"THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CHARLES DICKENS" Prepared by INTRODUCTION This unit is designed to acquaint you with some of the important events, people and achievements throughout the world during the lifetime of Charles Dickens. For the purposes of this assignment, you may be asked to assume the profession of a reporter, psychologist, writer, traveler, etc. Please feel free to use your imagination in this capacity but always provide documentation (footnotes and bibliography) for all subject content. If, for example, you are asked to describe the life of a pickpocket, you must accurately depict his/her occupational characteristics based upon written sources. As part of this assignment you will complete the following: 1. Look up information in the library on your topic. 2. Complete a written project as described in your question and a bibliography of works consulted. Remember this writing may take the form of a letter, narrative, report, etc. SYLLABUS Day 1 Introduction to the unit. Research reserve materials in the library. Hand in authors and titles of 2 books you intend to use to complete your written assignment. Day 2 Continue research in the library. Hand in an outline of your assignment to Mrs. DuBois by the end of the period. Day 3 Continue research in the library Day 4 Complete assignment in the library and hand it to Mrs. Dubois by Day 5. RESEARCH HINTS 1. Make an alphabetical list of search terms which you think are suitable for your topic. 2. Use this list to search the online catalog and indexes of relevant books on the reserve cart. 3. Check out any additional materials that you locate in any of the Close libraries by the end of the first day. We have a courier system to assist you with retrieval of non-NCS books. 4.Consult the citation format chart for examples of correct bibliographic citations. 5.Go to Eagle Eyes and type in the words < Dickens Unit > to retrieve a set of relevant Web sites. 6.For automated citation generation go to Eagle Eyes and type in the word < citations >. Choose Noodletools.com . Click on the version of Noodletools that says free . Follow the directions. Remember to save the ID number that they give you. QUESTIONS 1. You are a 13 year old chimney sweep who has been asked by Henry Mayhew, a reporter for the London Morning Chronicle , to describe the conditions, duties, salary and advancement opportunities of chimney sweeps. Be sure to mention the approximate age when you started sweeping. Describe your initial reactions to the first time you climbed a chimney. Did you ever have an accident? Are you aware of any diseases to which you are susceptible? Sources: Mayhew, Henry. London Labour and the London Poor Vol. 2 p. 338-464. Gibben, James. The Chimney Sweep Yesterday and Today and Hibbert, Christopher. Daily Life in Victorian England p. 67+ Workers chapter on general conditions. 2. Charles Dickens never lost the ability to put himself in the place of a child. His memories of childhood are recollected and retold in many of his novels and short stories. You are a board certified child psychiatrist and member of the Dickens Literary Society. You have been asked to deliver a brief psychological profile of Mr. Dickens's early childhood and life up until 1828 when he became a journalist. Your focus will be upon the key events, misfortunes, traumas and joys that in your professional opinion influenced his writings. Sources: Great Writers of the English Language Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy. Vol. 3 p. 6+ ; Vennema, Stanley and Diane, Charles Dickens The Man Who Had Great Expectations and Wilson, Angus, The World of Charles Dickens. 3. The main occupation of girls during Dickens' time was domestic service. In 1851, over 8 million females of ten years and upwards were employed as servants of one kind or another. You have just obtained a job as a servant at a large manor house several miles from London. After working 13 hour days for two weeks straight, you finally have time to write a letter to your boyfriend. Describe your working conditions. Where appropriate, quote from The Servants Behaviour Book . What do you like and dislike about your job? Do you wear a uniform or can you dress as you please? What opportunities for advancement do you have? How would you describe your station in life? Sources: Priestley, J.B. Victoria's Heyday . p. 25+ and Waterson, Merlin. The Servants' Hall . 4. Between 1810 and 1852, Great Britain "transported" approximately 140,000 persons to Australia for recidivism concerning the crime of theft. You are a convicted thief who has just received a transportation order to Australia. Write a “visual” letter to your mistress describing in detail your ship voyage and what you found in Australia when you arrived. How did the local people feel about you? Were you welcomed by them? Do you have to stay there permanently? Make a videotape that includes the letter but also includes pre-selected video clips about this era in Australia's history. The clips are loaded into iMovie, and are taken from the PBS video entitled Australia : Beyond the Fatal Shore. Sources: Harrison, J.F.C. The Early Victorians 1832-51 . pp. 78,189; Palmer, Alan. The Age of Optimism 1803-1896 . pp. 88-89; O'Neil, Judith. Transported to VanDiemens Land: the Story of Two Convicts, entire book; Morris, James. Pax Britannica . p. 277. Great Writer of the English Language Vol. 3 pp. 36-37 and Fatal Shore. 