THE PORTRAYAL OF OLDER ADULT CHARACTERS IN CHARLES DICKENS'S EARLY NOVELS

Novel Four: 

THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP (1840/41)

PART TWO: "A most grotesque and fearsomely comic, malevolent user, ogre and leering" older adult (1)

Daniel Quilp was...." so low in stature as to be quite a dwarf, though head and face were large enough for the body of a giant. His black eyes were restless, sly, cunning, his mouth and chin, bristly with the stubble of a course beard; and his complextion was one of that kind which never looks clean and wholesome. But what added most to the grotesque expression of his face, was a ghastly smile...." (2)

                         Quilp, Mrs Quilp and Mrs Jarwin. Sol Eytinge,  r. Woodcarving.                                    Dickens's OCS+Rep inted Pieces ( Diamond Ed). Scanned Image and text by Philip V. Allingham. The Victorian Web

Daniel Quilp was an elderly man, but what was his role in the novel? Did he have to be old to fulfil his function as the primary villain? Did he have to be portrayed as "disabled", and it is argued by some critics to also be Jewish? I will explore these ideas in this blog. If there is one, the plot tells the story of thirteen-year-old Nell Trent (see Part 1) (3) and Quilp, who lends money to her Grandfather, taking control and possession of the curiosity shop and disclosing the old man's gambling addiction. He uses sarcasm to belittle and intimidate those he wishes to control, most notably his young wife. In addition, he eavesdrops to gain leverage over Nell, and Grandfather Trent drives a wedge between Kit and Nubbles when he claims it was Kit who squelched on the gambling habit! (4) Nell's somewhat idle older brother Fred conns the relatively easily led Dick Swiveller in believing that Grandfather Trent is sitting on a fortune. Quilp joins forces to track down Nell when she flees London with her Grandfather, knowing full well that there is no fortune, so his motive is to groom Nell "into marriage "; in other words, if necessary, to rape her. Quilp is, in Dickens's Portrayal, a sexual predator. Had Dickens based the character on an individual he had encountered, or was he simply expressing Victorian assumptions about old age, disability and Jewishness? Everybody whose life was touched by Quilp ended up in dire straights (5). We will, of course, explore the meaning of Quilp's death later.

It is clear, however, that whilst the plot(s) "are loosely improvisatory and episodic, arranged primarily in broad contrasts of comedy and pathos, darkness and light, city and country"(6), the story is inevitably set within a "clear moral framework."(7) In drawing conclusions about all the principle characters in Dickens's canon and especially Dickens and old age, Helen Small reminds us that literary criticism is not evidence. The portrayal of older adults in fiction cannot necessarily be any validation, and in our case, it is neither Dickens's gerontophobia nor even ageism. One must consider "ethnological data, the historical record, or personal testimony"(8). I quote Small, referencing Nussbaum's claim that "literature is an extension of our ethical education."(9) Arguably, many of Dickens's older characters, and hence here Daniel Quilp, as was Pickwick and Fagin, are dominant portrayals. There is no doubt these characters, in my mind, have indeed "taken (the) strongest hold in our collective imagination ( providing) ways by which we recognize ourselves as a society, a civic body"(10). His novels' numerous films, and T.V. adaptions aided and abetted this. Equally, this applies to our collective perception and responses to age and ageing, then as now. 

Helen Small is instructive ( though I'll not confuse any reader, or myself, by dwelling on Theodor Adorno's metaphysics as it relates to Dickens and The Old Curiosity Shop, which Small draws upon). As it may, her observation of Dickens's "own expressed concerns about old age and its relation to youth, especially to childhood" picks up on the relationships between Nell Trent and her Grandfather and Quilp. Minor points out that "critics rarely pick up on the statement of Quilp's age accompanying his first appearance " and that " no account of his appearance or behaviour reminds" us of it (11). Well, this armchair critic does! Though, to be fair, Dickens inevitably portrays his older major characters' dress, economic circumstances, physical and mental conditions and much else, he does not necessarily dwell on their chronological age. Still, he has already framed them as "elderly" or "old" and used a range of pretty harsh and memorable descriptions of them alongside the age reference. Ageism is about othering, imagining and negative portrayals, but can this apply to fictional characters where the context of their behaviour and personality is about the plot and their relationship to it, together with the circumstances and characters around them? 

