Questions tagged [charles-dickens]
Questions about the works of the English author Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870) or his life as a writer.
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Why does Marley in A Christmas Carol claim that Scrooge will be visited across three nights?
In Dickens' famous tale A Christmas Carol, the ghost of Jacob Marley clearly states to Scrooge that he is to be visited on three consecutive nights:
“Expect the first to-morrow, when the bell tolls ...
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Dickens invented the scary clown?
Today in "Messages from Firefox" (some annoying thing that comes up in my browser), I saw the following which piqued my interest:
Dickens invented the scary clown, the ‘80s perfected it. ...
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Did Charles Dickens change the endings of any of his books other than Great Expectations?
I know that Charles Dickens changed the ending to Great Expectations after prompting. Did he do so with any of his other books?
Of course, he may have changed the endings of all his books a hundred ...
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What is meant by "without resorting to the sexton's spade that buried Jacob Marley" in A Christmas Carol?
Near the end of Stave 3 of A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge a Christmas party hosted by Scrooge's nephew Fred. Fred's wife plays a song that was familiar with Scrooge's ...
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What does "...they had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets..." mean?
It says in Great Expectations,
To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of five little ...
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In Great Expectations, who is the man at the pub in Chapter Ten?
In Chapter 10 of Dickens's Great Expectations, Pip goes to the pub to find Joe, as told by his sister. When he enters the pub, Joe and Mr. Wopsle are sitting at a table next to a mysterious man:
He ...
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Why did Mr Jaggers have death masks of two of his former clients, Great Expectations Chapter 24?
This question is regarding Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Chapter 24 (also known as Volume II Chapter V).
Mr Jaggers has two casts in his office, revealed by Wemmick to be death masks of his ...
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What did Charles Dickens say about genius and pain?
While reading Somerset Maugham's Cakes and Ale, I came across this quote (emphasis mine):
...Charles Dickens in an after-dinner speech had stated that genius was an infinite capacity for taking ...
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What does the term "one heat down" in Dickens's "Little Dorrit" mean?
Mr Casby lived in a street in the Gray’s Inn Road, which had set off from that thoroughfare with the intention of running at one heat down into the valley.
Little Dorrit, chapter 13
What does the ...
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In Dickens' "The Chimes", why do bells have godparents and mugs?
Not long into The Chimes: A Goblin Story, one of Dickens' lesser-known Christmas stories, there's this paragraph about bells:
They were old Chimes, trust me. Centuries ago, these Bells had been ...
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What does "Some people do the same by their religion" mean?
It says in Great Expectations
Mrs. Joe was a very clean
housekeeper, but had an exquisite art of making her
cleanliness more uncomfortable and unacceptable than dirt
itself. Cleanliness is next to ...
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Why does Mr Merdle ask for a penknife with a darker handle in "Little Dorrit"?
In Chapter 24 of Little Dorrit, in one of the last scenes, Mr Merdle asks for a penknife. When Mrs Sparkler hands him the knife he asks if he could have one with a "darker" handle.
‘So I am ...
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Why does Mr. Pumblechook call Mrs. Joe "mum"?
I noticed that at the beginning of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens that Mr. or Uncle Pumblechook kept calling Mrs. Joe mum. Why is that? I know for sure that Mrs. Joe didn't give birth to him, ...
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Are Nicholas's sentiments on playwrights those of his creator?
In chapter 48 of Nicholas Nickleby, Dickens expresses quite strong views on writers of plays adapted from books:
'Shot beyond him [Shakespear], I mean,' resumed Nicholas, 'in quite another
...
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Why does Wemmick bring a fishing-rod on his "walk" with Pip?
In chapter 55 of Great Expectations, Wemmick invites Pip to go on a morning walk with him. As they are leaving Wemmick's house, Pip narrates that:
I was considerably surprised to see Wemmick take up ...
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What does "much worse fed and lodged and treated altogether than" mean in chapter 12 from Dickens's Little Dorrit?
Chapter 12 in Dickens's Little Dorrit contains the following passage:
There was old people, after working all their lives, going and being shut up in the workhouse, much worse fed and lodged and ...
