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Write a note on Dickens as a social reformer.

Discuss Charles Dickens as a social reformer.

We witness Dickens as a radical or a social reformer. He was one of those persons who aimed to bring about rapid and radical changes, to give liberty and express the sentiments of the majority of the people. His novels played an important part in moulding the public opinion and in bringing about reforms which were actually achieved in his times. His outlook was conservative. He lacked a definite and clear theory of reform. He had no definite knowledge of history and he did not understand the origin of many of the social institutions and customs of his day. He did not love the past and was of the opinion that it should be forgotten. We notice his shortcomings as a reformer. Dickens lacked a thorough knowledge of the problems that faced the people of his times. Rapidly changing social conditions were as beyond his ken. There were many social evils of the day. Dickens brings within the scope of his bitterest attack many of the social evils of the day such as, dreadful conditions in prisons, abuses of the legal system. The remedy suggested by Dickens to improve the social evils is private benevolence. He has no faith in legislation and charitable institutions. His conception of the saviour of the poor stresses on a heavy purse and a large heart. His sympathy for the poor has limitations. Dickens is a friend of those whose fortune has deprived of even the most ordinary favours. He has his own methods to fight the battle of the poor. He does it in his own way. He overdoses his pathetic scenes and arouses our social conscience. His humour is also directed toward a serious purpose. Society is not attacked by him directly, but indirectly with a smile. He combats the local laws. His philosophy is of the simplest kind and his wisdom is that of the sermon on the mount.” As a social reformer Dickens is a champion of the conscience of the age. He loved and accepted it despite its defects. He expressed what they themselves thought and felt about the social problems of the day. He assumed the role as it were of the master of their smiles and tears. He was a kind of a reformer. Who could moralise with a smile on his lips.

There is a deep, serious purpose, behind novels of Dickens. Dickens is not merely a good entertainer, he is a reformer and a moralist, too. He is thus a wonderful blend of a prophet and an artist. His moral teaching is not abstract, it is based on experience. He has a firm belief in the good of primary impulses. He believes that an improvement of primary human impulses can do more good than an improvement in legal political system. There is in his novels a conflict between human kindness and impersonal institutions. He has a deep concern for social reform with improvement of human heart. In his novels, he attacked the injustice of the poor law, delays in administration of justice, the cruelties of school masters, imprisonments for debts and so on.