We know that Dickens regularly drew inspiration from individuals he knew or observed. Still, with Daniel Quilp, there is no evidence that he was based on a real-life individual. It is possible he combined several personalities, physical attributes, and descriptions. Even if this is the case with Quilp and the description and behaviour were simply a product of Dickens's imagination serving only to demonstrate greed, cunningness, and malevolence in the story, does this let him off the hook? 

Quilp is an iconic villain. He was harsh and uncompromising, but he was no fool. A strategic thinker who manipulated all those around him. Dickens had created a monster who made Wackford Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby look like a model educationalist and teacher. Quilp is about the relationship he had with the young- exploitative, abusive, and a paedophile but also about comeuppance who, like Fagin, paid the price for his behaviour of criminality and perversion. He was no Bill Sykes, who also came to a sticky and fatal end. There were other powerful old-age characters in Dickens. Scrooge is a  classic with an equally iconic portrayal demonstrating a transition into a good, kindly, warm, if not pretty 'juvenile' later life. Metaphysics - the science of existence and philosophy to one side; who cares that Quilp had a large head, black eyes, a ghastly smile and a grotesque expression? These attributes were about his character, not his chronological age, even though he was termed "elderly." It is said that many of Dickens's major older characters in his early novels were more about the "embodiments of a pure comic spirit and their capacity to cause hurt". They were clowns, unrestrained, vivacious and resourceful. "Quilp is bulling his young wife by a display of indiscriminate veracity," writes E.D.H Johnson and "these characters also make an enduring appeal through their historonic virtuosity."(12) They are pantomime, to be booed on and off stage and Dickens loved a panto. Still, he was also a severe social commentator. We are invited to see the characters as they are, old or not. Dickens's comic and grotesque creations during his young adulthood writing did not require them to age or need any further literary development. (13)

                                     Characters From Dickens: Issued by John Player & Sons. A                                          branch of Imperial Tobacco. Co. (of Great Britain & Ireland) Ltd.                                   A  Series of 50. No 27 ( 1923) 

The representation of Quilp, as with Grandfather Trent ( Part1), through a 21st Century lense, however, leads us to consider "isms". Much has been written about women and girls in Dickens. Of particular note is that of Michael Slater and, latterly, the edited work of Edward Guiliano (14)(15). I will explore later in the Series Dickens and Older Women. That said, the general consensus from scholars and commentators is that they are benign. Regarding Little Nell ( and others), we see Dickens's attitude towards their descriptions as innocent, virtuous, vulnerable and chase. In terms of women, whilst he portrayed their strengths and weaknesses, he acknowledged the societal constraints and oppressive circumstances; Mrs Quilp is a case in point. But they were also depicted as strong, intelligent and capable. Many of his older women were wise, nurturing, resilient, and supportive of younger generations. Dickens, it is said in general terms, respected their wisdom and experience. (16) This narrative has become accepted without question. In one regard, the conclusion is innocuous if we view all of Dickens's older adults equally. The importance of Quilp's Portrayal presents a language and narrative of old age and one that fed the stereotypes common in the era and feeds into today. It is all very well to view Quilp as a comic Punch and Judy type. However, if we are comfortable critically analyzing Dickens's Portrayal of women, girls, and children generally, why not with his older adults? The present-day and Victorian negative framing of old age was and is synonymous with disease, illness, infirmity, and disability. Was Quilp viewed as a stereotypical elderly villain or simply a villain who happens to be old? The age disparity in sexual relationships has been a feature of many cultures, past and present. Quilp was married to a young wife. Was he an ephebophiliac? We know he lusted after Nell, but it was less about establishing a relationship and more to do with sexual abuse and rapeing a thirteen-year-old girl. 

From Quilps' age portrayal, two additional intersections need to be explored, namely disability and antisemitism. Had Dickens created old-age, disability and Jewish hate stereotypes in one character? Were there unconscious biases in play here?

