An Account Of London's History, Society And Geography - Dickens

It is evident when reading any work by Charles Dickens, that he had an incredible relationship with London's history, society and Geography. Dickens was born during the regency period, and when he was twenty-five Queen Victoria came to the throne, and brought with her one of the largest expansions our nations capital had ever seen. Due to these historical changes he endured, Dickens was able to documents all these historical, social and geographical changes vividly, either through his many characters within his novels, or his early journalistic work such as The Uncommercial Traveller. Amongst these changes was the industrial revolution 1760 - 1840, expansion of the London docks, and it turn over seas trade, and he also saw the mass expansion of London rookeries and the poor. Dickens is universally known for his descri ptions of London poverty, with novels such as Oliver Twist, Little Dorrit, Dombey and Son and David Copperfield. Along with his novels he also publicized many journalistic works such as The uncommerical Traveller and The Pickwick Papers. When studying all these texts we are able to make a detailed account of the London Dickens lived and worked in, and how all these social changes affected his life, and in turn details within all of his work. Dickens first arrived in London, Camden Town, in 1822 at the fragile age of ten, "In the early autumn of 1822 the ten year old Charles Dickens entered his Kingdom" . During the early 19th century, Camden was not the vibrant market metropolis we know now in the 21st century, even though Camden is only 2.4 miles from Charring cross it was a borough full of fields, and agricultural livestock such as cows and sheep. It does sound like an incredibly genteel and aesthetic place to live, especially during this turbulent period in the city; however, Dickens remembered this place extremely differently to what was both socially and geographically accurate. "For the fact was that the young boy remembered Camden Town as the place where he first fell into neglect" . These adolescent feelings would even be seen as a normal reaction to a ten year old moving away from his friends and regular surroundings of their home, but Dickens life began to spiral downwards the moment he moved to London. In 1824, his father was sent to Marshalsea Debtors` Prison for owing a considerable amount of money to his baker, which in turn, meant Dickens would have to leave school at the age of twelve and begin work in one of the many new factories that opened due to the expansion of the industrial revolution. The outer wall of the Marshalsea Debtors` Prison is still visible today on the south bank of the river Thames, Southwalk. Given that some of the architecture is still visible in the city, we are able to gain a greater imaginative understanding of the London Dickens lived in. Like many locations Dickens witnessed, he incorporated them within his literature. This particular location can be seen in Little Dorrit written between the years 1855 and 1857.

William Dorrit himself was imprisoned at the Marshalsea Debtors` Prison, Dickens describes the prison his father was incarcerated in through the character of Amy Dorrit, "He showed her into a darkening room, and left her. The room looked down into the darkening prison yard, with its inmates strolling here and there".

Camden is mentioned in many of his novels, chief amongst them is David Copperfield, 1850, "Our conversation, afterwards, took a more worldly turn, Mr Micawber telling us that he found Camden Town inconvenient, and that the first thing he contemplated doing, when the advertisement should have been the cause of something satisfactory turning up, was to move" . Due to his melancholy state during this period, Dickens began his solitary tours of the city; "And so as the story gradually took possession of his, he began wandering through London, searching for some pictures he wants to build upon" , these walks would eventually progress into one of his most successful journalistic works. Peter Ackroyd Gives us a brief example of one of Dickens first tours of London, "So he wanders through the streets of London, quite alone, all the time noticing how grand and mysterious everything seemed, he meets a dog, eats a sausage, sees the giants of guildhall and thinks of every city merchant as a creature of a fable" . As we can see, this descri ption is extremely different to the ones seen in The Uncommerical Traveller, as he aged, he witnessed London in more wretched locations, as he explored the city in greater detail and at more unsavoury hours, "The creature was like a beetle-browed hair-lipped youth of twenty, and it had a loose bundle of rags on, which it held together with one of its hands. It shivered from head to foot, and its teeth chattered, and as it stared at me-persecutor, devil, ghost, whatever it thought me-it made with its whining mouth as if it were snapping at me, like a worried dog" . These two descri ptions may vary in many ways, as the second is certainly more disturbing and darker than the first, but it still has certain elements of the younger Dickens within it. The dog that he witnessed merrily eating a sausage many years previous has turned into something more animalistic. This may be due to the effect brutality of London had on its inhabitants. Another comparison is the descri ption of the 'beetled browed hair lipped youth', is much like the idea that the merchants had taken on a character of a fable, and even this notion of a fable has developed new and darker descri ptions, much like that of the society that was vastly turning into a metropolis of darkness. "He had always been interested in the historical essence of London, that deeply imbued spirit of dirt and misery with which he could bind his own past to that of the city itself" . Upon a reading of any Dickens work, we are taken on both a geographical and historical tour of London, which was, at the time, a great city of contrast. As Michel Faber describes in his Crimson Petal and the White, a novel based on the descri ptions of London Prostitutes and their living standards, "This is why I have brought you here to Church Lane, St Giles; I have found just the right person for you. I must warn you though that I am introducing you to the very bottom, the lowest of the low, the opulence of Bedford square and the British museum may be only a few hundred yards away but new oxford street runs between there and there like a river . too wide to swim and you are on the wrong side, The prince of wales has never, I assure you shaken the hands of anyone on the street, or even nodded in passing at anyone here not even under cover of night, sampled the prostitutes, for although church lane has more whores living it that any other street in London they are not of the calibre suitable for a gentleman" .

