Adventures of Charles Dickens. A Gentleman of Great Expectations. Episode I:. Childhood Bliss/Working-Class Blues. Act I: “I Am Born”. Born February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England, second of 8 children Father: John Dickens, Clerk in the Navy Pay Office

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The Life and Adventures of Charles Dickens

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  1. The Life and Adventures of Charles Dickens A Gentleman of Great Expectations

  2. Episode I: Childhood Bliss/Working-Class Blues

  3. Act I: “I Am Born” • Born February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England, second of 8 children • Father: John Dickens, Clerk in the Navy Pay Office • Mother: Elizabeth Barrow Dickens, genteel daughter of chief official in Navy Pay Office

  4. Act I: “I Am Born” • Parents from lower-middle-class but stressed gentility • Maternal Grandfather: Fugitive embezzler • Paternal Grandparents: Butler and Housekeeper for Lord Crewe

  5. Act I: “I Am Born” • John and Elizabeth Dickens lead convivial lives • John Dickens’ improvidence leads family deeper into debt • Family moves to increasingly poorer lodgings

  6. Act II: “Childhood Bliss” • 1816—the Dickens family move to Chatham where Charles spends the happiest years of his childhood

  7. Act II: “Childhood Bliss” • Literary Influences: • Fairy tales; The Arabian Nights Entertainments • Ghost stories/macabre horror stories; Mary Weller’s bedtime stories • 18th-Century novels: Fielding, Smollett, Defoe, Cervantes • Theater: family theatricals and visits to the Theater Royal

  8. Act III: “I Become a Lad of Great Expectations” • Charles is taught to consider himself an especially gifted child • Educated at home by Elizabeth Dickens • Inspired by John Dickens to become a gentleman • Educated at school by William Giles

  9. Act IV: “Great Expectations Realized?” • Charles’ family move to London • Charles boards at William Giles school a few months • Charles travels alone to join his family

  10. Act IV: “I Become Neglected and Am Provided For?” • Deep in debt, Charles’ family send him to pawn family possessions • At age 12, Charles becomes member of working class when parents send him to work in blacking warehouse

  11. Act IV: “I Become Neglected and Am Provided For?” • John Dickens is arrested for debt and family is imprisoned in the Marshalsea debtor’s prison • Charles lodges alone and supports himself • Charles is ridiculed by “common laboring boys” but befriended by Bob Fagin

  12. Act IV: “I Become Neglected and Am Provided For?” • John Dickens is released from prison • Recognizing Charles’ humiliation, John Dickens removes him from the warehouse • Mother wants Charles to return to work, but father sends him to school

  13. Act IV: “I Become Neglected and Am Provided For?” • Effects of childhood experience • Sympathy for the poor • Obsession with figure of abused/abandoned child • Rage against authority figures indifferent to suffering • Obsession with criminal life

  14. Act IV: “I Become Neglected and Am Provided For?” • Effects of childhood experience • Disgust for society’s materialistic values • Obsession with material success to avoid further destitution • Frantic energy, earnestness, determination to work hard and succeed • Need for adulation and sympathy

  15. Will our hero recover from his childhood tragedy and find lasting happiness? Join us for Episode II:“London Tragedy and Triumph”

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