'MINORITY MALICE: THE CURIOUS CASE OF DANIEL QUILP' (17)

      

                           Top: Watercolour illustration by Joseph Clayton Clarke of Fagin (O.T.)

                            Wikipedia

                           Below is the original watercolour of TOCS: Tennant, Dudley - Jonkers                             Books. From Little Nell and the TOCS. Told to Children by Ethel                                     Lindsay. S.W. Partridge & Co. (1921). Stock ID 37765

I discussed the case of Fagin in an earlier blog (18), and he is name-checked here to demonstrate why age and antisemitism intersect for the second time in Dickens's early writing.

"Dear Mr Dickens": Antisemitism exposed?

Eliza Davis is best known for her correspondence with Dickens and was a fan. She was very impressed with his depiction of poverty, child labour, and the precariousness of the working class of London. Dickens was already a celebrity and powerful. On her first reading of Oliver Twist, Eliza was moved by the boys' Portrayal and his story until she reached Chapter Eight. She then challenged the Portrayal of Fagin, pointing out that Dickens had "encouraged a vile prejudice against the despised Hebrew."(19). Dickens's initial reaction was defensive. He replied, "I have no feeling towards the Jews but a friendly one. I always speak well of them, whether in public or private and bear testimony ( as I ought to do) to their perfect good faith in such transactions as I have ever had with them" (20). He could have added, 'Some of my best friends are Jews.' but did say "it is unfortunately true, of the time to which the story refers, that that class of criminal almost invariably was a Jew"(21). Davis had also asked Dickens to "atone for a great wrong."(22) 

Dickens's antisemitism had a history! Dr Helena Kelly, an Oxford University academic, writes, "If Oliver Twist's antisemitism is bad, The Old Curiosity Shop is worse."(23) and continues that "Quilp's helpers, the corrupt lawyer Sampson Brass and Sampson's sister Sally, are Jewish; their ethnicity not -at this time- ever explicitly stated but clearly indicated."(24) Kelly is uncompromising. She argues that we should not minimize Dicken's antisemitism" while murmuring some bromide about ignorance, or widespread Victorian attitudes...Dickens chose racist tropes in his work because there was a market for it. For many people, that might make the situation even worse" (25). Kelly's proposition is that both the Fagin and Quilp portrayals served to ensure " that no one was likely to suspect that he had Jewish relatives", which he wanted to hide. (26) 

Before examining the intersections between old age, disability and antisemitism, " The Curious Case of Daniel Quilp" by Tobias Langdon is worth exploring. The argument is that " if an accusation invokes a hate-filled stereotype, the accusation can be dismissed out of hand" as it needs to be benchmarked against statistical reality. Basically, Dickens's own defence of Davis. Langdon alerts us to the notion of 'hidden hate'. If Dickens resented the criticism of Fagin, then Daniel Quilp was a response to it, and whilst his Jewishness was implicit, Fagin had been repeatedly called a Jew, Quilp is repeatedly called a dwarf. (27)  Langdon's position is that Dickens 'intended to expose reality in the hope of reforming it. Jewish criminals like Fagin really existed' (28). Quilp to Langdon was Dickens's way 'to convey some shocking ideas about minorities in general', and as a dwarf, he belonged to a 'visible minority and subject to majority prejudice based on liberal ideology and hence the vitriol Dickens received' and still does! That said, Quilp's creator ( remember, he was not based on a natural person whom Dickens had come across) produced an anti-semitic, "elderly", and "disabled" dwarf stereotype but chose to avoid another 'Fagingate'. One just has to look at the numerous illustrations of Quilp, both at the time and subsequently, that portray a stereotypical Jew (29). What does Langdon conclude? "Dickens was motivated not by hate or prejudice but by realism and personal observation"(30)

                                 Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop Library Edition, facing V.33

                                 Scanned images and texts by Philip V Allingham. Victorian Web

                                 

  

                                 Victorian Image (unsourced)

Time to look at the 'othering' of people during this era and the perceived threat of what was deemed 'Jewish contagion' and English exceptionalism. (31) The Jewish pathology was predicated on a 'degenerate race more susceptible to disease', and as Stephanie Pokras writes, whether Jews were "diseased or supreme, the Jew was treated as a medical anomaly, an exotic object of morbid fascination not unlike that elicited by Victorian Freak shows"(32). Dickens's obsession with disease, death, pollution, degeneracy, contagion, criminality, addiction, deformity, racial characteristics, sexual depravity and deviancy came from a fertile Victorian 'othering' not just regarding Semitism but ableism and ageism. Walk on Daniel Quilp, that ticked every box. 