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Meaning of "put in all the salt and pepper"
From Chapter 48 of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations:
“Mr. Jaggers was for her [Molly, Mr. Jaggers's maidservant],” pursued Wemmick, with a look full of meaning, “and worked the case in a way ...
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What was Sydney Carton doing in France?
I reread A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens recently and was struck at how coincidental it was that Sydney Carton just happened to be in France during the time Charles Darnay was accused the ...
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Do native speakers face difficulty understanding Charles Dickens?
I am not a native speaker of English. Though I have learned the language well enough to comprehend modern English novels fairly well, when it comes to Charles Dickens I am completely defeated. It is ...
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What is meant by "I am standing in the spirit at your elbow" in A Christmas Carol?
Near the beginning of Stave 2 of A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Past draws aside Scrooge's bed curtains:
The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a hand. Not the curtains ...
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Meaning of sentence from "A Tale of Two Cities"
Reins and whip and coachman and guard, however, in combination, had read that article of war which forbade a purpose otherwise strongly in favour of the argument, that some brute animals are endued ...
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What exactly does Dickens mean to say here?
In the beginning of Stave 2, after Marley's ghost has disappeared, Scrooge wakes up believing he has overslept and that the time at which the first ghost was to appear has passed. To confirm this, he ...
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Was Esther Summerson pleasantly surprised or otherwise at being presented the housekeeping keys of Bleak House?
In Chapter VI of Bleak House, Esther Summerson, Ada Clare and Richard Carstone are just arrived at Bleak House and introduced to John Jarndyce. A conversation touching on the Jellybys, the east wind, ...
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What happened to Marley in A Christmas Carol?
Whatever happened to Scrooge’s partner after he gave his warning about the three ghosts? I know it’s way before Christmas, but I just have to know! It just seems strange to me that he’s never ...
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Use of 'Genius' in Nicholas Nickleby?
In Nicholas Nickleby, people use the word "genius" to describe people they don't even know and in such a way that I do not believe it has the same meaning as we now use it with.
For instance, Mr ...
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What does this paragraph mean in Dickens' American Notes?
I came across the following paragraph in Dickens' American Notes:
I have made no reference to my reception, nor have I suffered it to influence me in what I have written; for, in either case, I ...
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Why did Dickens write A Christmas Carol
I am currently revising for my main exams and I'm not too sure on why Dickens wrote the novella. I know he wanted the poverty of children and families to change but how could I write this for a exam?
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Why does the clerk go down the slide twenty times in "A Christmas Carol"?
In "A Christmas Carol", when the clerk gets off work, he leaves, goes down a slide twenty times, and then runs home:
The clerk promised that he would, and Scrooge walked out with a growl. ...
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Are the two death masks Jack Dawkins and Fagin?
The two death masks owned by Jaggers are Jack (John) Dawkins, a.k.a. the Artful Dodger. And as to the reference to previous clients' 'moveable property' such as brooches and small valuables, he ...
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Why did Wemmick want to keep his marriage secret in "Great Expectations"?
The answer to the recent question "Why does Wemmick bring a fishing-rod on his "walk" with Pip?" explained that this was a ruse by Wemmick to conceal his wedding. My question is ...
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Who is Little Dorrit referring to when she says, "Don’t encourage him to ask"?
I am currently reading Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens and have come across the following passage from chapter 14:
‘Can you guess,’ said Little Dorrit, folding her small hands tight in one another, ...
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"No more than you could talk Beef into him" from Little Dorrit Charles Dickens Chapter 12
I am reading Little Dorrit By Charles Dickens , and I would like to know what the following phrase means:
When a man felt, on his own back and in his own belly, that poor he was, that man (Mr ...
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What is the connection between the Bleak House in Broadstairs and the one in Dickens's novel?
Dickens's novel Bleak House shares its name with an actual house in the English seaside town of Broadstairs. Dickens actually stayed in that house for a while, and wrote David Copperfield there, but ...
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Where in the book Little Dorrit does Mrs. General tell Amy that society is not the place for unburdening oneself?
