Lecture Twelve Dickens—Later Works Scope: This lecture resumes our study of Dickens, covering the period from 1846 to 1870. This period begins with Dombey and Son, Dickens’s first mature work, and includes great novels, such as Bleak House, Little Dorrit, Great Expectations, and Our Mutual Friend. Throughout this period, Dickens continues his exploration of London, asserting the interconnectedness of the city’s widely separated neighborhoods and social classes. At the same time, Dickens creates increasingly conflicted characters and endings, raising questions that neither he nor his characters can answer. If in his early books, Dickens explores the mysteries of London, he examines in these later works many of the deepest mysteries of life. With this achievement, he completes the most impressive body of work in the history of English fiction and gives us a fitting end to this first series of lectures. Outline I. In this lecture, we will return to Charles Dickens, taking up the second phase of his long career, from 1847 through 1870, the year of his death. A. During this period, he produced many of his greatest novels: Dombey and Son (1847–1848), David Copperfield (1849–1850), Bleak House (1852–1853), Little Dorrit (1855–1857), Great Expectations (1860–1861), and Our Mutual Friend (1864–1865). B. This period also included some of the major events from Dickens’s personal life: the collapse of his marriage, an affair with an actress, and the incredible success of his public reading tours. II. In our first look at Dickens, we noted that his earliest works did not always appear to be novels, and we acknowledged the shortcomings of these works. A. Dickens began to solve these problems in Martin Chuzzlewit, centering the novel on the theme of selfishness, and he made further progress in writing Dombey and Son. B. Most scholars agree that Dombey is the first work of Dickens’s artistic maturity. The novel shows his determination to create a coherent plot and reflects significant changes in his working methods. C. Dombey centers on the life of Paul Dombey, a wealthy London merchant. 1. The first major event is the birth of Dombey’s son—and the subsequent death of his wife in childbirth. Later events include the death of Dombey’s son, his own remarriage, and his estrangement from his daughter, Florence. 2. The work was a critical and commercial success, a confident return to form after the disappointments of Barnaby Rudge and Martin Chuzzlewit. III. We noted previously Dickens’s preoccupation with London, particularly his image of the city as connected and coherent despite its surface chaos. His later elaboration of this theme may be most evident in Bleak House (1852–1853). A. After moving us through a beginning passage composed mainly of sentence fragments that introduce us to the filth, mud, and fog of the city, Dickens goes on to present to the reader three distinct worlds. 1. First, we visit the legal world, the Court of Chancery, in which disputes about wills and estates are to be settled. In practice, and in the novel as well, proceedings in Chancery could take decades. 2. Next, we visit the world of fashion, dominated by Lady Dedlock, whose husband’s family is said to be “as old as the hills, and infinitely more respectable.” 3. Finally, we are introduced to the domestic world of Esther Summerson, a young woman who is eventually employed as housekeeper of Bleak House. B. These worlds are so different that they cannot be described by a single narrator. The stories of the legal and fashionable worlds are told by a third-person narrator, while the story of Esther’s domestic world is told by Esther herself. C. Slowly, the novel’s major locations and characters are shown to be intimately connected. 1. Lady Dedlock turns out to be Esther’s mother, and a law clerk, found dead of a drug overdose at the end of chapter 10, is revealed to be her father 2. The mystery of Esther’s birth is unraveled by characters from every level of society—a police inspector (one of the first fictional detectives) and a homeless boy play especially important parts. D. Although we might criticize Dickens for relying on these coincidences, we see that his version of the multiplot novel responds to the pressures of living in an increasingly fragmented society. Beneath the chaos of a city like London, there is an underlying order. IV. In the 1850s, Dickens experienced great changes in his personal life. A. In 1858, he separated from his wife of 22 years, and his relationship with a young actress became the subject of scandal and gossip for the rest of his life. B. At that time, he also began a series of exhausting but quite successful public reading tours, not only making Dickens a fortune but strengthening his bonds with the public. V. Through his later novels, Dickens created increasingly conflicted characters and endings, opening up problems that neither he nor his characters could solve. A. At the end of an early work, such as Oliver Twist, the main character is finally safe and secure. B. In Great Expectations, the situation is much different. 1. Like Oliver, Pip is an orphan, exposed to dangers and temptations. Raised by his sister and her husband, he is adopted by a mysterious benefactor and sent to live as a gentleman in London. 2. Pip assumes that his benefactor is Miss Havisham, a wealthy local woman, and he falls in love with Estella, the beautiful girl who lives with her. Pip’s dreams are shattered when he learns that his benefactor is actually a criminal. 3. As the story unfolds, Pip is also forced to admit that Estella is incapable of returning his love. He knows that he should give up his quest for Estella, but that knowledge does not help him control his own desires for her. 4. Though Pip eventually finds his way to a respectable life, he never recovers from his disappointments and failures. This is especially evident in Dickens’s original ending to the novel, which suggests that Pip will never marry. 5. In a revised ending, though Dickens suggests a possible reunion between Pip and Estella, the situation remains uncertain. Even if the characters do get together, it will be as survivors of a great trauma. C. Dickens creates similar feelings at the end of Bleak House, Little Dorrit, and Our Mutual Friend. In those conclusions, marriages are celebrated, virtue rewarded, and vice punished, yet the possibilities for fulfillment and happiness appear limited. VI. If Dickens begins to explore the mysteries of London in his early books, he examines in these later works many of the deepest mysteries of life. A. Why do we want what we cannot have? How can we understand the wrongs done to us? Can we ever break free of the past, or are we compelled to live in its shadows? B. With this achievement, Dickens completes the most impressive body of work in the history of English fiction and gives us a fitting end to this first series of lectures. Essential Reading: Charles Dickens, Bleak House, Great Expectations. Supplementary Reading: J. Hillis Miller, Charles Dickens: The World of His Novels. Edmund Wilson, “Dickens: The Two Scrooges,” in The Wound and the Bow. Questions to Consider: 1. What are the signs of artistic maturity? Do artists tend to get better as they grow older and gain experience? What is usually lost and what usually gained over the course of an artist’s career? 2. What kinds of endings now seem most satisfying to us? Are happy endings always unrealistic? Are sad or unhappy endings always depressing?