It is not surprising that disabled people ( including those with Dwarfism?) were regularly and negatively portrayed.

DICKENS AND DISABILITY

Disability in Victorian novels was "regularly represented as a fantasmatic novelty that simultaneously delighted and disgusted," writes Clayton Tarr. (33) Dickens was a novelist where disabled people, young and old, featured as both major and minor characters. There was, however, a fundamental difference in the intergenerational portrayals. S.F. Wainapel says that "disabled children are depicted as innocent victims, while their older counterparts are most often viewed as corrupt victimizers whose physical deformities are outward manifestations of their inner depravity."(34)  The iconic Tiny Tim and Smike are sentimentalized, whilst Quilp is demonized. John Ruskin considered Dickens a Sensational Fiction writer of low literature, given his preponderance of depicting illness, death and disability. However, alongside many other Victorian authors, illness, traumas, or eccentricities were the most plausible reasons for disabled characters. (35) If Dickens was ambivalent about age and ageing, he certainly was with disability. Julia Miele Rodas puts this down to "the relationship of power and identity that surround the presence of a disability that the disabled body becomes the locus around which Dickens forms and centres his identity, his sense of himself as a writer and narrator" (36). We have already, in a previous blog, examined Dickens's health, epilepsy and mental illness and interests in all things medical, which would arguably shape his view of disability and disabled people. Did it translate, as some argue, to advocating for better treatment of them? Indeed, one character, such as Quilp, does not allow us to reach a conclusion, but the prevalence of so many disabled individuals in his novels does. With children, he views through the prism of pity, pathos, sentimentality and vulnerability; with older adults, he failed to challenge the notion of later life infirmity and disability in any other way but as an 'outward manifestation of inner depravity or punishment for moral failings' (37)  Can it be as Jenn Soehnlin asserts, that Dickens taught his readers, and us "that people are more than their diagnoses or disabilities that despite their social class, race gender or ability. God Bless us, everyone"? (38) 

Did Dickens navigate the two constructs of Victorian disability, firstly the premise that the disabled person 'has been deprived of his ability to create a self ' and secondly, the belief that ' the disabled are blessed or damned but never wholly human' (39). From the literature I have accessed, he never resolved the constructs. Still, he could translate his observational experiences into narratives reflecting Victorian attitudes to disability. We know that Dickens often had different public and private opinions depending on his audience, the protection of his public brand, and the marketing of his novels. He gave no quarter to Quilp!

Clare Walker Gore's study examining the significance of disability in nineteenth-century fiction not surprisingly includes the work of Charles Dickens. (40) She emphasizes that the term 'disabled' was not used then as it is now and is, of necessity, anachronistic. Narratives do not use the term disabled but 'crippled, 'afflicted', 'maimed' and 'deformed'. Quilp is a dwarf, but did that make him disabled? He was capable of work and mobile and could not be considered infirm. Yet the notion of disability is evident in his physical Portrayal, and his Dwarfism was of an 'identity-defining' difference ' which cannot be completely disentangled from the Victorian cultural definitions of Dwarfism. Erin Pritchard and Robert Kruse remind us that Dwarfism has a "unique and ambiguous history with its roots in mythology, the commodification of anomalous bodies through enfreakment, and pathologizing of bodily difference" (41). As I indicated earlier, we can only view Quilp's Dwarfism by reflecting on the description of Little Nell's physical Portrayal and Youth. Gore also intends to show that Quilp uses his physical appearance to intimate all those around him and capitalize on it. Dickens capitalized on the sentimentality of Nell and the grotesqueness of Quilp. (42) He, like so many of the memorable characters Dickens penned, continues even today in adaptions and illustrations, showing what Gore says are "melodramatic approaches to the disabled body" (43). It's an important point, as is her conclusion that you cannot pigeonhole a single "Victorian way of seeing disability. Instead, it testifies to the shifting nature of cultural constructions of disability, to the mutability of our ideas about the body, the multiplicity of the purposes these ideas can serve, and the possibility that always exists for reinvention" (44). In passing, I cannot recommend Gore's publication highly enough. In my view, Dickens placed disability within a social context, and arguably, his vehicles were Quilp and Little Nell in this fourth novel. There is also such a concept of situational and relational disability, which Dickens acknowledged, even though, in the main, it was implicit.