In the BBC mini-series Little Dorrit there is a scene in which Mrs. General tells Amy the correct opinions which she is to express concerning the sites that she and other English tourists visit on the ...
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Where did Charles Dickens come up with the name "Magwitch"?
One of the key characters in Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" is a person named Abel Magwitch.
"Magwitch" doesn't appear to be an existing name, nor does it seem to be a word with a different ...
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Who is saying "what was a man to do?" from the following passage in "Little Dorrit"?
Then you see, some people as was better off said, and a good many such people lived pretty close up to the mark themselves if not beyond it so he’d heerd, that they was ‘improvident’ (that was the ...
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Meaning of “toning herself off into the married state” in “Little Dorrit”
In book 1, chapter 2 of Little Dorrit (1857), Charles Dickens describes a party of travellers in Marseilles:
The rest of the party were of the usual materials: travellers on business, and travellers ...
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What does the "who has not dined with these?" mean?
This is from Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit, Chapter 16:
The expressionless uniform twenty houses, all to be knocked at and rung at in the same form, all approachable by the same dull steps, all ...
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Does "Great Expectations" refer to the sport of cricket, in the scene of Joe meeting Pip in London?
In Great Expectations, the scene of Joe meeting Pip in London narrates:
“I really believe Joe would have prolonged this word (mightily expressive to my mind of some architecture that I know) into a ...
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What does "a sort of Hercules in strength and weakness" mean?
It says in Great Expectations,
Joe was a fair man, with curls of flaxen hair on each side of his smooth face, and with eyes of such a very undecided blue that they seemed to have somehow got mixed ...
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What does "in coarse gray" and "iron" mean here?
I continue to read "Great Expectations" and there is another question about some words that I'd like to put.
A fearful man, in a coarse gray, with a great iron on his leg.
I emphasized the ...
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What is the significance of "biting the side of his forefinger" in Great Expectations?
In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Mr Jaggers is described repeatedly as biting his forefinger, sometimes biting it "at" someone.
Examples:
Then, and not sooner, I became aware of a ...
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Who ran away with Mrs Captain Barbary in Charles Dickens' "Little Dorrit"?
From Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, Chapter 12:
The Principal and instrument soon drove off together to a stable-yard in High Holborn, where a remarkably fine grey gelding, worth, at the lowest ...
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What is the name of the writing style in "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens? Why is that style used?
In Bleak House by Charles Dickens, the viewpoint frequently changes from Esther Summerson, or first-person, to third person. What is this style known as?
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Meaning of "unsatisfied claim upon his justice"
This is from Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit, Chapter 16:
As often as he began to consider how to increase this inheritance, or to lay it by, so often his misgiving that there was some one with an ...
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What does, "‘Much of that!’ said he, glancing about him over the cold wet flat. ‘I wish I was a frog. Or a eel!'" mean?
It says in Great Expectations,
‘Much of that!’ said he, glancing about him over the
cold wet flat. ‘I wish I was a frog. Or a eel!’
What does this mean/imply?
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Meaning of "nobody seemed to be giving the dinners they had gone to" in "Little Dorrit"
The following paragraph is from Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, Chapter 27.
It was now summer-time; a grey, hot, dusty evening. They rode to the top of Oxford Street, and there alighting, dived in ...
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What is "the fabled obelisk" alluding to in The Boy at Mugby?
In this fragment from The Boy at Mugby within paragraph 60:
The swelling tumult was arrested in its rise. Sniff, bore away by his servile disposition, had drored up his leg with a higher and a ...
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Who is the "unconscious stranger of Mrs. Micawber’s last letter" in "David Copperfield"?
From chapter 52 of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens:
His house was not far off; and as the street-door opened into the sitting-room, and he bolted in with a precipitation quite his own, we found ...
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Inheritance of the title "Marquis St. Evrémonde" in "A Tale of Two Cities"
In A Tale of Two Cities, the title "Marquis St. Evrémonde" is held by Darnay's uncle, but had previously been held by Darnay's father, for according to Dr. Manette (book III, chapter X) ...
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