Copperfield Text / Essays & Tools / Dickens Resources / Forum / Creative Writing | Donate
|
|
Copperfield Text / Essays & Tools / Dickens Resources / Forum / Creative Writing | Donate |
Page 21
But the climax of the huge discrepancy between reality and Mr Micawber’s little imaginary world is reached, when the reader gets to know, how Mr Micawber describes himself, as “Lover, Husband, Father, Financier and Philosopher”[23]. However, he obviously seems to forget that he is poor, mostly unemployed, has hundreds of creditors and barely an income to make his family live. It becomes obvious that there is a sharp contrast between the world, in which Mr Micawber lives, and the world he has made up for himself. And this fact also contains the main criticism: Not the flight from reality into some imaginary world helps to solve the problems in society, rather the misstandings in society, politics and economy must be faced and revolted against, to achieve any considerable changings. And to make this chapter complete, Dickens does not only criticize this naïve point of view, but also shows a possible solution. And so it is no wonder that Mr Micawber finally takes hold of his life and makes significant contributions to convict Uriah Heep, who injustly took over the company of his former employer, of his crimes and finally moves to Australia, where he becomes a successful mayor. Of course, the development of this character is somewhat exaggerated, but acording to Dickens, “the character existed for the sake of the stories(…)”[24]. Dickens wants to criticize and Dickens wants to make clear that if someone faces reality, he can change the world. This point of view is very close to the nowadays widely-acclaimed “Think global, act local”, which is an outright call for social and political activism. So it becomes evident that Dickens propositions have still a strong link to our world and our society nowadays and thus my not be put aside without a certain amount of thorough consideration.
[23] Priestley, J.B., Readings On Charles Dickens, p.123 [24] Priestley, J.B., Readings On Charles Dickens, p.125