THE DEATH OF DANIEL QUILP

                         The Death of Quilp is Phiz's final illustration of Quilp's fortunes. (1841)

                          Vignette tailpiece to Chapter 67. Master Humphries Clock. Part 40.Vol 
                          2:187

The symbolism of Quilp's death has been well-documented and discussed by many Dickensian scholars and commentators. Did he commit suicide or simply a casualty of a London fog and a decrepit wharf structure where he slipped and fell into the dark blackness of the Thames? His inquest ruled that he died by suicide and was "left to be berried with a stake through his heart in the centre of four lonely roads"(45). But was it accidental suicide, and therefore not his intention to die? 

The melodrama is self-evident given Dikens and the Victorian obsession with death and 'horrible gothic deaths', and his own about drowning. Was Quilp just yet another older character who never in his later years transformed or repented past deeds and actions and became a stereotype of a "lovely old and kindly" individual motivated to put right wrongs inflicted? He paid the price. He had to die. But that manner of his death compared to that of Nell's and Grandfather Trent. If Quilp died by determined suicide, what motivated it? Shame and guilt over his years of depravity and criminality simply don't work. The narrative circumstances and depiction of his final moments were Dickens at his brilliant best. 

The Phiz illustration above (1841) is equally potent, and whilst the fraudster Sigmond Freud was way into the future, it is the Freudian analysis that is full of phallic symbolism (46) 

The death of Nell had to be peaceful, an escape from her suffering and victimization, as, after all, she was a proxy for Mary Hogarth. Quilps' had to be violent and also demonstrates Dicken's emotional trauma, but this time, he is also "being haunted by a mental picture of a drowned man ...laid out in a house of death" (47). Quilp was "deformed both inside and out"(48), unrepentant and unforgivable. Professor Barbara Giles argues that his death was one of Dickens's 'accidental suicides', emphasizing that he was "attempting to escape his fate like cruel Bill Sykes in Oliver Twist", but he actually "seals it"(49). She highlights that in the case of Quilp, his "self-destruction works like the hand of Justice....their excessive desperation to live is what causes their demise."(50). It is a compelling argument. 

Returning, as one must, to the phallic symbolism, the illustration was personally approved by Dickens. It was unconscious, but be that as it may, most symbolism is. It also does not detract from the symbolism inherent in the very Portrayal of this ageing dwarf, his deformity and his life grotesqueness at almost every level. It evidences the Victorian belief about the old and the ageing, either one of transitioning into a good old age (reference Pickwick into maturity, or Scrooge into generosity) or one of the justified endings, whether through intentional suicide ( reference Ralf Nickleby who hangs himself in a mood of frenzy hatred and despair) or through the hangman's noose ( reference Fagin), self-recrimination or suicide.

