Elements of realism in works of Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens je romanopisec 19. stoletja, ki je v svojih romanih prikazoval predvsem življenje malega človeka v času viktorijanske Anglije. V izbranih romanih Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, Mala Dorritova, David Copperfield in Veliko pričakovanje sem iskala značilnosti viktorijanske Anglije ter skušala ugotoviti, na kakšen način jih je avtor prikazal in kako verodostojno ter v skladu z zgodovinskimi dejstvi ter zakonitostmi realističnega pisanja je to storil. V vsakem izmed romanov sem analizirala fabulo, like, pripovedovalca, teme in motive. Ugotovila sem, da se v romanih prepletajo različne teme, ki prikazujejo življenje v viktorijanski Angliji z različnih zornih kotov. O kaznjencih in razmerah v jetnišnicah največ izvemo v romanih Oliver Twist in Mala Dorritova, s težavami kaznjencev pa se srečamo tudi v romanu Veliko pričakovanje, v Nicholasu Nicklebyju pa je v ospredju predvsem kritika šolstva. V vseh analiziranih romanih je, v večji ali manjši meri, predstavljeno življenje, ki so ga živele sirote, in težave, s katerimi so se spopadale. Poleg omenjenega v romanih pridobimo obširno predstavo o življenju žensk, otroškem delu, Londonu in posledicah, ki jih je nanj imela industrijska revolucija. Charles Dickens je osnovo za veliko likov našel v dejansko živečih ljudeh, ogromno gradiva pa je avtobiografskega, izpostavljen je predvsem David Copperfield. Večina romanov se dogaja v Londonu, na krajih, ki so tudi v resnici obstajali.Charles Dickens is a 19th Century novelist that portrayed in his novels a life of common people, at the time of Victorian era. In particular novels (Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, Little Dorrit, David Copperfield and Great Expectations) I was observing the characteristics of Victorian era and also tried to find out in what way the author presented them and how much authenticity and historicity he used while writing, neverthelesswhether he wrote considering authenticity of realistic writing style. On each of these novels I analysed story line, characters, narrator, theme and motifs. I discovered that in these novels a mixture of themes appears, which represent life in Victorian England from different points of view. We get to know a lot about prisoners and conditions in jails in the novels Oliver Twist and Little Dorrit but problems concerning prisoners also appear in the novel Great Expecations. Nicholas Nickleby presents the critics of educational system. All of the analysed novels more or less portray the life of the orphans and difficulties they had to face. Besides that, we can get a certain picture of women’s life and children’s work, as well as of London and the consequences of industrial revolution. Charles Dickens created his characters basing on the life of actual people, a lot of material is autobiographic (especially David Copperfield). Most of the novels take place in London, at the places that actually existed