This example perfectly summarises the vast social contrast of the city during the 19th century. We are faced with the visualisation of the magnificent architecture of the British museum and within the same area we have arrived in St Giles, an area notorious for rookeries, sex and general poverty. Dickens allows us to expand our understanding of these locations and descri ptions of London within Judith Flanders The Victorian City: Everyday life in Dickens London, when he describes his encounter with two classes of women, one being a prostitute, "Prostitutes were immediately recognizable" . "Then comes a young female, by whose dress the reader is the understand she is a prostitute: her clothing, miserably poor, but extremely gaudy, wretchedly cold, but extravagantly fine, too plainly bespeaks her station. The rich satin gown with its faded trimmings, the worn out thin shoes, and pink silk stockings, the summer bonnet in winter. A dab of rouge. Cannot be mistaken" . We can a similar descri ption of a prostitute in Dickens' famous novel, Oliver Twist, "A couple of young ladies called to see the young gentlemen; one of whom was named Bet, and the other Nancy. They wore a good deal of hair, not very neatly turned up behind, and were rather untidy about the shoes and stockings. They were not exactly pretty, perhaps; but they had a great deal of color in their faces, and looked quite stout and hearty" . Once again, as the years progressed Dickens was beginning to witness a more brutalised version of London, one that was swarming with fallen women. As previously discovered Dickens described the city he lived in, the taverns he frequented and the streets in which he walked down through his characters, "To begin with, Dickens sewed different parts of London together simply by describing the walking routes his characters take" . Throughout Dickens work we can also see the society in which he lived in, each character is a different class of person, and with these different classes Dickens takes us on a tour of their London, whether it is the more salubrious areas of Regent Street or the many rookeries of the city. "The naming of particular streets, bridges and turnings creates London in space and suggests the time it takes to walk from one part of the city to another, Criminally inclined characters know how to negotiate back streets, courts and alleys so they remain hidden" . Fagan, in Oliver Twist, is one such criminally inclined characters we can see Fagan creeping through the back alleys of the city in order to go unnoticed by the more elite classes, and the police while he pursues his career as a pick pocket, "The ground was covered, nearly ankle-deep, with filth and mire; a thick steam, perpetually rising from the reeking bodies of the cattle, and mingling with the fog, which seemed to rest upon the chimney-tops, hung heavily above. All the pens in the center of the large area, and as many temporary pens as could be crowded into the vacant space, were filled with sheep" . When reading about the different class systems and society Dickens lived in, there may be a small doubt that he over exaggerated, so we can look towards Charles Booth's Descri ptive map of London Poverty, 1889. Black: Lowest Class, Vicious, and Semi Criminal Dark Blue: Very Poor, casual. Chronic Want Light Blue: Poor, 18s to 21s a week, for a moderate family Purple: Mixed, some comfortable, good ordinary earnings Pink: Fairly comfortable, Good ordinary earnings Red: Middle Class, Well to do Yellow: Upper Middle & Upper classes, wealthy .

Upon studying this map we can clearly see that the areas Dickens portrays in his novels are true representatives of the society, history and of course geography of the city. We are able to see the black areas of the map that clearly identify the areas within novels such as Oliver Twist and the rookeries in which they are set, and also suggests that the people living in such areas are not only the lowest class, but are also vicious, and semi criminal.

Thanks to the many characters Charles Dickens created, we are taken on a detailed social, geographical and historical tour of the Victorian London he both lived and worked in. From the Marshalsea Debtors` Prison as seen in Little Dorrit, to the outskirts of the city in areas such as Camden as seen in David Copperfield. We are also given an in depth view on the different social hierarchy's within the city, which encompass criminals such as Fagan, in Oliver Twist, and his descri ptions of the two classes of 19th century woman, one being of an elite background, and also a vivid descri ption of a Victorian prostitute, along with the clothing she wore. We are able to see proof of the social, historical and geographical plights of the city Dickens so poetically described during this period when studying Charles Booth's Descri ptive map of London Poverty1889. Peter Ackroyd perfectly summarizes the importance of Dickens characters in relation to his relationship with all aspects of the city. "It is impossible to say precisely how many characters Charles Dickens had created, almost two thousand of them, born with Dickens but not dying with him, living on forever" . Not only will Dickens characters live on forever, so will the social, historical and geographical London he lived in, and in doing so left the true representative of 19th century London within every modern society.

Bibliography

Ackroyd, P. (2002). Dickens . London: Random House. Booth, C. (2009). Descri ptive Map of London Poverty, 1889. Old House Books . Dickens, C. (2001). David Copperfield . London: Broadview Press. Dickens, C. (2002). Oliver Twist . london: Penguin Classics. Dickens, C. (2004). The shorter novels of Charles Dickens. Wordsworth Editions . Dickens, C. (1873). Works of Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit. Hurd. Faber, M. (2002). The Crimson Petal and the white. Cannongate Book. Flanders, J. (2012). The Victorian City: Everyday life in Dickens London. Atlantic Book. Manley, L. (2011). The cambridge companion to the literature of London. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. Warner, A. (2012). Dickens Victorian London 1839 -1901. Random house.