DICKENS, QUILP AND AGEISM 

There can be little doubt that ageing narratives in both fiction and non-fiction have, over the past 200 years or so, become more negative from 'heroism and kingship' to the 1800s' "darker tones of illness, death and burden"(51). Fiction presents a picture that needs to be clarified. On the one hand, it has defied this trend, but I disagree that at the time of Dickens's writing, it did. However, Dickens's tendency was not to generalize older adults as a homogenous group, given the broad range of his older character portrayals. That does not mean they were anti ageist. He reinforced stereotypical later life views of generational, gender and class biases. The notion of a good old age (a Golden time in today's parlance), of courtship, romance, happy endings, and wealth via inheritance for the deserving lives on into 2024! (52). We would include the notion of 'compassionate ageism' today. Nj Lim et al. concluded in their study of age narratives over the past 200 years that in the 19th Century, fiction " revolves around courtship and romance, respect, death, happiness and contentment" (53). The researchers also included magazines and weekly or monthly publications in their conclusions. In our discussion context, old age or ageist narratives were about honour, death, venerableness, memory, respect, infirmity and dependency.  

What needs to be recognized as we journey through Dickens's portrayals is that he reflected all these later life narratives. Still, it is also essential to acknowledge that ageism is not simply about negative versus positive imaging. The notion of positive and active ageing populates much of today's writings and arguably ignores social class and cultural differences. Ageism today and in Dickens's time was normalized. He simply reflected the Victorian view, so was that view binary and based on ageist stereotypes? (54)

The importance of Daniel Quilp's Portrayal lies within the intersectionality of ageism, antisemitism, and disability for this author in his late Victorian twenties, and it is unsettling. I have demonstrated that it cannot be separated from the Portrayal of and the relationships between Quilp, Little Nell and Grandfather Trent, each in their own way illustrating stereotypes of young and old alike. 

          

                                 EARLY PORTRAIT OF CHARLES DICKENS BY

                                                               DANIEL MACLISE

THE SUPPORTING CAST OF OLDER ADULT "PORTRAYALS"

Whilst having primarily focussed on two principal older adult characters in this two-part blog, it is always necessary to highlight lesser portrayals. They help to see whether there is a  pattern to Dickens's approach to old age and older people. 

Mrs Jiniwin: Quilp's mother, who lived with her son and daughter-in-law, was ' shrewdish in her disposition and anti-authority. She was, however, no match for her son! Donald Hawes points out that Dickens based the Portrayal of her on Mrs Hogarth, his own sister-in-law (55)

Mr and Mrs Garland: Mr is described as a 'little fat placid gentlemen' whilst his wife is a little old lady, plump and placid like himself' They are benevolent to Kit Nubbles, and Howes references John Forster, Dickens biographer who states that Dickens recalled' a kindly family in whose house he lodged' when his father John Dickens was imprisoned for debt' (56) The importance of this association relates to the time the thirteen-year-old Dickens was working at the Blackening factory. 

                  'Mr Garland Charges Kit to Return: Hablot Browne (Phiz). (1840) Note the illustration does not give a clear indication of the description in Dicken's text

Mr Marton is depicted as ' the kindly old schoolmaster who befriends Nell and Grandfather Trent. Though we are not given any age-related information, Dickens describes him as ' a pale, simple looking man, of spare and meagre habit, and sat among his flowers and beehives, smoking his pipe in the little porch before the door' (57). Repeated terms such as 'pale' and 'little', 'plump' and 'placid 'lean us towards Dickens's ageism.

The Narrator: [See main text. Part One] (58)

Old Foxey: The 'revered father of Sampson and Sally Brass. His age is not given, and he is not referenced as a character in Philip and Gadd (59)

David: Classed as "elderly and deaf" (60)

Old Woman at Graveyard: 'Meets Little Nell in a graveyard and reminds us of lost love' (61)

Harry's Grandmother: A minor character, but here, the grandmother of the schoolmaster's star pupil (62). It should be noted that grandparents figure in several of Dickens's novels and short stories (e.g. N.N., H.R., MP, F.F., MC, B.H., L.D., SSB.) with little description. (62) In a later blog, I will pick up on this in the context of Dickens's relationship or knowledge of his maternal and paternal great/grandparents.

Disapproving Old Lady: Shouts at "the meek schoolmaster after he lets the boys out of school early."(63)

Summoning Old Woman: Who calls the schoolmaster to Harry's death (64)

Man in Black: Though again, neither his name is given, he is interesting on two counts. Firstly, he is a 'man of law' who "can be merciful in one case but is criticized for not being merciful enough". Secondly, the disability of a deaf boy is shown mercy because of that disability. There is 'another mother' who "thinks it is unfair her child didn't get justice because he wasn't disabled" (65)

Becky Morgan: ' A woman from a neighbouring hamlet who dies whose age is in dispute!

