Dickens at 200

With the large-scale celebrations held to commemorate the anniversary of his birth and a new television adaptation of one of his greatest works, it appears that Charles Dickens remains as popular as ever.  But two hundred years on from his birth, and almost one hundred and fifty years since his last major published work, is Dickens (and more importantly his writing) still relevant today? What can a Victorian era novelist have to say, that could still be applicable today’s society?

What relevance Dickens has today doesn’t appear to come from the characters in his works. As iconic and wondrous as many of them are, few people (if any) can relate to what Dickensian characters are or what they undergo.  Not many can claim to have been fed treacle and brimstone from the hand of an unforgiving headmaster, been raised by wedding-dressed spinster or have been willed away like “a set of spoons” as Bella Wilfer was in Our Mutual Friend.  Neither have we laboured away in blacking factories as children, faced the prospect of being married to someone many times your own age, or been forced to endure the misery of Debtor’s Prison. Furthermore, many of Dickens’ characters were written in a greatly exaggerated fashion, almost to the point of caricature, to add emphasis to a point Dickens wished to make about persons of that type or about society in general, so it is hard to draw any conclusions about relevance based on these overblown, if entertaining, characters.

"Can I have some more please?"

Some relevance to today’s society though can be found in a few, but not all, of the institutions that appear in Dickens’ work. While prison ships, workhouses run by the State and the Marshalsea are relics of a bygone era and have no real equivalent today, there are a few establishments that uncannily resemble more contemporary institutions. The Constabulary for instance, and the accusations Dickens levels at it in Our Mutual Friend, is similar to many views of the police force today. Dickens describes Mr Inspector, the most prominent officer in the novel, as “an accomplished actor” and doubts arise as to his competence when it occurs that the Inspector and the man he is attempting to hunt down are frequently engaged on the same or similar business, but the Inspector is unable to track him down. Similarly, the Courts of Chancery in Bleak House is used as an example of the inefficiency and sluggishness of the Courts system, which can be a problem even in today’s age. Perhaps the most relevant though is the aptly named Circumlocution Office in Little Dorrit. The main function of the Circumlocution Office was to tell anybody and everybody, from the Government to the man on the street “How NOT to do it” and if they persisted in trying to do “it”, they wrapped “it” up in so much bureaucratic red tape that “it” become almost impossible to realise or was given up on entirely. While based on the HM Treasury of the time, the description of the machinations of the Circumlocution Office (in particular in relation to the Government) is so pertinent it could be attributed to a number of contemporary institutions with barely an adjustment to move it into the present day.

Nicholas Nickleby thwarting his uncle Ralph's schemes.

Where Dickens becomes most relevant is in the issues and themes he pursues throughout his novels. Greed, social aspirations and the misery and hardship of the poor are matters he explored, particularly in his later works, which are as important today as they were in the mid 1800’s. Nearly every Dickens novel contains an antagonist (and occasionally a protagonist) whose motives are influenced at least partially by greed. Silas Wegg, Uriah Heep, Ralph Nickleby, Anthony and Jonas Chuzzlewit and Scrooge to name a few are characters driven by greed, and get the comeuppance as a result of it.  Similarly the desire to raise oneself up from obscurity and poverty to riches and security is found in many characters and is attempted in a number of ways.  The Bray’s attempt it through marriage, while the Veneering’s host large dinners and balls to improve their social standing. Yet it is always the hardworking toilers who improve their situation the most, often due to a deserved slice of luck. Tied in to the desire for upward mobility was the miserable situations many of Dickens’ characters are originally encountered in. Those found in the workhouse, prison and those just scraping together a hand-to-mouth existence were emblematic of the lives of most people were living at the time. Unfortunately, 150 years on, these problems still plague society today, ultimately explaining why Charles Dickens is as relevant now as he was back then.

Charles Dickens continues to be read today for a large number of reasons. Some enjoy the vast array of characters Dickens brought to life, the humour and cunning of Fagin, the eccentricity of Miss Havisham, the shambolic Micawbers and the tragedy of Smike. Others enjoy the unique style of Dickens, witty and whimsical at times, yet also deep and profound, always with something extra to be found the second time around. But it is his tackling of issues that continue to be relevant today that ensures that the work of Charles Dickens remains relevant today, and will continue to be relevant in the years to come.