How The Childhood, Adolescence and Young Adulthood Shaped Dickens and His Portrayal of Older Adults in OLIVER TWIST

 [PART TWO]

                                                        The final night of Fagin before he "faced the drop"

 

                                               An Early Portrait of Dickens as he was writing

                                               Pickwick Papers AND Oliver Twist

The relationship between the young adult Dickens and his 17-year-old sister-in-law Mary has, over nearly 186 years, been the subject of much speculation.  The reason for that speculation was because of his intense and lifelong reaction to her sudden and unexpected death on the night of the 6th/7th May 1837. Mary often stayed with the Dickens family overnight, having her own bedroom at 48 Doughty Street. On the one hand, it can be explained by grief, which he never really processed, yet on the other, it was considered to be "charged with erotic passion". The jury remains out, but for me, it is highly unlikely to have been the latter as over the years I have known older adults never having come to terms with the tragic death of a close relative dying in their childhood or mid-adolescence. That said Dickens was used to experiencing death, including of his own children, but did not nevertheless react in such an intense, even obsessive way. He wore Mary's ring throughout his life and was known to have kept her clothes and from time to time taken them out to touch them. Incidentally, it is now reckoned that Mary in 1835, developed a rheumatic fever which damaged her heart.

CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING

So what on earth has this to do with how the 25-year-old Dickens portrayed older characters? Put simply, it is all about context. Firstly whilst writing he was, at this time, traumatized. Secondly, we know he was in many ways of a sentimental, even immature disposition. In addition, we know already about his attitude towards women in general and young women in particular. Fourthly, he modelled the character of Rose Marlie in Oliver Twist  on Mary describing Rose as " So mild and gentle; so pure and beautiful; that earth seemed not her element, nor its rough creatures her fit companions."  'Mary' would be featured in numerous novels throughout his writing career. The juxtaposition between Fagin's portrayal, and that of both Nancy and Rose, to say nothing of Oliver himself with the brutishness of Sikes becomes self-evident. It is a powerful Victorian literary device that Dickens was now using to significant effect. 

We also need to consider the context of his early childhood and adolescence, whereby his father was imprisoned for debt; his own sense of abandonment; his brief but again traumatic time working at a blacking factory which for him was a pivotal point in his life course. However, Dickens always controlled the narrative of his childhood and a "false memory or memories" undoubtedly influenced Dickens. Michael Allen, in his excellent book Charles Dickens and the Blackening Factory ( 2011), argues that Fagin was not based on Isaac Solomons but a certain Henry Worms (aged 89) who greatly influenced the 8-year-old Dickens. It is worth remembering that this child temporarily "lost" his father and his own sense of self at the same time. For an eight-year-old, it was, in his imagination, his whole future.  Dickens interestingly blamed his mother, not his father, which brings us to the older adults in his early/teenage life who would have shaped his view of age and ageing and the older people he was in contact with in these formative years. 

Not surprisingly our parents or those that brought us up have a profound influence on our development and this was certainly the case for Dickens. Regarding his mother, Elizabeth was generally considered by those who knew her as a "sweet, caring mother". Dickens would however in his 3rd novel Nicholas Nickleby portray her in the character of Mrs Nickleby as a well-meaning scatterbrain, but weak. She was a harsh caricature of his mother. By the time Dickens was born, Elizabeth was 36 years old and Dickens never forgave her for sending him to the Blackening Factory and on John Dickens's subsequent release from prison wanting to send Charles back!  How far do we perceive our parents (or primary caregivers) approaching mid-life as old? Indeed we need to ask more generally how far children see older adults in their lives negatively and thus hold prejudices against them as they reach adulthood? It may have less to do with chronological age but with how the older person relates ( or does not) to the child.  Children empathise with those who care for them, treat them, look after them, and listen to them. Elizabeth failed Dickens's test as a mother, not necessarily an old one!

We have little knowledge of Dickens's relationship with his paternal and maternal grandparents and even Dickens's own account of his childhood and adolescence gives little away. He does however state in 1853 ( aged 41yrs) that he received his " earliest and most enduring impressions among the barracks and soldiers, and ships and sailors" (Where We Stopped Growing). We can only speculate whether this was for good or ill! My impression however from my sofa-based non-academic research was that he developed a somewhat victimised approach to himself and his lot, even a 'woe-is-me' disposition. I found it a pretty dry cul de sac in tracing relatives or significant others whom Dickens might have considered "elderly" [feel free to point me in the right direction!]