Nice Old Lady: Prepares food for Dick Swiveller and the Marchioness (66)

Maunders: He is remembered by Mr Vufin: " I remember the time that old Maunders had in his cottage in Spa Fields in the winter time when the season was over, eight male dwarfs and female dwarfs setting down to dinner every day......" (67) Given this is a remembrance one has to be cautious.

Old Luke: Cardplayer referred to in a tale by Isaac List. (69)

By way of conclusion, let me quote Peter Ackroyd on The Old Curiosity Shop, who, not surprisingly, articulates far better than I ever could: "No one but Charles Dickens could possibly have written it, and more than any other of his novels it bears all the marks of his striaPortrayalul, complicated and perhaps ultimately baffling personality."(70) Dickens's portrayals of older adults, I believe and have tried to demonstrate, are in themselves "part fairy-tale and part farce, part religious parable and part pantomime" (71) and thus reflect Ackroyd's point. 

                                    oooOOOooo

 

[Out of a cast of some 120 characters, there are 50 whose ages are uncertain, and I have therefore deemed it unsafe to include, e.g., Mr Witherton and Mr Slum and James Groves; I may have missed some].

The following Portrayal in this Blog Series will focus on just one character from The Christmas Carol. It could only be Ebenezer Scrooge.

 References and Notes

1. The Dickens Collection: The Old Curiosity Shop (Vol 1.) 17. (2004) with reference in addition to HAWES D. Who's Who in Dickens. Routledge (London 7 New York) (2002) p193

2. Ibid. Hawes

3. EASTMAN.M. The Portrayal of Older Adult Characters. The Old Curiosity Shop. Part One ( December 2023) CooperativeMerv.Unleashed. blogspot

4. Wikipedia. TOCS ( Consulted 2023)

5. Ibid

6. SCHLICK.P. General Editor: The Oxford Companion of Charles Dickens. TOCS: Plot, Character & Theme.Anniversary Edition. (2011) p 435

7. Ibid p 437

8. SMALL.H. The Long Life. Oxford University Press. (2007) p 16

9. NUSSBAUM, M. C. "Poetic Justice: The Literay Imagination and Public Life. (Boston: Beacon, in SMALL. H )( ibid p 17)

10. Ibid. Small (p17)

11. Ibid (p 195)

12. JOHNSON, E.D.H. The Presentation of Character. Five: Victorian Web ( January 2000)

13. Ibid. Johnson

14. SLATER. M. Dickens and Women. EER Publishers. Brighton ( 2017)

15. GUILIANO. Edward. Dickens & Women ReObserved. EER. Publishers. Brighton (2020)

16. Taken from AI ChatON. (18.12.23)

17. LANGDON. T. Minority Malice: The Curious Case of Daniel Quilp Accidental Observer ( Dec 9.2016)

18. EASTMAN. M. Blog: Oliver Twist N.N. December 31st, 2022.

19. BAUMGARTEN. M. The Other Woman - Eliza Davis and Charles Dickens. Dickens Quarterly. 32 (1):45 (2021) Referenced in Wikipedia. Eliza Davis (Letter Writer)

20. JOHNSON. E. ( 1.01.52) 4 Imitations of Mortality. CharlS.G.ickens His Tragedy and Triumph & Schuster. Referenced in Wikipedia

21. HOWE. I. 'Oliver Twist - Introduction ( 31.05.2005). Referenced in Wikipedia

22. CHURNIN.N. "Dear Mr Dickens" AlberC.C.' man & Co. (2021)

23. KELLY.H  The Life and Lies of Charles Dickens. Icon ( 2023)

24.Ibid (p40)