5. The patterns of prosperity in Great Britain during Dickens' time were influential in determining a person's class in society. Even seats on the train reflected a three-tiered class system. You are a wealthy industrialist who has been invited to dine at a private club in London with Friedrich Engels, a German Socialist philosopher. The conversation revolves around the development and characteristics of the class system. Engels asks you as a member of the upper class to identify and describe the three classes of Victorian society. What type of work, in general, does each class engage in? Approximately how many people are in each class? Are there certain occupations or trades that place people automatically in a class? Is income or money the sole arbiter of the class to which one belongs? Sources: Clark, G. Kitson. The Making of Victorian England . p. 112 and 123+; Harrison, J.F.C. The Early Victorians 1832-51 p. 113+ and Priestley, J.B. Victoria's Heyday . p. 15,26 and 29. 6. Charles Dickens had many admirers who were writers. Some such as Walter Savage Landor and Thomas Carlyle were deeply moved by the plights of various characters that Dickens created. You are a society reporter for The Times . You have been invited to a tea for Charles Dickens to celebrate the rave reviews of Great Expectations . Your hostess has supplied you with a short list of some of the more prominent guests so that their names will appear in your society column. How would you describe the setting, conversation and interaction among guests such as William Makepiece Thackeray, Walter Savage Landor, Anthony Trollope and Elizabeth Gaskell? What were their positions in the London literary scene? You may choose to mention three or more of these authors in your society column. Sources: Priestly, J.B. Charles Dickens and His World . p. 45+; Priestley, J.B. Victoria's Heyday . p. 254+; Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas. Charles Dickens and Other Victorians and British Authors of the Nineteenth Century . Edited by Stanley Kunitz. 7. When Pip traveled to London to become a "gentleman," he had no idea what that entailed. While the concept of "gentleman" included moral attributes, it increasingly involved education. You are a British educated gentleman on a tour of America. Several Americans with whom you are sharing a stagecoach become curious about your accent, where you went to school and what you are trained to do as a gentleman. Without being a snob, describe the education of a "gentleman" including such things as your attendance at public school and matriculation from Oxford and the "grand tour." Sources: Clark, G. Kitson. The Making of Victorian England .p. 254 +; Houghton, Walter E. The Victorian Frame of Mind . pp. 119+, 267+ and Hibbert, Christopher. Daily Life in Victorian England pp. 46-52. 8. Crime and depravity flourished in Dickens' time. Thousands of people lived on the proceeds from crimes such as pickpocketing, shoplifting, prostitution and burglary. You are a policeman who has been given the responsibility of creating a new police squad dedicated to reducing pickpocketing. To educate your fellow policemen, you have asked a jailed pickpocket to describe various types of pickpockets, methods, and life in general so that squad members can be more alert to this type of crime. As a policeman, tell your immediate superiors what you have learned from this criminal. Sources: Mayhew, Henry. London Labour and the London Poor . Vol. IV p. 303+; Hibbert, Christopher. Daily Life in Victorian England . p. 103-11. 9. You are a successful Victorian architect who has been commissioned to design a house for a gentleman of modest, but comfortable means. Your client possesses land in the country where he wants his house built. There he engages in farming, hunting, and entertaining his friends. To accommodate his interests and the needs of his wife and four growing children, he wants an up-to-date house in the latest style. Draw plans and elevations of a country house that will please him. Accompany your plans with a text that explains the features and advantages of the house you have designed. Sources: Girouard, Mark. Life in the English Country House ; Girouard, Mark. The Victorian House . 10. You are a movie producer about to embark on a film that will trace the life of a middle-class English couple from the moment of their engagement in 1830 to their thirtieth wedding anniversary in 1860. Describe three sets of clothing for them that will represent each decade between 1830 and 1860. Make sketches of the costumes complete with annotations that explain details of the outfits. Sources: Batterberry, Michael. Mirror, Mirror . Brooke, Iris; English Costume from the Fourteenth through the Nineteenth Century ; . Peacock, John. The Chronicle of Western Fashion;. Victorian Life in Photographs. 11. You are a mid-nineteenth-century art dealer about to establish a new gallery in London in which you will sell contemporary British paintings. Two of the currently popular schools in British painting are the Pre-Raphaelites and the new realists. Select works by two or three artists of each school which you think your upper middle class clients will buy. Write a catalog for your selected collection and in it explain the distinguishing characteristics of each artist's style, the social and artistic goals the artist holds, and how the painting will enhance the life and home of the buyer. Sources: Treuherz, Julian. Victorian Painting . Chpt. 4, chpt. 5; Hibbert, Christopher. Daily Life in Victorian England. ( illustrations); Priestly, J. B. Victoria's Heyday. ( illustrations). 