Characteristics and Mies of Children in Charles Dickens’s Novels

A lot of children appear in Charles Dickens's novels. Some of them are heroes or heroines, and the others are minor characters working for the plots. But almost all of them appeal to the reader's sentiments, sometimes looking pitiful or even pathetic. Critics have been harsh on this characteristic of unrealistic portraits of children. Approached differently, however, this aspect is Dickens's way of criticizing Victorian society, and in this sense all children in his novels work as a vehicle that runs toward readers' consciousness, awakening their new perception of reality. The children, especially the main characters, reflect the past that the Victorian readers once had had and then forgotten; the readers see how they lost their innocence or how their reality changed them. Minor characters also suggest various kinds of contemporary social problems. In the end, all the children in Dickens's novels represent his views that voice social reform. (Chungnam National University)