OLD AGE IN THE 18TH, EARLY 19TH CENTURIES

Before returning to the specific older characters in Oliver Twist it is important to note that in general terms preadolescent attitudes towards older adults, ageing, attitudes and differentiation and quantity and quality of contact will shape a child's view. Current research evidence indicates that ageism exists from around the age of four years. In Georgian England and hence Dickens's childhood he would hold attitudes determined by his daily experiences of older adults - relational or casual- living in Chatham and especially London - would be both negative and positive. Attitudes that identify passivity, sadness and loneliness are prevalent today, but was this relevant in the Georgian/Victorian era?  We know in his early years and childhood he experienced the good, bad and ugly behaviours of grown-ups whatever their chronological age. Through the eyes of Oliver Twist, he would have drawn on not just these years, but his early adulthood as a journalist and Court correspondent. He would also be influenced by society's attitudes, policies, practices and treatment of older adults in late Georgian England. Here we need to focus primarily on London. 

As usual, the writer and historian Pat Thane is informative both in her book Old Age in English History ( 2000) and as Editor of The Long History of Old Age (2005). Dickens's life transitioned the late Georgian and early mid-Victorian eras, but attitudes do not change on the crowning of a specific monarch, so caution is urged in terms of societal attitudes and the triggers that lead to change. Dickens we know had a particularly negative view of the Poor Law and Workhouses in particular, especially of the care and wellbeing of children and juveniles that he witnessed or gained from Reports,  newspapers and court proceedings and judgements etc. That said, the character of  Sally, the "old workhouse inmate" confesses to Mrs Corney ( later wife of Mr Bumble) on her death bed that she had stolen the gold locket and ring that Oliver's mother had entrusted to her. This was also witnessed by Martha and Anny who were said to be "old crones  looking and listening through chinks in the door."  The narrative speaks for itself regarding the link between their age and behaviour. Interestingly too, this workhouse was situated some distance from London, though Dickens appears to have lived close to a specific workhouse, which unless I am mistaken, has recently been argued was his source.

David Troyansky wrote about ageing and old age in the 1700s in Pat Thane's The Long History ( Chapter 5) that the era was one of transition in the history of old age and in England there was a cultural continuity and representation which were both positive and negative coexisting. Socio and economic differences mattered and literary representations of the aged distinguished between the more comfortable experiences and expectations of the well-off old compared to that of the precariousness of those who were not. What was evident throughout, and certainly as we move into the early 1800s, is that people were considered "old" at around 50 years of age, which is the threshold I have used in determining old adults in Dickens's writing. Industrialisation and urbanisation would be increasingly marked at the time of Dickens's childhood and certainly young adulthood. If you had relative wealth you had later life "autonomy, responsibility and authority" and thereby choices. For those in late Georgian and certainly into the 19th Century, many experienced what was considered a "good old age as defined by contemporary norms, with harmony between the ageing individual, their family and the wider community". Of the notions of sickness, dependency and infirmity, Troyansky writes these " applied only to the very old and the poor" who require care.

Increasingly however the state had become involved, with the medical profession writing about ' diseases of the aged' which grew by the time Dickens reached young adulthood. Enlightenment interest led to narratives of increased intergenerational engagement and surprisingly a "society of all ages" with paintings and graphics of "wrinkly hands", reflecting experience and work, rather than our 21st Century view of ageism and 'othering'. Nevertheless, there still existed imagery that regarded older women as " man-hungry spinsters gigolo hungry crones, and sex-crazed widows". It is clear that in this era under discussion, there was diversity, opportunity, a valuing life experience, and the growth of consumerism - if you had sufficient resources, were male and could draw off familial or community support. David Troyansky's conclusion to his analysis of the 1700s is instructive, especially as Dickens was born 3 years before the end of the Napoleonic Wars, briefly lived in the naval dockyard of Chatham and most of his childhood and youth in London. 

 As  Europe entered the 19th Century, experience of events of the 1790s and subsequent Napoleonic Wars encouraged awareness of the passage of time. Revolutionaries spoke of an 'ancien regime', and those who reached maturity in that era would be the old of the 19th Century ( p209)  

 

DICKENS AND GERONTOPHOBIA

Dickens reached maturity let's say around the early 1830s, getting a job as a freelance Court reporter, falling in love, and publishing his first story. By 1836 (aged 24) he became a husband and begins to write Pickwick Papers. His later years (old age; 50 plus) lasted less than a decade.  He hated the idea of becoming old, and of being considered old. When and why did he start to dread its onset? I would like to explore this through his later novels, but presently looking at his second. The somewhat arbitrary Victorian era commenced with the death of William IV (1837) the same year Dickens becomes a father, moves to Doughty Street and death of his sister-in-law Mary.