12. It is 1850 and you are an English girl who has just traveled by railway from London, your home, to Manchester to visit you aunt. Write a letter to you sister who is married to an army officer stationed in India. In your letter describe your trip. Tell how you traveled to the new railway station, the various types of transportation you saw in the London streets, describe the carriage, the kinds of railway workers, and what you saw from the windows as you journeyed through the suburbs and countryside. Include your reactions to the great speed of the train and what you envision the railways will do for the development of your country. Sources: Green, Bernard. The Timetables of History ; Mayhew, Henry. London Labour and the London Poor . p. 321-364; Hibbert, Christopher. Daily Life in Victorian England . Chpt. 7, p. 78-87. Age of Optimism . p. 91-97. 13. Assume the persona of Charles Dickens who is about to launch a new publication entitle Household Words , which is to have mass appeal and sell at a moderate price. Write a fund raising brochure/prospectus to send to potential investors in your journal. Describe some of the technological developments in printing, illustration, and distribution, as well as social developments of the early nineteenth century that will make Household Words a financial success and give them a good return on their investment. Sources: Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History ; Hibbert, Christopher. Daily Life in Victorian England . Chpt. 3, p. 29-39. 14. Charles Dickens was an enthusiastic theater-goer and amateur actor. Several of his novels contain lively, accurate descriptions of performances in popular theaters. Imagine that you are working for an advertising agency promoting London theaters in the period between 1830 and 1860. Design a large billboard showing the various types of theaters and kinds of performances they feature, or write an article for a magazine that lists the variety of theaters, plays, and entertainments a visitor to London could enjoy in this period. Sources: Hibbert, Christopher. Daily Life in Victorian England . Chpt. 8; Nagler, A. M. A source Book in Theatrical History . p. 475-477 (Prince Packler-Muskau's account of audience behavior in 1826); Brockett, Oscar G. History of the Theatre . p. 389-401; Victorian Life in Photographs . p. 13; Wilson, Angus. The World of Charles Dickens. p. 245-248. 15. Dickens was in the habit of taking long walks through the streets of London at night where he would observe people and incidents that often later found a place in his writings. At that time London was a dirty, crowded, noisy, but exciting metropolis. Write a first person narrative of a night ramble such as Dickens might have made from Newgate to the then new suburb of Chelsea. In your narrative describe the types of people you might have seen, their activities and amusements, and some of the contemporary architectural landmarks of London. Draw a simple schematic map showing your route and note on your map some of the important neighborhoods, parks, and buildings of mid-nineteenth-century London. Sources: Daiches, David. Literary Landscapes of the British Isles . p. 56-68 (maps); Girouard, Mark. Cities and People . p. 271-184; Two British Masters: Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy (Great Writers of the English Language series) p. 46-50; Hayes, John. London from the Earliest Times to the Present Day . Chpt. 6, p. 87-110. 16. During the Victorian period divisions between the working and upper classes became greater than before as a broad middle class developed. Research the topic of class structure in nineteenth-century England. Then write a play scene in which Mrs. Pocket and Mrs. Joe (or Bidey) explain to a foreign visitor to which class they belong. In the dialogue Mrs. Pocket and Mrs. Joe Bidey will elaborate their class status by listing their daily activities and pastimes, discussing the kinds of houses they live in, their household responsibilities, the daily routine of their children, and professions their husbands could follow. Sources: Hibbert, Christopher. Daily Life in Victorian England . Chpt. 1, chpt. 2, chpt. 3, chpt. 5; History of Private Life. Vol. 4 , p. 47-, p. 193- ; Harrison, J.F.C. The Early Victorians , 1832-51 . Chpt. 2, p. 42-79, chpt. 4, p. 113-149; Houghton, Walter E. The Victorian Frame of Mind, 1830-1870 . p. 183-217. 