A critical analysis of Charles Dickens' The old curiosity shop

The Old Curiosity Shop, Charles Dickens' fourth novel, has been given little serious critical attention by modern scholars. The purpose of this study was to analyze the novel, ignoring the accepted prejudices against it and establishing it as a complex artistic creation.The organization of the study rests on the thesis that after Master Humphrey, the narrator of the first three chapters, dismisses himself from the story, the novel divides into four sections each focused on one of the four major characters-- Nell, Kit, Quilp, and Dick. The sections are not divided in the novel, but are complexly interwoven with the sections presenting different views of the major themes of the novel.Master Humrhrey's three-chapter introduction to the novel sets the plots of the four sections in motion and establishes the major concerns of the novel—alienation, creativity, and materialism. More important, Master Humphrey is the only artist whose consciousness is penetrated while he is in the act of creating.Nell’s section contains the most lengthy treatment of the major themes, but does not present the novel’s and as with Nell, his self-imposed, alienation ends in death. The similarity between Mrs. Quilp and Nell, and Nell, Mrs. Quilp's enjoyment of her suffering combine to raise the doubt that Nell's problems are imposed externally. Quilp's creativity is reflected in his ability to appear differently to different people around him. He recreates himself constantly.Dick Swiveller's progression from a morally careless rogue to a caring hero is the triumph of the novel, and his section contains the novel's solutions to the thematic problems. Unlike Nell, Kit, and Quilp, who retreat from society, Dick searches for companionship. He and the Marchioness solve the problem of alienation by finding each other. He also presents a compromise between the greed of Quilp and the grandfather and Nell's renunciation of material goods with his theory that money simply makes things more pleasant. Dick is the greatest creative artist in the novel for be uses his imagination to create a refuge for himself and his friends within an alien world. He creates through imaginative power the haven which Nell cannot find in her flight.Thesis (D. Ed.