                                 

                                  A portrayal of Dickens in his 50's 

We get ahead of ourselves. Dickens's maturation was a Georgian one and having superficially explored the key cultural and social-economic circumstances for older adults both rich and poor we can be confident that his characterisations were based on his experiences to date of his contact and general observations of age and ageing. We are on the cusp of better transportation, major industrialisation, population growth, greater travel, urbanisation, science and the increased medicalisation of ageing. These would have a profound effect during his life course on him personally and his writings.

We also see that we are at the point where alongside intellectual, scientific, cultural and literary expression, new economic and manufacturing techniques brought about increased poverty and the precariousness between what might be deemed the middling classes ( eg trade /self-employed) tipping and falling quickly into destitution. Dickens in some ways was already demonising both the wealthy and destitute regardless of their chronological age. This has led some commentators to conclude there was nothing gerontophobic about him. That said, if gerontophobia is not just about an irrational fear of old age and especially growing old ( which he was) but includes being disdainful or having an aversion to old people then that is the journey of discovery we are on, based on his novels to find out.

What we do know from a certain letter written by Thomas Jefferson to John Vaughan in 1815 ( quoted in Anthony and Sally Sampson. The Oxford Book of Ages 1985) is telling:

" Nothing is more incumbent on the old, than  to know when they should get out of the way, and relinquish to younger successors the honours they can no longer earn, and duties they can no longer perform" 

The question is whether Dickens as a young adult shared or rejected this opinion.

I shall in future blogs explore Dickens's older characters' and caricatures in more detail from his middle and later novels, particularly of older women, and Victorian gerontology where, as Sara Zadrozny says " gender difference played an important part" in shaping views and  Karen Chase's assertion that " Dickens made his older characters " responsible for their own age"

  

THE CAST OF "OLDER ADULTS" 

As always I'm indebted to Donald Hawes's Who's Who in Dickens: Routledge (2002) for a pen picture of the older characters and those of an "uncertain age". It is important not just to consider how Dickens describes these characters, but their role and function within the novel.  

Fagin -of course: See above 

Mr Brownlow: A kindly, elderly gentleman with " a heart large enough for any six ordinary old gentlemen of humane disposition". In fact, he is not so kind and humane when influenced by Grimwig's negative view and in addition after Oliver's Court appearance considers him an "imposter" until subsequently he is convinced by Rose Marley and Mrs Bedwin of Oliver's story. His heart was clearly not large enough to see children of the workhouse favourably. This might be unfair, but perhaps reflected a common view held by well-off and comfortable older adults. 

Mr Bumble: "Fat, choleric and pompous man" We do not know specifically if he was an older adult, but taking into account his position and role within the novel, and our threshold for defining "older" 50+ I have included him, but it remains conjecture. Bumble has to be seen as a reflection of the harshness and brutality of the Workhouse system and thus complicit in the abuse of an "innocent, even saintly young boy". It is interesting to note that in their later years, there is a comeuppance from their actions and reflects people in later life will be punished or are redeemed and forgiven ( eg Scrooge) if they repent. 

Mr Losberne: " An eccentric old bachelor" and doctor to Mrs Maylie. He " had grown fat, more from good humour than from good living, kind and hearty". Dickens portrayed him, according to Hawes's narrative, as a "kindly and sagacious adviser" and comes into play following the attempted burglary. 

Mrs Maylie: An elderly and stately lady who provides Oliver with a home following the burglary. This is a positive reflection of an older adult demonstrating compassion and the importance of familial responsibility. 

Old Sally: (See above)

Mrs Corney ( wife of Mr Bumble and Matron) has to be viewed perhaps not in the context of her age, she was always a nasty and abusive person, but Dickens's view of Workhouses and the policy and practice implications of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. 

Mrs Bedwin: The housekeeper of Mr Brownlow - "a motherly lady". As with much Victorian literature, there is little attention given to the experience of growing older and minor characters they are introduced in their old age. We do know that the role of the Housekeeper (including Maids) during Dickens's time was protected in terms of minimum wages and from exploitation, but it could be argued that this depended on the employer. The Housekeeper's role was critical, but hard work. Their role was second to that of a butler and had a status second to the butler. Clearly, Mrs Bedwin had an influence and together with Dicken's portrayal of Brownlow she had agency and independence of thought and indeed opinion. A positive picture. We assume given she was "an old lady" she had been with the Brownloews may be from her young adult years ( even as a child?). She would have been a very junior maid. Pure speculation on my part.          