17. After researching the state of women in the Victorian Age to identify what legal rights they had, what professions or jobs they could pursue, and what roles and ideals contemporary society assigned them, assume a persona of someone who either supports the contemporary state of women or who adamantly opposes it. Write an ardent and passionate tract from your persona's viewpoint. In your tract defend the current Victorian conventions or attack them with reasoned arguments. Sources: Suffer and Be Still . Martha Vicinus, ed. Chpt. 1, chpt. 4; Houghton, Walter E. The Victorian Frame of Mind, 1830-1870 . Chpt. 13, p. 341-393; A History of Private Life. Vol. 4 18. England has been shocked by newspaper accounts of mortality rates greater than 60% among British soldiers fighting in the Crimean War. Adding to the outrage is the revelation that most of these deaths have been from disease, not battle wounds. A Royal Commission has been formed to investigate the sanitary conditions of the British Army, and Florence Nightingale has been called to testify. You are Miss Nightingale, appearing before the Commission. Describe the health situation of British soldiers as you found it in the Crimea, the welcome you received when you and your nurses arrived there, and the steps you took to improve the soldiers' care. Sources: New York Times microfiche (Great Personalities.) Cook, Sir Edward. Florence Nightingale . Woodham-Smith, Cecil. Lonely Crusader . 19. You are Charles Dickens in 1842 on your first visit to America. Write a series of letters to your dear friend John Forster describing you trip. Please include information about your voyage over on one of the first steamships, your expectations about America and its people, your experiences while there, and the impressions and opinions formed during your six-month tour, including your horror at seeing slavery in the South. Sources: Becker, May Lamberton. Introducing Charles Dickens . Priestly, J. B. Charles Dickens and His World . Wilson, Angus. The World of Charles Dickens . Stanley and Vennema. Charles Dickens: Man Who Had Great Expectations. 20. During Charles Dickens' life, the British empire stretched around the globe and was the most important economic power in the world. Trading by the British East India Company was a major source of this economic success. In the 1800's the Company devised a profitable trading triangle, importing opium from British India to China and exporting Chinese goods to the West. Sources: Carpenter, Francis Ross. The Old China Trade . p.89-105. STAL Schurmann, Franz and Schell, Orville, ed. Imperial China . p.131-164. Roberson, John. China from Manchu to Mao . p.19-34. History of China (Horizon books.) p.341-355. 21. The British empire in India was established by a private trading firm, the British East India Company, in the 1600's. By the time of Charles Dickens, this British company controlled most of India. You are the daughter of an officer in the company who has been transferred from London to India. Write a series of letters to your best friend in London describing your voyage to India on one of the last East India sailing clippers. Once you are settled in India, write your friend about your family's life there. Be sure to include information about local customs and East India Company policies which lead to the Indian mutiny of 1857 (also called the Sepoy rebellion.) Describe some of the major events of the Rebellion and the fear you feel for yourself and your family. Sources: Miller, Russell. East Indiamen . p.120-on. Mason, Philip. The Men Who Ruled India . p.135-171. Nations and Empires . p.32-38. Priestly, J. B. Victoria's Heyday . p.209-221. Rawling, F. W. The Rebellion in India, 1857 . STAL 22. The potato famine during the years 1845-1851 was a great catastrophe which had a profound and lasting impact on Ireland. The British government was criticized for its disinterest and inaction throughout the crisis. One group which did respond to the distress in Ireland was the Society of Friends (Quakers), who set up soup kitchens to help feed the starving Irish. Sources: Neill, Kenneth. Illustrated History of the Irish People . p.103-115. O'Brien, Marie. A Concise History of Ireland . p.102-106. Speed, P. F. The Potato Famine and the Irish Immigrants . STAL; Bartoletti, Susan Campbell Black Potatoes : Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850 . 23. You are Ferdinand de Lesseps, the Frenchman with a dream of constructing a waterway through Egypt connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea (the Suez Canal). Write a series of letters to your friend S. W. Ryssenaers describing your efforts to get the canal built. Be sure to include: (1) the reasons you feel the time is right in 1854; (2) the support you enjoy and resistance you must overcome, particularly from the British; and (3) the impact of the canal on Egypt. Use maps to illustrate the advantages of a canal route between Europe and the Orient. Write one final letter to your friend describing the celebrations surrounding the opening of the Suez Canal. Sources: Burchell, S. C. Building the Suez Canal . STAL Moorehead, Alan. The White Nile . p.137-140. Hirschfeld, Burt. The Vital Link . STAL Lord Kinross. Between Two Seas . STAU 24. Commodore Perry and four U.S. Navy ships steamed into Uraga Harbor, Japan, on July 8, 1853. They carried a letter from President Millard Fillmore requesting Japan to change her ancient laws and allow trade and diplomatic relations with the United States. The President's letter pointed out that with the new steamships, which the Japanese had never seen before, the west coast of the U. S. was only eighteen days away. In less than a week, Perry had succeeded in delivering the letter, starting Japan along an international path after centuries of self-imposed isolation. Sources: Blumberg, Rhoda. Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun . Age of Optimism . Milestones of History . p.147-151. |
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