Charles Dickens and Modernity -Based on Major Novels

Abstract

This study investigates in the perspective of modernity, Charles Dickens who wrote in the 19th century London, England which fully opened the era of modernity. The modernity of England which was historically the first to enter modern society can be characterized by capitalism and civil society. This study looks at how Dickens grasps the period’s transformation as it transfers from medieval feudal hierarchy society to modern capitalist civil society by observing his major novels. Dickens has a critical stance against capitalism which marked the epoch of modernity in history. Not overlooking the possibility of materialistic prosperity that capitalism may bring, he shows it to be a system that can not be morally justified due to its essential exploiting structure. Especially, his later works show the person at the top of national economy to be the financial capitalist, illustrating capitalism’s basic problems further degenerated. Writing with not the rural area or industrial city but the world’s center of finance, London as the setting to his novels, Dickens novels foresee the attributes of contemporary late capitalism. Capitalism which makes capital dominate labor or human life can on the other hand provide a breakthrough to human liberation. With industrialization and urbanization, the modern urbanites become much liberated from the hierarchy that had confined traditional society. However, what Dickens witnessed was the possibility for a free and equal civil society fall back due to materialism and the aspiration to be a gentleman. By grasping how the nation’s obsessive emulation for gentlemen is related to the imperialist economy parasitic on colonies, Dickens depicts both the possibility and problems of modernity in his time of modern capitalist civil society.