Edward "Monks" Leeford  (of uncertain age). We are not given a specific age for Oliver's half brother but Dickens portrayed him via Nancy's narrative "as dark, withered, and haggard, with lips often discoloured and disfigured with marks of teeth" and with hands that are also wounded with teeth marks. The imagery might have less to do with his chronological age more to say about his character and role and the fact that he put the fear of God into Fagin which reinforced his cruelty.  His character also is quite gothic. In attempting to include or reject this character in our exploration of Dickens's portrayal of older adults, the original illustration by George Cruikshank is telling. He isn't. This potentially evidences that Dickens was pretty intergenerational in his descriptions of villainous protagonists. Fagin takes top place in the numerous theatre, film and TV adaptations of Oliver Twist whilst Monks is airbrushed out of the story! 

Mr Grimwig (of uncertain age) Given the context, being a friend of Brownlow, whose "brusqueness conceals a kind heart" and his view that all children are "either mealy" or beef-faced" arguably Grimwig fits an age-related stereotype of older people's attitudes, assumptions and prejudices against younger generations which exists even today.   

Mr Gamfield ( of uncertain age) We know that Master Sweeps of which Gamfield was one,  purchased young boys from "poverty-stricken parents" and also from orphanages and Workhouses. The smaller the boy the better. "Apprenticeship" was basically slavery. When Dickens wrote Oliver Twist (1837), Parliament had in 1834 already passed the Chimney Sweepers Act which required a magistrate to hear directly from a child 14yrs and older to be "willing and desirous" to become one. Existing child sweeps were required to wear protective clothing and certainly not be expected to clean a chimney whilst the flue was hot! Gamfield would have been subject to ensure these conditions were met. Indeed the magistrate refused to agree to Gamfield's  request when Oliver became "terror-stricken"

So what sort of MasterSweep was he? Dickens clearly says he was cruel but was he "old" by our definition? Researching MasterSweeps in the 19th Century we know they were engaged in a lucrative business and apprenticed up to 20 boys. We do not know if Gamfield was middle-aged or 50 years plus but he already had a network and relationships with Workhouses and orphanages, and was familiar with the 1834 Act. We can only conjecture, but if he had been a young adult in the mind of Dickens, one assumes he would have mentioned it. Dickens was clearly familiar with the "industry" and the law applying to it. In my view, there was sufficient information from both the novel, Dickens's social awareness and the history of Child Labour to at least ponder the question.    

Mr Fang:   We have the benefit of a George Cruikshank illustration "Oliver escapes being bound apprentice to the Sweep" and a later interpretation of Fang by J Clayton Clarke (below).                        

Mr Fang ( Magistrate ) by                                                 George Cruikshank illustration in original

J.Clayton Clarke                                                                 Oliver Twist ( as agreed by Dickens)

Here we are on firmer ground in including the portrayal of this "choleric and arbitrary police magistrate who hears the charge against Oliver of theft. It strikes me that Dickens's portrayal, like so many others of older adults in his writings, has perhaps less to do with his view and attitude toward age and ageing, but related to their profession or what they represented. This is certainly the case with Fang. 

Giles:( of uncertain age) Butler and steward to Mrs Malie who actually shoots and wounds Oliver during the burglary. He is considered a cowardly individual.  Whilst we have no reference to his chronological age, we can assume given his position and role within the household he was at least nearing 50 years or above. Dickens clearly did not see his age as relevant or worthy of note.   

Blathers and possibly Duff: We do however know that Blathers was 'aged about fifty'. Of Duff, we do not know, but by association with Blathers - both being Bow Street officers - we can only speculate. Dicken's portrayal is as a "red-headed, bony man; in top-boots; with a rather ill-favoured countenance, and a turned up sinister-looking nose". They pitch up to investigate the burglary and their very names evidence their bumbling approach and their total inefficiency and idiocy as regards police investigation who do not have any sympathy with Oliver. Losbourne's attempt to protect Mrs Maylie and Oliver via a deflection both police officers are dispatched! We do have the benefit again of a George Cruikshank illustration (below) - or do we?

Again we could conclude that Dickens was commenting on the Bow Street Runners and the London police and age was irrelevant, but why then did he refer to it in terms of Blathers? The fact that we are in the last days of the Runners who were redundant by 1839 when absorbed into the Metropolitan Police. Dickens was writing Oliver Twist around this time but would have had the experience of Runners throughout his childhood and adolescence and as a young reporter.  

                         

                                George Cruikshank illustration: 'Oliver waited on by the Bow Steet Runners'

Mr and Mrs Sowerberry (of uncertain age?) 