25 Ibid (p41-42)

26 Ibid ( p88) 

27.Ibid. Langdon

28 Ibid Langdon

29 Ibid Langdon

30. Ibid Langdon

31. POKRAS. S.G. Whose Line is it Anyway? Rhetoric, Pathology and the Jewish Race in Victorian England. M.S.College Wooster Open Works; Senior Independent Study Theses ( 2021)

32. Ibid. (p24)

33. TARR. C.C. 'Abnormal Narratives; Disability and Omniscience 'in the Victorian Novel. (2J.M.' 5. Victorian Literature and Culture (2017) p 645-664. Cambridge University Press (2017) 1060-15,03/17 (P 645)

34. WAINAPLE.S.F.  'Dickens and Disability' Disabil. Rehabil. (1996) Dec; 18(12) 629- Abstract

35. HOLMES, M.S. & MOSSMAN M. 'Disabilty in Victorian Sensation Fiction'. Ch 38. In  A Companion to Sensational Fiction: Edited by GILBERT P. K. Blackwell Publishing (2011) (p 496)

36. ODAS. J.M. 'Tiny Tim, Blind Bertha, and the Resistance of Miss Moucher'. Charles Dickens Studies Annual. Vol 34 (2004).p 51-97. Penn State University Press (2004)

37. American Friends of Tel Aviv University 16.01.2013. Charles Dickens Literature Show cased Discrimination Against the Disabled. Disabled World. (Retrieved Jan.C.W.' 

38. SOEHNLIN. J. "What Dickens Teaches Us about Disability in his Christmas Novellas. (Source unidentified). Published December 15.2019. www.embracing life.

39. WILLIAMS. H. 'Black Epocs': Narratives of disability in Charles Dickens's TOCS and DINAH MULOCK. Craik's John Halifax Gentleman. VicU.K.rians: A Journal of Culture & Literature (Issue 122). Ohio State University Press. (2012)

40. GORE, C.W. 'Plotting Disability in thB.T.'  Century Novel. Edinburgh Critical Studies in Victorian Literature. EUP (2021) 

41. PRITCHARD, E & KRUSE, R. Introduction: CulN.Gral Representations of Darwinism. Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies. (vol. 14. Issue 2). Liverpool University Press (UK). ( 2020)

42. Ibid. GORE. p42

43. Ibid p236

44. Ibid p 236

45. Ibid. HAWES. p194

46. Ibid. Victorian Web ( 12.11.2200)

47. GATES, B.T. 'Nell, Quilp, and Accidental Suicides in Dickens's TOCS'. Victorian Web ( modified 18.05.2023)

48. Ibid 

49. Ibid

50. Ibid

51. NG.Lim et al. 'Ageing Narratives over 210 years (1810-2019)' The Journal of Gerontology. Series B. Vol 76.Issue 9 ( Nov 2021) pp 1799-1807) https://dio.org/10.1093/geronb/gbaa222.  Published 10.12.2020

52. Ibid. Victorian View [ Arguably the Victorian Approach]

53. Ibid. [could be viewed as broadly gerontophobic ]

54. Ibid. [ Ageism today and yesterday remain a narrative of homogeneousness of potentially a 50-year life course. Ng Lim and researchers concluded that age stereotypes concluded that age stereotypes "became more negative in a linear fashion: they were positive from 1810-1870 ( virtually the life course of Charles Dickens); neutral in 1880 and negative from 1890- 2009. ]

55. Ibid. HAWES. D. p121

56. Ibid. p87

57. PHILIP.A.j & GADD.L. 'The Dickens Dictionary. Crescent Books. (New York) 1989 edition. p. 188-189.

58. EASTMAN .M. TOCS Part One. The Portrayal of Older Adults TOCS: Posted 13. December 2023. 

59. Ibid. HAWES. 

60. Ibid. p56

61. The Literature Network. 'Character Summary. TOCS. (undated)

62. Ibid. Philip & Gadd p 125

63. Ibid. The Literature Network

64. Ibid. 

65. Ibid

66. Ibid

67. Ibid

68. The Charles Dickens Page: Character List A-Z

69 Ibid

70. ACKROYD.P.  'Introduction to Dickens'; Sinclaire -Stevenson. (1991) p 69.

71. Ibid