                     Mr and Mrs Sowerberry ( 2nd illustration - Sol Eytinge Jr (1867) ) Victorian Web

Dickens always kept tight control over the illustrations used in his novels. In the first edition of Oliver Twist illustrator, George Cruikshank ignored this couple. I have used the image from Sol Eytinge, Jr. (above). The narrative of Dickens was that Mr Sowerberry was a " tall gaunt, large jointed man attired in a suit of threadbare black, with darned cotton stockings of the same colour, and shoes to answer". Mrs Sowerberry is "a short, thin, squeaked-up woman with a vixenish countenance. She was depicted as cruel and wicked towards Oliver. Subsequent portrayals have, however, in adaptations of the book, interpreted Mr Sowerberry as an "older male".  This does not help us in our quest. What may be relevant is how Dickens portrayed two later undertakers ( Mr Mould in Martin Chuzzelwit and Mr Omer in David Copperfield) written in 1842 and 1849 respectively. Here the author is quite explicit in that Mould was "a balding elderly man" and Omer is " a merry little old man in black". The portrayal of Mr Sowerberry may well have led later depictions to see him as an older adult but Dickens references that whilst he was completely dominated by his wife, he at heart was "in general rather given to professional jocosity". Given that Oliver Twist, Martin Chizzelwit and David Copperfield were all written between 1837 - 1842 the portrayals were based more on middle-class attitudes, the late Georgian period and early Victorian England Dickens portrayed Mr and Mrs Sowerberry as caricatures. He was after all ever the comic.

The funeral business of this period ( unlike today) was precarious for undertaker owners, and Dickens portrays this well in his depictions and the circumstances of the Sowerberrys. The lower middle classes lived on the precipice between reasonable comfort, the poorer classes and indeed destitution. The Co-op was sometime in the future!

Sally Thingummy: An "old pauper" an inmate of the workhouse who later dies there. Sally was at Oliver's birth and "rendered rather misty by an unwonted allowance of beer". It has been recorded that older female inmates were frequently called upon to undertake "nursing" and care duties given they were cheap labour and saved the Workhouse and Parishes' money. It would be wrong to assume that Mrs Thingummy and other older inmates were thieves and drunk. Dickens's general characterization is telling given his experience of workhouse practice. He was never nuanced in his opinions.

Mr Limkins:  We have no indication as to whether this character was fifty years plus, only that he was a "red-faced gentleman in the high chair" and Chairman of the Parish Board where Oliver was born. We can assume, though not certain, that his status as Chairman, implies at least he was in his middle years.

The Bookseller:  "An elderly man of decent but poor appearance". Nothing to see here! 

                                 From George Cruikshank. Our Bookseller is in the doorway as the Artful

                                 Dodger picks the customer's pocket.

There are some thirty-six named/unnamed characters in the novel, of whom twenty are certainly called "old/elderly", or are, for our purposes, 'of uncertain age.' Their descriptions lead us to not unreasonably consider them as around fifty-plus. Therefore, this is in the order of some 56%. At one level this may be of little relevance but raises the interesting question of why this young aspiring author, mainly self-educated, of a poor and precarious background, emotional and sensitive desperately seeking fame and fortune finds age so fascinating? By 'age'  I mean both children and older adults. The juxtaposition between Dickens's portrayal of young vulnerable and exploited children with cruel, feckless, abusive, self-indulgent older adults is interesting. 

Dickens the storyteller, actor, journalist, comic and perhaps the greatest of English novelists was of course of his time. His books are now known only through school curriculum requirements (understandably his shortest books) or film and TV adaptations. Millions of words have been written about his life and work and I doubt any aspect remains to be discovered. His portrayal of older adults is normally focused on a few leading characters or dominant themes in publications addressing broader literacy, cultural, and public policy issues and critiques. His portrayal of older adults from a gerontological and life course perspective seems worthy of further exploration which is the journey we are on. Two novels down, thirteen to go, but we cannot ignore at least one of his Christmas Books that from 1843 till today defined not just benevolence and gifting. but the redemption and salvation of perhaps the most miserable miser of all time and in so doing  defined Victorian "age and ageing" 

There are however four further novels 1838-43 which need to be opened for examination, as well as Dickens's life events and transitions between Doughty Street, Devonshire Place, births, and foreign tours. Tiny Tim and 'you know who' will have to wait their turn!

Nicholas Nickleby [Part One] to Follow

"A Ruined Gentleman, A Cruel Schoolteacher, A Melodramatic Thespian, A Ruthless Moneylender and A Kindly Old Clerk"